OpenClaw Production Setup Guide

A comprehensive 6-part guide to setting up OpenClaw as a production AI assistant on a VPS, with WhatsApp integration, Google Calendar/Gmail, automated backups, security hardening, and cron automation.

What This Covers

1. Base Install — VPS setup, Node.js, OpenClaw installation, WhatsApp pairing
2. AI Assistant — Personality, model chain (primary + fallback), workspace files (SOUL.md, USER.md, IDENTITY.md)
3. Infrastructure — Google OAuth (Calendar, Gmail, Drive, Sheets), webhook server, Cloudflare tunnel, rclone encrypted backups, git backup
4. Automation — Cron jobs, event queue (SQLite-backed with retries + dead-letter), heartbeat system, two-layer delivery pattern
5. Hardening — CrowdSec IDS, secret rotation, config snapshots, rollback scripts, OpenClaw update safety
6. Verification — 21-point automated validation, troubleshooting guide

Security & Permissions Notice