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Original: Simon Willison · 01/02/2026

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Summary

I’ve been running OpenClaw using Docker on my Mac. TIL: Running OpenClaw in Docker I’ve been running OpenClaw using Docker on my Mac. Here are the first in my ongoing notes on how I set that up and the commands I’m using to administer it. Use their Docker Compose configuration Answering all of those questions Running administrative commands Setting

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Key Insights

“I’ve been running OpenClaw using Docker on my Mac.” — Introduction to the topic of running OpenClaw in a Docker environment.
“Here’s a screenshot of the web UI that this serves on localhost.” — Describing the user interface of OpenClaw when served via Docker.

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Topics

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Full Article

# TIL: Running OpenClaw in Docker
Author: Simon Willison
Published: 2026-02-01
Source: https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/1/openclaw-in-docker/#atom-everything
<p><strong><a href=“https://til.simonwillison.net/llms/openclaw-docker”>TIL: Running OpenClaw in Docker</a></strong></p> I’ve been running <a href=“https://openclaw.ai/“>OpenClaw&lt;/a> using Docker on my Mac. Here are the first in my ongoing notes on how I set that up and the commands I’m using to administer it.</p> <ul> <li><a href=“https://til.simonwillison.net/llms/openclaw-docker#use-their-docker-compose-configuration”>Use their Docker Compose configuration</a></li> <li><a href=“https://til.simonwillison.net/llms/openclaw-docker#answering-all-of-those-questions”>Answering all of those questions</a></li> <li><a href=“https://til.simonwillison.net/llms/openclaw-docker#running-administrative-commands”>Running administrative commands</a></li> <li><a href=“https://til.simonwillison.net/llms/openclaw-docker#setting-up-a-telegram-bot”>Setting up a Telegram bot</a></li> <li><a href=“https://til.simonwillison.net/llms/openclaw-docker#accessing-the-web-ui”>Accessing the web UI</a></li> <li><a href=“https://til.simonwillison.net/llms/openclaw-docker#running-commands-as-root”>Running commands as root</a></li> </ul> <p>Here’s a screenshot of the web UI that this serves on localhost:</p> <p><img alt=“Screenshot of the OpenClaw Gateway Dashboard web interface. Header shows “OpenCLAW GATEWAY DASHBOARD” with a green “Health OK” indicator. Left sidebar contains navigation sections: Chat (Chat highlighted), Control (Overview, Channels, Instances, Sessions, Cron Jobs), Agent (Skills, Nodes), Settings (Config, Debug, Logs), and Resources (Docs). Main content area displays “Chat” with subtitle “Direct gateway chat session for quick interventions.” and “telegram:6580064359” identifier. A user message at 4:08 PM reads “Show me a detailed list of all your available configured tools”. The assistant response states: “Here’s the full list of tools I have available in this OpenClaw session (as configured). These are the only ones I can call programmatically:” followed by categorized tools: “File & workspace” (read — Read a file (text or image). Supports offset/limit for large files; write — Create/overwrite a file (creates parent dirs); edit — Precise in-place edit by exact string replacement), “Shell / processes” (exec — Run a shell command (optionally PTY, backgrounding, timeouts); process — Manage running exec sessions (list/poll/log/write/kill/etc.)), “Web” (web_search — Search the web (Brave Search API); web_fetch — Fetch a URL and extract readable content (markdown/text); browser — Control a browser (open/navigate/snapshot/screenshot/act/etc.)), “UI / rendering” (canvas — Present/eval/snapshot a Canvas surface (for node canvases/UI rendering)), and “Devices / nodes” (cut off). Bottom shows message input with placeholder “Message (↵ to send, Shift+↵ for line breaks, paste images)” and “New session” and coral “Send” buttons.” src=“https://static.simonwillison.net/static/2026/openclaw-web-ui.jpg” /> <p>Tags: <a href=“https://simonwillison.net/tags/ai”>ai&lt;/a>, <a href=“https://simonwillison.net/tags/docker”>docker&lt;/a>, <a href=“https://simonwillison.net/tags/til”>til&lt;/a>, <a href=“https://simonwillison.net/tags/generative-ai”>generative-ai&lt;/a>, <a href=“https://simonwillison.net/tags/llms”>llms&lt;/a>, <a href=“https://simonwillison.net/tags/ai-agents”>ai-agents&lt;/a>, <a href=“https://simonwillison.net/tags/openclaw”>openclaw&lt;/a>&lt;/p>

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Key Takeaways

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Notable Quotes

I’ve been running OpenClaw using Docker on my Mac.
Context: Introduction to the topic of running OpenClaw in a Docker environment.
Here’s a screenshot of the web UI that this serves on localhost.
Context: Describing the user interface of OpenClaw when served via Docker.
  • [[topics/ai-agents]]
  • [[topics/docker]]
  • [[topics/openclaw]]

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Originally published at https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/1/openclaw-in-docker/#atom-everything.