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Version: 18.x

Access OpenClaw using the Teleport Application Service

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Access Your OpenClaw Web UI from Anywhere with Teleport
OpenClaw’s web UI gives you full control over your personal AI agent, but exposing it publicly creates significant risk.
Access Your OpenClaw Web UI from Anywhere with Teleport

OpenClaw is a personal AI assistant that you can deploy on your own hardware or cloud servers.

This guide shows you how to protect access to your OpenClaw Control UI using Teleport.

How it works​

OpenClaw exposes a local web interface on port 18789 for communication with the agent. By default, this interface is bound to localhost. Exposing it publicly without proper security controls creates significant risk.

Teleport can secure this setup by acting as a secure gateway. It provides:

  • Zero-trust web access: Access the web interface through a secure Teleport proxy without exposing public ports.
  • Secure SSH: Manage the underlying server using Teleport’s identity-based SSH access.
  • Origin validation: OpenClaw can be configured to only accept requests from your trusted Teleport domain.

Prerequisites​

  • A running Teleport cluster. If you want to get started with Teleport, sign up for a free trial or set up a demo environment.

  • The tctl and tsh clients.

    Installing tctl and tsh clients

    1. Determine the version of your Teleport cluster. The tctl and tsh clients must be at most one major version behind your Teleport cluster version. Send a GET request to the Proxy Service at /v1/webapi/find and use a JSON query tool to obtain your cluster version. Replace teleport.example.com:443 with the web address of your Teleport Proxy Service:

      TELEPORT_DOMAIN=teleport.example.com:443
      TELEPORT_VERSION="$(curl -s https://$TELEPORT_DOMAIN/v1/webapi/find | jq -r '.server_version')"

    2. Follow the instructions for your platform to install tctl and tsh clients:

      Download the signed macOS .pkg installer for Teleport, which includes the tctl and tsh clients:

      curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-${TELEPORT_VERSION?}.pkg

      In Finder double-click the pkg file to begin installation.

      danger

      Using Homebrew to install Teleport is not supported. The Teleport package in Homebrew is not maintained by Teleport and we can't guarantee its reliability or security.

  • A server to host OpenClaw (e.g., AWS EC2, Raspberry Pi, or mini PC).
  • An AI model provider account for the agent's backend.

Step 1/4. Set up the OpenClaw server​

While you can host OpenClaw on local hardware like a Raspberry Pi or Mac mini, this guide uses an AWS EC2 instance as an example.

  1. Log into the AWS Console and launch a new Ubuntu instance.
  2. Choose an instance type (e.g., t3.small for a balance of performance and free-tier).
  3. Ensure your Security Group allows SSH access so you can perform the initial installation.

Step 2/4. Install and configure OpenClaw​

Once your server is running, connect via SSH to install the agent.

  1. Run the official OpenClaw one-liner installation script:

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

  2. Follow the interactive prompts to accept the security warnings, select your preferred AI model, and authenticate. Skip channel and skill setup if you only need the web interface.

  3. After installation, you may need to refresh your shell to use the openclaw CLI command:

    source ~/.bashrc # or ~/.zshrc

Step 3/4. Enroll the server and application with Teleport​

  1. Generate a new join token that allows both the Node and App roles.

    From a machine with tctl access to your Teleport cluster (see Prerequisites), run:

    tctl tokens add --type=node,app --ttl=30m --format=text

    Note the output. You will use this token in the teleport configure command below to validate that your server and application requesting to join the Teleport cluster are legitimate.

  2. On your OpenClaw server, install the Teleport Agent using the cluster install script:

    curl "https://example.teleport.sh:443/scripts/install.sh" | sudo bash

  3. Generate a Teleport configuration that enables both the SSH Service and the Application Service:

    sudo teleport configure \  --proxy="example.teleport.sh:443" \  --token="token generated above" \  --roles=node,app \  --app-name=openclaw \  --app-uri=http://127.0.0.1:18789 \  --output=file

  4. Finally, enable and start the Teleport Agent:

    sudo systemctl enable teleport
    sudo systemctl start teleport

    You should now see the OpenClaw server and application enrolled in your Teleport UI.

    OpenClaw Application Enrolled

Step 4/4. Pair OpenClaw with Teleport​

OpenClaw requires that any devices accessing it, outside of localhost, be explicitly paired. Pairing is OpenClaw's owner approval step that dictates which devices are allowed to join the gateway network.

Configure allowed origins​

Edit ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json and add your Teleport URL to the allowedOrigins section. Replace your-teleport-proxy.com with your Teleport proxy address:

"gateway": {
  ...
  "controlUi": {
    "allowedOrigins": ["https://openclaw.your-teleport-proxy.com"]
  }
  ...
}

After adding the allowed origin, restart OpenClaw and try accessing the app through Teleport. You will see an error: "unauthorized: gateway token missing."

Complete the pairing process​

  1. Retrieve your gateway token from ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json under gateway.auth.token.

    tip

    If your token is stored in plain text, consider moving it to an .env file and referencing it with the ${OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN} variable in your config file. In addition, be sure to rotate this periodically.

  2. Open the OpenClaw app from your Teleport Web UI and append the token to the URL:

    https://openclaw.your-teleport-proxy.com?token=<your-gateway-token>

    This initiates a pairing request.

  3. On your OpenClaw server, retrieve your pairing request ID:

    openclaw devices list

  4. Approve the device using the request ID request-id:

    openclaw devices approve request-id

  5. Restart the OpenClaw gateway:

    openclaw gateway restart

You can now securely access your AI agent through the Teleport-protected URL from anywhere.

OpenClaw Control UI

tip

Once Teleport is confirmed working, you can further harden your server by removing standard SSH access from your AWS security group. Teleport will still be able to provide secure access to the machine.

Further reading​