OpenClaw Kubernetes Operator

Self-host OpenClaw AI agents on Kubernetes with production-grade security, observability, and lifecycle management.

OpenClaw is an AI agent platform that acts on your behalf across Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp, and Signal. It manages your inbox, calendar, smart home, and more through 50+ integrations. While OpenClaw.rocks offers fully managed hosting, this operator lets you run OpenClaw on your own infrastructure with the same operational rigor.

Why an Operator?

Deploying AI agents to Kubernetes involves more than a Deployment and a Service. You need network isolation, secret management, persistent storage, health monitoring, optional browser automation, and config rollouts, all wired correctly. This operator encodes those concerns into a single OpenClawInstance custom resource so you can go from zero to production in minutes:

apiVersion: openclaw.openclaw.io/v1alpha1
kind: OpenClawInstance
metadata:
  name: my-agent
spec:
  envFrom:
    - secretRef:
        name: openclaw-api-keys
  storage:
    persistence:
      enabled: true
      size: 10Gi

The operator reconciles this into a fully managed stack of 9+ Kubernetes resources: secured, monitored, and self-healing.

Features

	Feature	Details
Declarative	Single CRD	One resource defines the entire deployment: Deployment, Service, RBAC, NetworkPolicy, PVC, PDB, Ingress, and more
Secure	Hardened by default	Non-root (UID 1000), all capabilities dropped, seccomp RuntimeDefault, default-deny NetworkPolicy, validating webhook
Observable	Built-in metrics	Prometheus metrics, ServiceMonitor integration, structured JSON logging, Kubernetes events
Flexible	Provider-agnostic config	Use any AI provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, or others) via environment variables and inline or external config
Resilient	Self-healing lifecycle	PodDisruptionBudgets, health probes, automatic config rollouts via content hashing, 5-minute drift detection
Extensible	Chromium sidecar	Optional headless browser for web automation, injected as a hardened sidecar with shared-memory tuning

Architecture

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  OpenClawInstance CR                                         │
│  (your declarative config)                                   │
└──────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────┘
               │ watch
               ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  OpenClaw Operator                                           │
│  ┌────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────────────┐  │
│  │ Reconciler │  │   Webhooks   │  │  Prometheus Metrics  │  │
│  │            │  │  (validate   │  │  (reconcile count,   │  │
│  │  creates → │  │   & default) │  │   duration, phases)  │  │
│  └────────────┘  └──────────────┘  └──────────────────────┘  │
└──────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────┘
               │ manages
               ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Managed Resources (per instance)                            │
│                                                              │
│  ServiceAccount ─► Role ─► RoleBinding    NetworkPolicy      │
│  ConfigMap        PVC      PDB            ServiceMonitor     │
│                                                              │
│  ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │  Deployment                                            │  │
│  │  ┌──────────────────────┐  ┌────────────────────────┐  │  │
│  │  │  OpenClaw Container  │  │  Chromium Sidecar      │  │  │
│  │  │  (AI agent runtime)  │  │  (optional, port 9222) │  │  │
│  │  └──────────────────────┘  └────────────────────────┘  │  │
│  └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘  │
│                                                              │
│  Service (ports 18789, 18793) ─► Ingress (optional)          │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Quick Start

Prerequisites

Kubernetes 1.28+
Helm 3

1. Install the operator

helm install openclaw-operator \
  oci://ghcr.io/openclaw-rocks/charts/openclaw-operator \
  --namespace openclaw-operator-system \
  --create-namespace

Alternative: install with Kustomize

# Install CRDs
make install

# Deploy the operator
make deploy IMG=ghcr.io/openclaw-rocks/openclaw-operator:latest

2. Create a secret with your API keys

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: openclaw-api-keys
type: Opaque
stringData:
  ANTHROPIC_API_KEY: "sk-ant-..."

