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DigitalOcean

Run a persistent Velaclaw Gateway on a DigitalOcean Droplet.

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Prerequisites

  • DigitalOcean account (signup)
  • SSH key pair (or willingness to use password auth)
  • About 20 minutes

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Setup

1

Create a Droplet

Use a clean base image (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS). Avoid third-party Marketplace 1-click images unless you have reviewed their startup scripts and firewall defaults.
  1. Log into DigitalOcean.
  2. Click Create > Droplets.
  3. Choose:
    • Region: Closest to you
    • Image: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
    • Size: Basic, Regular, 1 vCPU / 1 GB RAM / 25 GB SSD
    • Authentication: SSH key (recommended) or password
  4. Click Create Droplet and note the IP address.
2

Connect and install

3

Run onboarding

The wizard walks you through model auth, channel setup, gateway token generation, and daemon installation (systemd).
4

Add swap (recommended for 1 GB Droplets)

5

Verify the gateway

6

Access the Control UI

The gateway binds to loopback by default. Pick one of these options.Option A: SSH tunnel (simplest)
Then open http://localhost:18789.Option B: Tailscale Serve
Then open https://<magicdns>/ from any device on your tailnet.Option C: Tailnet bind (no Serve)
Then open http://<tailscale-ip>:18789 (token required).

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Troubleshooting

Gateway will not start — Run velaclaw doctor --non-interactive and check logs with journalctl --user -u velaclaw-gateway.service -n 50. Port already in use — Run lsof -i :18789 to find the process, then stop it. Out of memory — Verify swap is active with free -h. If still hitting OOM, use API-based models (Claude, GPT) rather than local models, or upgrade to a 2 GB Droplet.

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Next steps