OpenClaw Partner Setup

What is OpenClaw?

OpenClaw is a setup tool that lets Knotie Agency Partners deploy a production-ready AI assistant for their customers — on a VPS they control, routed through the Knotie AI Gateway. Think of it as a “one-click deploy” for an AI agent that:

Runs on your customer’s own server (Linux VPS)
Is accessible only over a private Tailscale network (no public internet exposure)
Comes pre-configured with CRM integrations, calendar sync, and memory
Lets the partner earn a margin on every AI call their customer makes

How it works

Customer pays partner for AI agent service
         │
         ▼
   Partner's VPS (OpenClaw)
         │
    AI requests routed through
         │
         ▼
   Knotie AI Gateway (partner earns margin)
         │
         ▼
   AI response returned to customer

The partner sets the pricing for their customer — Knotie bills the partner at wholesale rates, and the partner marks up for profit.

Prerequisites

Before running the setup, you need:

Requirement	Where to get it
Knotie API Key	Partner Portal → Settings → API Keys
Tailscale Auth Key	tailscale.com/admin/settings/keys
Knotie MCP Token	Partner Portal → Settings → MCP Tokens
Linux VPS	Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04 (KVM recommended: Hostinger, Contabo)
Domain (optional)	For custom branding

Setting up Tailscale

Create a free account at tailscale.com
Go to Settings → Keys and create an auth key
Save the key — you’ll paste it during the setup script

[SCREENSHOT: Tailscale auth key creation in admin panel]

Creating Knotie credentials

In the Partner Portal, go to Settings → API Keys
Create a new key with AI Gateway scope
Go to Settings → MCP Tokens and create a token for the customer
Keep both ready — you’ll need them during setup

Running the setup

Connect to your VPS as root (or with sudo access), then run:

curl -fsSL https://setup.knotie.ai/openclaw/install.sh | bash

The script will ask for:

Customer name — used as the agent’s display name and slug
Knotie API Key — your partner API key
Model ID — defaults to claude-opus-4-6
Tailscale auth key — from your Tailscale admin panel
Tailscale hostname — e.g. openclaw-acme-corp
Knotie MCP Token — from the Partner Portal

[SCREENSHOT: OpenClaw install script running in terminal]

What the script installs

The setup script installs and configures:

Component	Purpose
OpenClaw	The AI agent runtime
Tailscale	Encrypted private network so the gateway is accessible only from your devices
QMD Memory	Quick Memory Daemon for persistent conversation memory
Lossless-claw	Context engine that prevents memory loss during long sessions
Knotie MCP Server	Gives the agent tools: CRM (GoHighLevel), calendars (Google, Calendly), SMS/Email
Agent Browser Skill	Enables web browsing capabilities
Knotie Gateway Enforcer	Hourly cron that ensures the agent only routes through Knotie (not direct to Anthropic/OpenAI)

Managing deployed agents

Check gateway status

openclaw gateway status

View agent logs

openclaw logs

Restart the gateway

openclaw gateway restart

Run the health enforcer manually

bash /usr/local/bin/knotie-guard.sh

Access the gateway UI

The gateway is only accessible over Tailscale — not on the public internet. Once Tailscale is connected, access it at:

https://your-hostname.ts.net

On first access, you’ll need to approve the device:

openclaw devices list
openclaw devices approve <request-id>

[SCREENSHOT: Agent deployed and visible in Tailscale admin panel]

Updating the agent

To re-run the setup (e.g., to update the model or MCP token):

curl -fsSL https://setup.knotie.ai/openclaw/install.sh | bash

The script detects existing installations and skips already-configured steps. To do a full reset and clean uninstall:

curl -fsSL https://setup.knotie.ai/openclaw/install.sh | bash -- --reset-clean

This removes OpenClaw, Tailscale, all config, and the memory/workspace directory. A backup archive is saved to /tmp/openclaw-backup-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.tar.gz.

Channel Chat (portal-to-agent messaging)

When OpenClaw is deployed via the VPS App Catalog, the setup script also configures a hardened channel endpoint on port 18790. This lets the Knotie Partner Portal send chat messages to the OpenClaw agent over the public internet — authenticated with multiple layers of security.

How it works

Knotie Partner Portal (Next.js)
         │  HTTPS POST /knotie-channel/chat
         │  (Bearer token + HMAC-signed nonce)
         ▼
  nginx on port 18790 (TLS termination + rate limit + knock header)
         │
         ▼
  OpenClaw Gateway on port 18789 (loopback only)
         │
         ▼
  Knotie AI Gateway → LLM response
         │
         ▼
  KnotieChannelResponse returned to portal

The portal never talks directly to the gateway — nginx acts as a security front-end that enforces:

TLS — self-signed 4096-bit RSA certificate, valid for 10 years
Knock header — every request must include X-Knotie-Gateway: <knock-secret>; missing or wrong header returns 444 No Response (nginx drops the connection silently)
Rate limiting — max 10 requests/minute per IP, max 3 concurrent connections per IP
Bearer token — constant-time comparison via timingSafeEqual
HMAC nonce — timestamp + nonce signed with SHA-256, with a ±5 minute replay window

📷 Screenshot pending — /platform/chat is a whitelabel/customer portal feature. The customer screenshot will be added once available.

