openclaw-in-a-box

Run OpenClaw in a stereOS VM with Tapes telemetry.

Get Started

Paste this into Claude Code, OpenCode, or any coding harness:

Set up openclaw-in-a-box from https://github.com/papercomputeco/openclaw-in-a-box — clone the repo and follow SKILL.md to get me running with a secure OpenClaw setup.

The agent clones the repo, checks your environment, asks which integrations you want, and walks you through setup.

Manual setup

Prerequisites: Master Blaster (mb CLI) and ANTHROPIC_API_KEY exported.

git clone https://github.com/papercomputeco/openclaw-in-a-box
cd openclaw-in-a-box
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."
mb up
mb ssh openclaw-in-a-box
bash /workspace/scripts/install.sh   # first time
bash /workspace/scripts/start.sh

Integrations

The VM comes pre-configured for three integrations. Set up whichever ones you need -- the agent loads all available skills at startup.

Integration	Setup Guide	What It Does
Gmail Triage	Google OAuth + gog CLI	Archive newsletters, label receipts, flag action items
GitHub Org Triage	GH_TOKEN + gh CLI	Flag stale PRs, blocked issues, release risk
Discord Bot	DISCORD_TOKEN	Respond to mentions, summarize threads

Each guide walks through the one-time credential setup for that integration. Export the tokens before mb up:

# Model provider (pick one)
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."     # default: Anthropic
# --- OR ---
export MODEL_PROVIDER="ollama"
export MODEL_NAME="minimax-m2.7:cloud"
export OLLAMA_API_KEY="..."

# Integrations (optional)
export GH_TOKEN="ghp_..."
export DISCORD_TOKEN="your-token"

Model Providers

By default the agent uses Claude via Anthropic. You can switch to Ollama-hosted models (cloud or local) by setting environment variables before mb up.

Provider	Env Vars	Notes
Anthropic (default)	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Claude models
Ollama Cloud	MODEL_PROVIDER=ollama MODEL_NAME=minimax-m2.7:cloud OLLAMA_API_KEY	No local GPU needed
Ollama Local	MODEL_PROVIDER=ollama MODEL_NAME=llama3.3	Requires Ollama + pulled model on host

Ollama Cloud example

export MODEL_PROVIDER="ollama"
export MODEL_NAME="kimi-k2.5:cloud"
export OLLAMA_API_KEY="..."    # from ollama.com/settings
mb up

Cloud models for agentic work: minimax-m2.7:cloud, kimi-k2.5:cloud, minimax-m2.5:cloud.

Commands

Command	What it does
mb up	Boot the VM, mount ./ at /workspace, inject secrets via tmpfs
mb ssh openclaw-in-a-box	SSH into the running VM
mb down	Stop the VM. Secrets destroyed, config + tapes persist on host
mb destroy openclaw-in-a-box	Remove the VM and all its resources
mb status openclaw-in-a-box	Check if the VM is running

Lifecycle

mb up          →  VM boots, shared mount at /workspace
mb ssh         →  install.sh (first time) → start.sh
                                           → openclaw onboard (first time)
                                           → openclaw gateway (after onboard)
mb down        →  VM stopped, secrets gone, config persisted
mb up + ssh    →  install cached, skip onboard, start gateway
mb destroy     →  VM removed entirely

• Config persists on the shared mount (.openclaw/) across mb down/mb up cycles
• Secrets live in tmpfs -- destroyed on mb down
• Tapes captures the agent's black box in .mb/tapes/

Architecture

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  HOST                                                        │
│                                                              │
│  $ mb up / ssh / down / destroy                              │
│       │                                                      │
│       │  reads jcard.toml                                    │
│       │  injects secrets via tmpfs                           │
│       │  mounts ./ → /workspace                              │
│       ▼                                                      │
│  ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │  stereOS VM  (NixOS · 2 CPU · 4 GiB · 2h timeout)     │  │
│  │                                                        │  │
│  │  install.sh ──► Node 22 + OpenClaw CLI + Tapes CLI     │  │
│  │                                                        │  │
│  │  start.sh ──┬──► tapes serve proxy  (background)       │  │
│  │             │       ▲                                   │  │
│  │             │       │  intercepts LLM traffic           │  │
│  │             │       ▼                                   │  │
│  │             └──► openclaw gateway ◄──► LLM API       │  │
│  │                    (Anthropic or Ollama)               │  │
│  │                       │                                 │  │
│  │                       ├──► gog    ◄──► Gmail API        │  │
│  │                       ├──► gh     ◄──► GitHub API       │  │
│  │                       └──► discord ◄──► Discord API     │  │
│  │                                                        │  │
│  │  skills/gmail-triage/    SKILL.md                       │  │
│  │  skills/github-org-triage/ SKILL.md                     │  │
│  │  skills/discord-bot/     SKILL.md                       │  │
│  └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘  │
│       │                                                      │
│       │  shared mount (persists across mb down/up)           │
│       ▼                                                      │
│  .openclaw/              agent config + .onboarded marker     │
│  .mb/tapes/tapes.sqlite  agent black box (VM telemetry)      │
│  output/                 agent work products                 │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

What's Included

File	Purpose
jcard.toml	stereOS VM config (resources, network, secrets)
scripts/install.sh	Installs Node.js, OpenClaw, Tapes CLI in the VM
scripts/start.sh	Starts tapes proxy + openclaw gateway with all skills
skills/	Agent skills for Gmail, GitHub, and Discord integrations
quickstart/	Per-integration credential setup guides

Development

npm install
npm run build
npm test