3. Deploy an OpenClaw instance

apiVersion: openclaw.openclaw.io/v1alpha1
kind: OpenClawInstance
metadata:
  name: my-agent
spec:
  envFrom:
    - secretRef:
        name: openclaw-api-keys
  storage:
    persistence:
      enabled: true
      size: 10Gi

kubectl apply -f secret.yaml -f openclawinstance.yaml

4. Verify

kubectl get openclawinstances
# NAME       PHASE     AGE
# my-agent   Running   2m

kubectl get pods
# NAME                        READY   STATUS    AGE
# my-agent-7f8b9c6d4-x2k9p   1/1     Running   2m

Configuration

Inline config (openclaw.json)

spec:
  config:
    raw:
      agents:
        defaults:
          model:
            primary: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-20250514"
          sandbox: true
      session:
        scope: "per-sender"

External ConfigMap reference

spec:
  config:
    configMapRef:
      name: my-openclaw-config
      key: openclaw.json

Config changes are detected via SHA-256 hashing and automatically trigger a rolling update. No manual restart needed.

Chromium sidecar

Enable headless browser automation for web scraping, screenshots, and browser-based integrations:

spec:
  chromium:
    enabled: true
    image:
      repository: ghcr.io/browserless/chromium
      tag: "v2.0.0"
    resources:
      requests:
        cpu: "250m"
        memory: "512Mi"
      limits:
        cpu: "1000m"
        memory: "2Gi"

When enabled, the operator automatically injects a CHROMIUM_URL environment variable into the main container and configures shared memory, security contexts, and health probes for the sidecar.

All configuration options

Field	Description	Default
`spec.image.repository`	Container image	`ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw`
`spec.image.tag`	Image tag	`latest`
`spec.config.raw`	Inline openclaw.json	-
`spec.config.configMapRef`	External ConfigMap reference	-
`spec.envFrom`	Secret/ConfigMap env sources	`[]`
`spec.resources.requests.cpu`	CPU request	`500m`
`spec.resources.requests.memory`	Memory request	`1Gi`
`spec.resources.limits.cpu`	CPU limit	`2000m`
`spec.resources.limits.memory`	Memory limit	`4Gi`
`spec.storage.persistence.enabled`	Persistent storage	`true`
`spec.storage.persistence.size`	PVC size	`10Gi`
`spec.storage.persistence.storageClass`	StorageClass name	cluster default
`spec.chromium.enabled`	Chromium sidecar	`false`
`spec.security.networkPolicy.enabled`	NetworkPolicy	`true`
`spec.security.networkPolicy.additionalEgress`	Custom egress rules	`[]`
`spec.networking.service.type`	Service type	`ClusterIP`
`spec.networking.ingress.enabled`	Ingress	`false`
`spec.observability.metrics.enabled`	Prometheus metrics	`true`
`spec.observability.metrics.serviceMonitor.enabled`	ServiceMonitor	`false`
`spec.availability.podDisruptionBudget.enabled`	PDB	`true`

See the full example for every available field, or the API reference for detailed documentation.

Security

The operator follows a secure-by-default philosophy. Every instance ships with hardened settings out of the box, with no extra configuration needed.

Defaults

Non-root execution: containers run as UID 1000; root (UID 0) is blocked by the validating webhook
All capabilities dropped: no ambient Linux capabilities
Seccomp RuntimeDefault: syscall filtering enabled
Default-deny NetworkPolicy: only DNS (53) and HTTPS (443) egress allowed; ingress limited to same namespace
Minimal RBAC: each instance gets its own ServiceAccount with read-only access to its own ConfigMap
Read-only root filesystem: supported for the Chromium sidecar; scratch dirs via emptyDir

Validating webhook

Check	Severity	Behavior
`runAsUser: 0`	Error	Blocked: root execution not allowed
NetworkPolicy disabled	Warning	Deployment proceeds with a warning
Ingress without TLS	Warning	Deployment proceeds with a warning
Chromium without digest pinning	Warning	Deployment proceeds with a warning

