OpenClaw is a powerful WordPress plugin that turns your site into an AI-powered management agent. In this guide, you’ll learn how to set up OpenClaw on a VPS (Virtual Private Server) from scratch — covering server requirements, installation, and configuration.

📋 Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have the following ready:

• A VPS running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (or Debian 11+)
• At least 2 GB RAM and 20 GB disk space
• Root or sudo SSH access to the server
• A domain name pointed to your VPS IP
• A working WordPress installation
• PHP 8.0+ and MySQL 8.0+ installed

🖥️ Step 1 — Provision Your VPS

Choose a VPS provider and spin up a new server. Below is a comparison of popular VPS providers suitable for running OpenClaw:

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Provider	RAM	Storage	Price/mo	Best For
DigitalOcean	2 GB	50 GB SSD	~$12	Beginners & Developers
Linode (Akamai)	2 GB	50 GB SSD	~$12	Performance-focused
Vultr	2 GB	55 GB SSD	~$12	Global edge locations
Hetzner	4 GB	40 GB SSD	~$6	Budget-conscious users
AWS Lightsail	2 GB	60 GB SSD	~$10	AWS ecosystem integration

Once your server is provisioned, SSH into it:

ssh root@your-server-ip

⚙️ Step 2 — Install the LAMP Stack

OpenClaw runs on top of WordPress, so you need a full LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack. Run the following commands:

# Update packages
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

# Install Apache, MySQL, PHP
sudo apt install -y apache2 mysql-server php8.1 php8.1-cli php8.1-mysql \
  php8.1-curl php8.1-xml php8.1-mbstring php8.1-zip php8.1-gd unzip wget

# Enable Apache modules
sudo a2enmod rewrite ssl
sudo systemctl restart apache2

🐬 Step 3 — Configure MySQL

Secure your MySQL installation and create a database for WordPress:

# Secure MySQL
sudo mysql_secure_installation

# Log in to MySQL
sudo mysql -u root -p

# Create the WordPress database and user
CREATE DATABASE wordpress_db CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'wp_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword123!';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress_db.* TO 'wp_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

🌐 Step 4 — Install WordPress

Download and configure WordPress using WP-CLI for a streamlined setup:

# Install WP-CLI
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wp-cli/builds/gh-pages/phar/wp-cli.phar
chmod +x wp-cli.phar
sudo mv wp-cli.phar /usr/local/bin/wp

# Download WordPress
cd /var/www/html
sudo wp core download --allow-root

# Create wp-config.php
sudo wp config create \
  --dbname=wordpress_db \
  --dbuser=wp_user \
  --dbpass=StrongPassword123! \
  --allow-root

# Install WordPress
sudo wp core install \
  --url=https://yourdomain.com \
  --title="My OpenClaw Site" \
  --admin_user=admin \
  --admin_password=SecureAdminPass! \
  --admin_email=you@example.com \
  --allow-root

🔌 Step 5 — Install the OpenClaw Plugin

With WordPress running, install the OpenClaw plugin. OpenClaw is available as a WordPress plugin that exposes a REST API and CLI bridge for AI-powered management:

# Install and activate OpenClaw
wp plugin install openclaw --activate --allow-root

# Verify it's active
wp plugin list --status=active --allow-root

🔐 Step 6 — Configure Application Passwords

OpenClaw uses WordPress Application Passwords for secure API authentication. Generate one for your admin user:

# Generate an application password for the admin user
wp user application-password create 1 "OpenClaw Agent" --allow-root

Copy the generated password — you’ll need it to authenticate API requests. Store it securely!

Setting	Value	Where to Set
API Base URL	https://yourdomain.com/wp-json	OpenClaw config file
Auth Method	Application Password	WordPress user profile
Admin Username	admin	WordPress user
REST Namespace	/openclaw/v1/	Auto-registered by plugin
Abilities Endpoint	/openclaw/v1/abilities	Auto-registered by plugin
Execute Endpoint	/openclaw/v1/execute	Auto-registered by plugin

🔒 Step 7 — Enable SSL with Let’s Encrypt

Secure your site with a free SSL certificate using Certbot:

# Install Certbot
sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-apache

# Issue SSL certificate
sudo certbot --apache -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com

# Test auto-renewal
sudo certbot renew --dry-run

✅ Step 8 — Verify Your OpenClaw Installation

Test your OpenClaw setup by querying the abilities endpoint:

# List all available OpenClaw abilities
curl -u admin:YOUR_APP_PASSWORD \
  https://yourdomain.com/wp-json/openclaw/v1/abilities

# Execute a test ability
curl -X POST \
  -u admin:YOUR_APP_PASSWORD \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"ability": "openclaw/create-post", "input": {"title": "Test", "content": "Hello from OpenClaw!"}}' \
  https://yourdomain.com/wp-json/openclaw/v1/execute

🛠️ Troubleshooting Common Issues

If something doesn’t work as expected, consult the table below for common problems and solutions:

Issue	Likely Cause	Solution
401 Unauthorized on API calls	Wrong application password	Regenerate the application password in WP Admin → Users → Profile
404 on /wp-json/openclaw/v1/	Plugin not active or permalinks not flushed	Activate the plugin and go to Settings → Permalinks → Save
500 Internal Server Error	PHP memory limit too low	Set memory_limit = 256M in php.ini
SSL certificate errors	Certbot not configured properly	Re-run certbot --apache and check Apache vhost
WP-CLI database error	MySQL not running or wrong credentials	Check wp-config.php credentials and MySQL service status
Plugin install fails	File permission issues	Run chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html

🚀 Next Steps

Congratulations! Your OpenClaw instance is now live on your VPS. Here’s what you can do next:

• 🤖 Connect an AI agent (Claude, GPT-4, Gemini) to your OpenClaw REST API
• 📦 Register custom Abilities to extend OpenClaw’s capabilities
• 🔄 Set up automated backups using WP-CLI + cron jobs
• 📊 Install monitoring tools like UptimeRobot or Netdata
• 🔐 Harden your VPS with UFW firewall rules and Fail2ban

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Have questions or ran into an issue? Drop a comment below — we’re happy to help you get OpenClaw running smoothly on your VPS!