2026-04-17 OpenClaw onboard & install-daemon on Headless Leased Cloud Mac

OpenClaw’s 2026 npm distribution continues to emphasize CLI-first workflows: install globally, run openclaw onboard, and let the tool scaffold LaunchAgents for the gateway. On a leased Apple Silicon Mac that you only touch through SSH, the happy path is still easy—until prompts assume a GUI, environment variables are missing, or Node is two majors behind upstream recommendations. This 2026-04-17 guide walks through prerequisites, pinned installs, daemon creation, and verification on HK / JP / KR / SG / US nodes. After it boots clean, continue with gateway upgrade & rollback, secrets via launchd, and health probes before exposing webhooks.

Prerequisites: Accounts, Ports, and Policy

• Outbound HTTPS — model and channel endpoints must be reachable from your region; document allowlists for corporate tenants.
• Local bind — default gateway listeners often sit on 127.0.0.1:18789; pair with nginx ingress for public traffic.
• User context — install under the same POSIX user that will own CI or operator sessions; avoid split-home layouts.

Node Version Pin (22 LTS vs 24)

Upstream release notes for recent OpenClaw builds recommend Node 24 where available, with Node 22.16+ as a supported floor. On macOS Sonoma / Sequoia builders, use your org-approved installer (fnm, nvm, or pkg) but pin the version in infra-as-code. Record node -v and npm -v in the same artifact bundle as your openclaw.json redaction.

node -v && npm -v && which node

SSH Sessions & Non-Interactive Discipline

Export provider keys before onboarding: many flows read OPENAI_API_KEY-style variables or custom bridge tokens. For fully non-interactive installs, combine export VAR=… in the same shell invocation as openclaw onboard or source a secured dotfile with 0400 perms. If the CLI still prompts, check upstream docs for --yes-style flags available in your semver.

Install the CLI (Pinned, Not Drifting)

Match production to an explicit version string, e.g. 2026.4.x from npm metadata, not bare @latest on the first host in a region.

npm install -g openclaw@2026.4.15

Run openclaw onboard --install-daemon

The onboard subcommand typically walks model selection, workspace defaults, and daemon installation. On headless hosts, pre-create ~/.openclaw with correct ownership if your security baseline requires specific ACLs. When --install-daemon completes, you should see a plist reference under ~/Library/LaunchAgents with a label such as ai.openclaw.gateway (exact names vary by version—always read the emitted path).

Signal	Healthy	Unhealthy
CLI exit code	0 with “installed daemon” summary	Non-zero with EACCES on plist directory
Files	Plist + log directory created	Partial ~/.openclaw without LaunchAgents entry
Ports	curl to documented localhost port succeeds	Address already in use from stale process

launchd Verification & Duplicate Detection

Bootstrap the agent for the current GUI-less session with launchctl bootstrap gui/$UID … / kickstart patterns consistent with your macOS version. Immediately run openclaw doctor as covered in duplicate LaunchAgents recovery—re-running onboard on the same host without unloading first is a common way to stack duplicate plists.

Health Checks, Logs, and When to Add Nginx

Use the lightweight curl checks from readiness probes: loop 127.0.0.1 until HTTP 200, then attach nginx TLS termination. Tail ~/.openclaw/logs (path may differ if OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR is set) during first channel handshake to catch auth misconfigurations early.

Related Runbooks & Fleet Scaling

Once the first node is stable, clone the playbook to secondary regions via pricing instead of overloading one Mac with both heavy Xcode lanes and always-on AI gateways. If you need mesh access instead of public ingress, review Tailscale mesh before opening ports. Teams evaluating terminal agents should read our Codex CLI vs Claude Code M4 benchmark for Terminal-Bench and token-efficiency numbers on the same lease profile.

FAQ: First Install on Cloud Macs

Question	Answer
Can I run onboard from tmux?	Yes—ensure the same environment block is loaded; tmux panes often forget launchd-injected vars.
What if port 18789 conflicts?	Stop old gateways, unload stale plists, then rerun doctor; document custom ports in nginx upstreams.
Is Docker easier?	Different trade-offs—see Docker vs native; this article targets npm-native daemons.

Bottom line: pin Node, pin npm semver, export secrets before SSH, install daemon once cleanly, verify with doctor + curl, then harden with the upgrade and ingress runbooks—not the reverse order.