Run OpenClaw 24/7 in the cloud with your AI agent

Keep OpenClaw answering on Telegram while your Mac is closed. Your AI coding agent sets it up on aidrop.it. See what survives a restart and what does not.

OpenClaw is an open-source personal AI assistant you talk to from chat apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp or Discord. On a Mac it goes quiet whenever the laptop sleeps. Here you paste one paragraph into your AI coding agent (Claude Code, Codex or Cursor), and the agent moves OpenClaw to aidrop.it, where it answers you on Telegram day and night.

One honest limit first. The cloud copy starts fresh after every restart. It forgets your chats and the notes it wrote for itself. What you keep in its setup files comes back every time.

What you will have at the end

OpenClaw running in the cloud, whether your Mac is on or off.
A Telegram bot that answers you and ignores everyone else.
Your AI model key kept in your project’s secrets, never in the code.
The assistant’s personality and standing notes saved with its code.

Words you will meet

Bot token: the password Telegram gives your bot. Whoever has it controls the bot.
API key: a password from an AI company (Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter) that lets OpenClaw use its models. Usage is billed to you.
Secret: a key aidrop.it keeps for your project and hands to the app when it starts. It never goes into the code.
Restart: the app is switched off and on again, for example when your agent deploys a new version.

What you need

An aidrop.it account with your coding agent connected. See Quickstart.
A plan with the 1 GB size: Pro or above (prices on aidrop.it). The 512 MB size on Trial and Starter is likely too small for OpenClaw.
An API key from a model provider. A Claude or ChatGPT subscription login does not fit: it is saved on the app’s disk and lost at the next restart.
A Telegram bot from @BotFather and your numeric Telegram user ID. OpenClaw’s Telegram guide shows how to find it.

Say this to your agent

Set up OpenClaw (https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw) as an aidrop.it
Service so it runs 24/7 and I talk to it on Telegram. Read aidrop.it's
runtime rules before writing anything and follow them.

- Build on the official image ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw, pinned to a
  release tag, with our own small Dockerfile and start script.
- Telegram only. Allowlist my numeric user ID [MY TELEGRAM ID];
  no pairing, nobody else may talk to it.
- Model: [PROVIDER AND MODEL], with an API key, not a subscription login.
- The disk is read-only and wiped on restart. Keep openclaw.json and the
  workspace notes (AGENTS.md, SOUL.md, USER.md, MEMORY.md) in the repo,
  copy them into the temporary folder at start, and point OpenClaw's
  state and workspace there.
- Gateway: listen on all interfaces on the platform port, token auth,
  health check on /healthz.
- Outbound traffic must go through the platform's HTTP proxy. Set
  OpenClaw's own proxy URL from it so every client uses it.
- Secrets on the Project, never in the repo: the model API key, the
  Telegram bot token and a long random gateway token.
- Size: 1 GB.

Push it, build it, and tell me the address, whether the bot answers,
and which secrets I still need to add.

What your agent does

Reads aidrop.it’s rules for how apps run there.
Writes a small setup: the OpenClaw version, your settings, the assistant’s notes and a start-up script.
Saves the code in a new repository on aidrop.it.
Asks you for the keys. Give them to the agent, or type them on the Project Secrets page in the aidrop.it dashboard.
Builds the app and waits until it runs. If it fails, the agent reads the error log, fixes the setup and builds again.
Tells you the address and asks you to message your bot.

Check that it works

Your agent says the app is running.
You message your bot on Telegram and it answers.
A friend messages the bot and gets no answer.
You close your laptop, message again, and it still answers.

What survives a restart

The app has no permanent disk here. What it writes while running sits in a small temporary folder that is emptied on every restart (why).

Kept: your settings, the notes saved with the code, your keys and the Telegram connection.
Lost: chat history, notes the assistant wrote itself, skills or plugins installed from the chat, and approvals you gave it.

To make something permanent, ask your agent to add it to the saved notes and deploy again.

Skip WhatsApp here. OpenClaw links WhatsApp by scanning a QR code, like WhatsApp Web, and keeps that link on disk. You would scan again after every restart, with no terminal to show the code in. A Discord bot works, because it uses a token too.

When something goes wrong

What you see	What to tell your agent
The app keeps stopping after the build	“Read the logs and fix start-up. OpenClaw may only write to the temporary folder.”
The bot never answers	“Check the logs for Telegram errors. Telegram traffic must use the platform proxy.”
The bot replies with a pairing code	“Allow only my Telegram user ID.”
The bot says the model or key is wrong	“Check the model name and the API key secret.”
It forgot what I told it yesterday	“Add this to the saved notes and deploy again.”
It stops and the log says out of memory	“Move it to the 2 GB size.”

FAQ

Can OpenClaw run without my Mac?

Yes. The part of OpenClaw that connects your chats to the AI model runs on any Linux server or container, and your chat apps talk to that copy. Without a permanent disk it forgets chats after a restart. A server with its own disk keeps everything, but you look after that server yourself.

What is the difference between n8n and OpenClaw?

n8n is a workflow tool: you draw fixed steps, and it runs them the same way every time. OpenClaw is a chat assistant: you ask in plain words and the AI model decides the steps. Pick n8n for repeatable automations and OpenClaw for an assistant you talk to. See self-host n8n.

Can I use Ollama with OpenClaw in the cloud?

Not the Ollama on your Mac. A cloud server cannot reach a model running on your laptop, and the laptop would have to stay on anyway. Use a hosted model provider’s API key. Your own model in the cloud needs a graphics card, which a small container does not have.

Does OpenClaw need Docker?

No. Its Docker setup is optional, and its sandbox, which runs tools in separate containers, is off by default. On aidrop.it the whole assistant runs in one container with no Docker inside, so the sandbox stays off.