🎬 Video walkthrough — pending customer-facing portal walkthrough recording.

Channel response shape

Successful chat responses return:

{
  "reply": "Hello! How can I help you today?",
  "sessionId": "sess_abc123",
  "model": "knotie-provider/claude-opus-4-6"
}

Environment variables written during setup

The install script writes a /root/.openclaw/channel.env file with these variables:

Variable	Description
`KNOTIE_CHANNEL_TOKEN`	Bearer token the portal uses to authenticate requests
`KNOTIE_CHANNEL_KNOCK`	Secret knock header value nginx requires on every request
`KNOTIE_TS_HOSTNAME`	Tailscale hostname for this instance

A systemd drop-in at /root/.config/systemd/user/openclaw-gateway.service.d/knotie-env.conf ensures these variables are loaded into the gateway process on every start. Without this drop-in, process.env.KNOTIE_CHANNEL_TOKEN is undefined inside the channel plugin, causing every chat call to return 503 misconfigured.

Configuration reference

These values are set during install and stored in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json:

Setting	Default	Description
`contextWindow`	200,000 tokens	Maximum context size
`maxTokens`	16,000 tokens	Maximum response length
`gatewayPort`	18,789	Local port the gateway listens on
`heartbeatInterval`	30 minutes	How often the agent does a health check
`sessionMaxIdleDays`	7 days	Sessions expire after this long without activity

Troubleshooting

Tailscale serve not working

Check that Tailscale Serve is enabled in your tailnet: login.tailscale.com/admin/settings
Look for: Allow nodes to connect to the Tailnet Service (Serve) and Funnel
Re-run the setup script after enabling

Gateway not responding

curl http://127.0.0.1:18789/healthz
openclaw gateway status
openclaw doctor

Agent not using Knotie Gateway The knotie-guard.sh cron runs hourly and will restore the correct config automatically. To manually check:

jq '.models.providers' ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json

Only knotie-provider should be present. Channel chat returns 503 misconfigured The gateway process is not seeing the channel environment variables. Check whether the systemd drop-in was written:

cat /root/.config/systemd/user/openclaw-gateway.service.d/knotie-env.conf

If the file is missing, re-run the catalog deploy for OpenClaw. If it exists but the issue persists, reload the service:

XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/0 systemctl --user daemon-reload
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/0 systemctl --user restart openclaw-gateway

nginx not listening on the channel port after deploy If the channel endpoint is unreachable immediately after install, check whether nginx loaded the new config:

ss -tlnH | awk '{print $4}'    # should include :<channel-port>
tail -20 /var/log/nginx/error.log

A common cause is a limit_conn directive syntax error. The correct form is limit_conn knotie_cn 3 (no zone= prefix). If you see zero size shared memory zone in the error log, run:

nginx -t && systemctl restart nginx

Catalog deploy fails immediately with apt lock error When you click Deploy on a freshly provisioned VPS, cloud-init may still be running its own apt-get in the background. The deploy script now waits up to 5 minutes for the lock to release automatically. If you see this error in the deploy log, wait a few minutes and retry the catalog deploy from the portal — no manual intervention is needed. Gateway config shows gateway.token instead of gateway.auth The gateway configuration schema changed in OpenClaw 2026.5.x. The Knotie API key is now stored under gateway.auth.token (not the top-level gateway.token). The install script migrates the config automatically. To verify:

jq '.gateway.auth' ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json
# Expected: { "mode": "token", "token": "<your-token>" }

If gateway.auth is missing, re-run the catalog deploy for OpenClaw. Support

Email: support@knotie-ai.pro
Discord: discord.gg/AQCdM68BTr

Source: knotie-ai-pro#727 — feat(vps): openclaw catalog deploy + channel chat working end-to-end

Getting started

Account & security

Customer onboarding

Partner portal

VPS & App Catalog

Agents

What is OpenClaw?

How it works

Prerequisites

Setting up Tailscale

Creating Knotie credentials

Running the setup

What the script installs

Managing deployed agents

Check gateway status

View agent logs

Restart the gateway

Run the health enforcer manually

Access the gateway UI

Updating the agent

Channel Chat (portal-to-agent messaging)

How it works

Channel response shape

Environment variables written during setup

Configuration reference

Troubleshooting

Getting started

Account & security

Customer onboarding

Partner portal

VPS & App Catalog

Agents

Documentation Index

​What is OpenClaw?

​How it works

​Prerequisites

​Setting up Tailscale

​Creating Knotie credentials

​Running the setup

​What the script installs

​Managing deployed agents

​Check gateway status

​View agent logs

​Restart the gateway

​Run the health enforcer manually

​Access the gateway UI

​Updating the agent

​Channel Chat (portal-to-agent messaging)

​How it works

​Channel response shape

​Environment variables written during setup

​Configuration reference

​Troubleshooting

What is OpenClaw?

How it works

Prerequisites

Setting up Tailscale

Creating Knotie credentials

Running the setup

What the script installs

Managing deployed agents

Check gateway status

View agent logs

Restart the gateway

Run the health enforcer manually

Access the gateway UI

Updating the agent

Channel Chat (portal-to-agent messaging)

How it works

Channel response shape

Environment variables written during setup

Configuration reference

Troubleshooting