Create New Openclaw Instance on GCP VM

OpenClaw Cloud Setup Skill

Deploy OpenClaw to GCP with Tailscale and Brave Search.

Required Environment Variables

export OPENCLAW_PROJECT_ID="your-gcp-project"
export OPENCLAW_USERNAME="your-ssh-username"
export ANTHROPIC_TOKEN="sk-ant-oat01-..."   # Keep secret
export BRAVE_API_KEY="..."                   # Keep secret

Quick Start

chmod +x openclaw-quick-setup.sh
./openclaw-quick-setup.sh

Manual Setup (Copy-Paste)

# Set variables first (see above)
ZONE="us-central1-a"
VM="openclaw"
Create VM
gcloud compute instances create "$VM" \
  --project="$OPENCLAW_PROJECT_ID" --zone="$ZONE" \
  --machine-type=e2-medium \
  --image-family=debian-12 --image-project=debian-cloud \
  --boot-disk-size=10GB \
  --metadata=ssh-keys="${OPENCLAW_USERNAME}:$(cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub)"
IP=$(gcloud compute instances describe "$VM" \
  --project="$OPENCLAW_PROJECT_ID" --zone="$ZONE" \
  --format='get(networkInterfaces[0].accessConfigs[0].natIP)')
Wait for SSH, then run setup
sleep 30
ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no "${OPENCLAW_USERNAME}@${IP}" "
set -euo pipefail
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y git curl ufw jq
curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh
"
Manual: authorize Tailscale
ssh "${OPENCLAW_USERNAME}@${IP}" "sudo tailscale up"
Continue setup
ssh "${OPENCLAW_USERNAME}@${IP}" "
set -euo pipefail
sudo ufw allow 22/tcp && sudo ufw allow in on tailscale0 && echo y | sudo ufw enable
echo 'nameserver 8.8.8.8' | sudo tee -a /etc/resolv.conf
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.1/install.sh | bash
source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh && nvm install 22
source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh && npm install -g openclaw@latest
"
Configure OpenClaw (credentials via stdin)
ssh "${OPENCLAW_USERNAME}@${IP}" '
source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \
  --auth-choice token --token-provider anthropic \
  --token "$(cat)" --gateway-bind loopback --install-daemon
' <<< "$ANTHROPIC_TOKEN"
Add Brave key + enable Tailscale auth
ssh "${OPENCLAW_USERNAME}@${IP}" "
set -euo pipefail
mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user/openclaw-gateway.service.d
cat > ~/.config/systemd/user/openclaw-gateway.service.d/brave.conf << CONF
[Service]
Environment=\"BRAVE_API_KEY=\$(cat)\"
CONF
chmod 600 ~/.config/systemd/user/openclaw-gateway.service.d/brave.conf
systemctl --user daemon-reload
source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh
jq '.gateway.auth.allowTailscale = true' ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json > /tmp/oc.json
mv /tmp/oc.json ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json
chmod 600 ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json
openclaw gateway restart
sudo tailscale serve --bg 18789
" <<< "$BRAVE_API_KEY"
Get dashboard URL
ssh "${OPENCLAW_USERNAME}@${IP}" "tailscale serve status"
After first browser access, approve device
ssh "${OPENCLAW_USERNAME}@${IP}" 'source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh && openclaw devices list'
Then: openclaw devices approve 

Key Learnings

| Issue | Solution | |-------|----------| | e2-micro OOM | Use e2-medium (4GB minimum) | | nodesource failures | Use nvm for Node.js 22 | | DNS broken after Tailscale | Add 8.8.8.8 to /etc/resolv.conf | | Brave key in config rejected | Use systemd env var drop-in | | Dashboard "pairing required" | Run openclaw devices approve |

Security Notes

chmod +x openclaw-quick-setup.sh
./openclaw-quick-setup.sh