#I was hoping someone could vett my implementation plan?

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

wraith hawk
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Hi I'm new here and not the most technologially capable person on earth. I've been reading the deep wiki, talking to AI, and trying to follow the official docs. I'm running ubuntu 24.04 on my laptop and wanted to set up openclaw with some degree of security considerations but I'm not sure if what I have is going to work or make me regret trying it. Fwiw, I had openclaw installed on my laptop under my user via the instalall script and the the onboard wizard but found out there were a lot of things I missed that first time around so completely removed it. I was given the following by ChatGPT and have tried to vett it as best I can but I'd like another set of eyes to take a look at it and save me from any potential pitfalls I may be missing (I can follow instructions but I'm honestly not super knowlegeable about these things). The goal was to make is so I can run openclaw commands conveniently (without any added complexity) and make changes in the .openclaw directory if needed but still be able to control what openclaw can do in my home directory and possibly what commands it could run. I'll try to monitor this post tonight but its getting a bit late and I'm exhausted. If nothing else I'll see any reponse in about tomorrow (in about 14 hrs) and respond if needed then. Any help would seriously be appreciated. Thanks you so much.

https://gist.githubusercontent.com/jfines/6e61dab2d48ff592eb3386d97213dc93/raw/87ee99742398fa118b889960f31bd4d4f368720e/03-openclaw-installation-split-setup.md

cursive siloBOT
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shut kindleBOT
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You’re thinking about this the right way (minimize blast radius first, then add convenience). I read your gist, and there are a couple of big “you might regret this later” pitfalls in it.

The main problems with the ChatGPT plan

1) Splitting “CLI user” vs “daemon user” is where most pain comes from

OpenClaw has a state dir (~/.openclaw) that holds config, auth, workspace, session store, etc. If you run the daemon as user openclaw but run the CLI as your normal user, you very often end up with two different state dirs and then you’ll see exactly the class of issues the FAQ/troubleshooting calls out (service healthy but CLI points at different config, “Config (cli) vs Config (service) differs”, auth/token mismatch, etc.).
Docs reference: https://docs.openclaw.ai/help/faq#why-does-openclaw-gateway-status-show-config-cli-and-config-service-different

Your gist tries to avoid that by running the service as openclaw but using WorkingDirectory=/home/jake/.openclaw. That leads to the next issue…

2) Running the daemon as openclaw while pointing it at /home/you/.openclaw is not a clean security boundary

To make that work, the openclaw user needs traverse/read permissions into /home/you. If your home is permissive enough for that, then the openclaw user can usually also read a lot more of your home than you intended (unless you go all-in on permissions/ACLs across your whole home). If your home is locked down (chmod 700 ~), then the service can’t reach ~/.openclaw and just breaks.

So this setup tends to be either:

  • Not really more secure, or
  • Secure but fragile and annoying.
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3) The systemd unit in the gist is very likely wrong for systemd semantics

It uses:

ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/openclaw gateway start

In OpenClaw, gateway start/stop/restart are manager commands (they start/stop the service), not necessarily a single long-running foreground process that systemd should supervise directly.

The supported way is: let OpenClaw install/manage the service for you via onboarding / gateway install, then use the CLI to control it. Docs reference: https://docs.openclaw.ai/help/faq#whats-the-recommended-way-to-install-and-set-up-openclaw

4) ACLs don’t control “what commands it can run”

ACLs only control filesystem access. If your worry is “I don’t want the agent to be able to run arbitrary commands”, you want exec approvals + allowlists, which OpenClaw already has built-in. Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools/exec-approvals

A simpler setup that’s actually safer (and less fiddly)

If your goal is “convenient CLI, but I control what it can touch/do”:

  1. Install + onboard the normal way (single user)
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The docs-recommended baseline is:

  1. Don’t expose the gateway port to the internet
    Keep it localhost-only unless you really know why you’re opening it up. For remote access use Tailscale Serve or an SSH tunnel. Docs:

  1. Turn on sandboxing (this is the “real” blast-radius reducer)
    Sandboxing runs tools in Docker containers so the model can’t just rummage around your host filesystem by default. Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/gateway/sandboxing.md
    Key idea: set workspaceAccess: "none" and only bind-mount exactly what you want it to see.

  2. Use Exec Approvals to control what commands can run
    Set exec approvals to deny or allowlist + “ask on miss”, so nothing runs without you explicitly approving it. Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools/exec-approvals

That combination (sandboxing + approvals) is both stronger and less error-prone than trying to DIY a split-user + ACL strategy.

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If you want, reply tomorrow with just these two things

  • openclaw --version
  • what channel you plan to use first (Telegram / Discord / WhatsApp / none yet)

…and I can suggest a minimal “secure-but-not-annoying” config snippet + the exact places in Control UI to set approvals, without you having to redesign your Linux user/service model.

wraith hawk
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@shut kindle I see your response. Thank you. I tried to read it a bit but I'm honestly to whiped out. I'll come back in the morning when I'm fully rested tackle this again. Really appreciate your help.

shut kindleBOT
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No worries — get some sleep.

When you’re back, the two most useful starting points (so we don’t guess) are:

  1. openclaw --version
  2. What channel you’re planning to use first (Discord / Telegram / WhatsApp / none yet)

If you already reinstalled by then, also paste:

  • openclaw status --all
  • openclaw gateway status

(Those are safe to share; tokens get redacted.)

wraith hawk
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Are you a bot or something?