openclaw-mission-control/docs/deployment

Deployment / Self-hosting (Docker Compose)

This guide covers how to self-host OpenClaw Mission Control using the repository’s compose.yml.

Scope

• This is a dev-friendly self-host setup intended for local or single-host deployments.
• For production hardening (TLS, backups, external Postgres/Redis, observability), see Production notes below.

What you get

When running Compose, you get:

• Postgres database (persistent volume)
• Redis (persistent volume)
• Backend API (FastAPI) on http://localhost:${BACKEND_PORT:-8000}
  • Health check: GET /healthz
• Frontend UI (Next.js) on http://localhost:${FRONTEND_PORT:-3000}

Auth (Clerk) is optional. If you don’t configure Clerk, the UI should behave as “auth disabled”.

Requirements

• Docker Engine
• Docker Compose v2 (docker compose ...)
• Recommended: 4GB+ RAM (frontend build can be memory/CPU intensive)

Quick start (self-host)

From repo root:

cp .env.example .env

docker compose -f compose.yml --env-file .env up -d --build

Check containers:

docker compose -f compose.yml ps

Sanity checks

Backend health:

curl -f http://localhost:${BACKEND_PORT:-8000}/healthz

Frontend serving:

curl -I http://localhost:${FRONTEND_PORT:-3000}/

Compose overview

Services

compose.yml defines:

• db (Postgres 16)
• redis (Redis 7)
• backend (FastAPI)
• frontend (Next.js)

Ports

By default:

• Postgres: 5432 (POSTGRES_PORT)
• Redis: 6379 (REDIS_PORT)
• Backend: 8000 (BACKEND_PORT)
• Frontend: 3000 (FRONTEND_PORT)

Ports are sourced from .env (passed via --env-file .env) and wired into compose.yml.

Volumes (data persistence)

Compose creates named volumes:

• postgres_data → Postgres data directory
• redis_data → Redis data directory

These persist across docker compose down.

Environment strategy

Root .env (Compose)

• Copy the template: cp .env.example .env
• Edit values as needed (ports, Clerk URLs/keys, etc.)

Compose is invoked with:

docker compose -f compose.yml --env-file .env ...

Backend env

The backend container loads ./backend/.env.example via env_file and then overrides DB/Redis URLs for container networking.

If you need backend customization, prefer creating a real backend/.env and updating compose to use it (optional improvement).

Frontend env

compose.yml intentionally does not load frontend/.env.example at runtime, because it may contain non-empty placeholders.

Instead, it supports an optional user-managed env file:

• frontend/.env (not committed)

If present, Compose will load it.

Clerk (auth) notes

Mission Control can be configured with Clerk by setting env vars.

Common env vars (names may vary by deployment tooling):

• MISSION_CONTROL_CLERK_SECRET_KEY
• MISSION_CONTROL_NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY
• MISSION_CONTROL_CLERK_JWKS_URL

Security: treat the secret key like a password. Do not commit it.

Troubleshooting

1) Check container status

docker compose -f compose.yml ps

2) Tail logs

docker compose -f compose.yml --env-file .env logs -f --tail=200

3) Common issues

• Docker permission denied (/var/run/docker.sock)
  • Ensure your user is in the docker group and your session picked it up (re-login), or use a root/sudo-capable host.
• Frontend build fails because of missing public/
  • If the repo doesn’t have frontend/public, the Dockerfile should not COPY public/.
• Backend build fails looking for uv.lock
  • If backend build context is repo root, Dockerfile must copy backend/uv.lock not uv.lock.
• Redis warning about vm.overcommit_memory
  • Usually non-fatal for dev; for stability under load, set vm.overcommit_memory=1 on the host.

Reset / start fresh

Safe (keeps volumes/data):

docker compose -f compose.yml --env-file .env down

Destructive (removes volumes; deletes Postgres/Redis data):

docker compose -f compose.yml --env-file .env down -v

Production notes (future)

If you’re running this beyond local dev, consider:

• Run Postgres and Redis as managed services (or on separate hosts)
• Add TLS termination (reverse proxy)
• Configure backups for Postgres volume
• Set explicit resource limits and healthchecks
• Pin image versions/tags and consider multi-arch builds