Custom network rules

Allow egress to internal services or specific CIDRs:

spec:
  security:
    networkPolicy:
      enabled: true
      additionalEgress:
        - ports:
            - protocol: TCP
              port: 5432
          to:
            - ipBlock:
                cidr: 10.0.0.0/8

Observability

Prometheus metrics

Metric	Type	Description
`openclaw_reconcile_total`	Counter	Reconciliations by result (success/error)
`openclaw_reconcile_duration_seconds`	Histogram	Reconciliation latency
`openclaw_instance_phase`	Gauge	Current phase per instance

ServiceMonitor

spec:
  observability:
    metrics:
      enabled: true
      serviceMonitor:
        enabled: true
        interval: 15s
        labels:
          release: prometheus

Instance status

kubectl get openclawinstance my-agent -o yaml

status:
  phase: Running
  conditions:
    - type: Ready
      status: "True"
    - type: DeploymentReady
      status: "True"
    - type: NetworkPolicyReady
      status: "True"
  gatewayEndpoint: my-agent.default.svc:18789
  canvasEndpoint: my-agent.default.svc:18793

Phases: Pending → Provisioning → Running | Degraded | Failed | Terminating

Deployment Guides

Platform-specific deployment guides are available for:

Development

# Clone and set up
git clone https://github.com/OpenClaw-rocks/k8s-operator.git
cd k8s-operator
go mod download

# Generate code and manifests
make generate manifests

# Run tests
make test

# Run linter
make lint

# Run locally against a Kind cluster
kind create cluster
make install
make run

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full development guide.

Roadmap

v0.2.0: Multi-instance scaling, HPA integration, backup & restore
v0.3.0: Multi-cluster support, GitOps-native config, cert-manager integration
v1.0.0: API graduation to v1, conformance test suite, CNCF Artifact Hub listing

See the full roadmap for details.

Don't Want to Self-Host?

OpenClaw.rocks offers fully managed hosting starting at EUR 10/mo. No Kubernetes cluster required. Setup, updates, and 24/7 uptime handled for you.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue to discuss significant changes before submitting a PR. See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

Apache License 2.0, the same license used by Kubernetes, Prometheus, and most CNCF projects. See LICENSE for details.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 36 Commits
.github		.github
api/v1alpha1		api/v1alpha1
bundle		bundle
charts/openclaw-operator		charts/openclaw-operator
cmd		cmd
config		config
docs		docs
hack		hack
internal		internal
test/e2e		test/e2e
.dockerignore		.dockerignore
.gitignore		.gitignore
.golangci.yaml		.golangci.yaml
.goreleaser.yaml		.goreleaser.yaml
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
Dockerfile		Dockerfile
LICENSE		LICENSE
Makefile		Makefile
PROJECT		PROJECT
README.md		README.md
ROADMAP.md		ROADMAP.md
SECURITY.md		SECURITY.md
artifacthub-repo.yml		artifacthub-repo.yml
go.mod		go.mod
go.sum		go.sum

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OpenClaw Kubernetes Operator

Why an Operator?

Features

Architecture

Quick Start

Prerequisites

1. Install the operator

2. Create a secret with your API keys

3. Deploy an OpenClaw instance

4. Verify

Configuration

Inline config (openclaw.json)

External ConfigMap reference

Chromium sidecar

All configuration options

Security

Defaults

Validating webhook

Custom network rules

Observability

Prometheus metrics

ServiceMonitor

Instance status

Deployment Guides

Development

Roadmap

Don't Want to Self-Host?

Contributing

License

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OpenClaw Kubernetes Operator

Why an Operator?

Features

Architecture

Quick Start

Prerequisites

1. Install the operator

2. Create a secret with your API keys

3. Deploy an OpenClaw instance

4. Verify

Configuration

Inline config (openclaw.json)

External ConfigMap reference

Chromium sidecar

All configuration options

Security

Defaults

Validating webhook

Custom network rules

Observability

Prometheus metrics

ServiceMonitor

Instance status

Deployment Guides

Development

Roadmap

Don't Want to Self-Host?

Contributing

License

About

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