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OpenClaw AI Agent Stack on Railway — n8n Workflows, Tailscale Mesh, GPU Compute & 500+ Integrations

The complete autonomous AI infrastructure stack. Deploy OpenClaw + n8n to Railway with Tailscale encrypted mesh networking, on-demand Modal GPU compute, and 500+ SaaS integrations — all pre-wired and ready from a single browser-based setup wizard. One click. Zero SSH. 90%+ LLM cost savings out of the box.

Deploy on Railway

Railway Deploy License Stars Last Commit

The standard OpenClaw Railway template gives you a gateway. This gives you the full stack.

Bare OpenClaw This Template
n8n workflow automation ✗ ✓
Tailscale mesh access ✗ ✓
Modal GPU compute ✗ ✓
500+ SaaS integrations ✗ ✓
LLM cost optimization Manual Auto (90%+ savings)
Setup CLI Browser wizard

What Gets Deployed

One click deploys the full stack. All companion services are pre-wired via Railway reference variables — no manual secret sharing or internal URL configuration required.

Core (always deployed)

Service Source Purpose
OpenClaw This repo (Dockerfile) AI gateway with setup wizard, Tailscale mesh, and 4-platform compute routing

Companion Services (optional — delete any you don't need)

Service Image Purpose Depends On
n8n Primary n8nio/n8n Workflow automation engine with AI agent nodes Postgres, Redis
n8n Worker n8nio/n8n Background workflow execution (queue mode) n8n Primary, Postgres, Redis
Postgres postgres-ssl:17 Persistent storage for n8n, Postiz, and Temporal —
Redis redis:8.2.1 Queue/cache backend for n8n and Postiz —
Postiz postiz-app Social media scheduling and automation Postgres, Redis
Temporal temporalio/auto-setup Distributed workflow orchestration Postgres

Also Included

  • Tailscale encrypted mesh networking (embedded in OpenClaw container — no extra service)
  • 39 skills, 3 CLI tools, and 500+ SaaS integrations via Composio out of the box
  • OpenTelemetry tracing with Langfuse (LLM evals) and PostHog (product analytics)
  • Cost-optimized defaults that reduce API spend by 90%+
  • Browser-based setup wizard at /setup — no terminal required

Prerequisites

You need: Railway account (2 min), Tailscale auth key (3 min), one LLM API key (already have). Total setup: under 10 minutes.

  1. Railway account — railway.app
  2. Tailscale account — tailscale.com (free for personal use)
  3. Tailscale auth key — Generate at Tailscale Admin > Keys
    • Enable Reusable and Ephemeral (recommended)
    • Pre-approve the key to skip manual device approval
  4. LLM API key — Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, OpenRouter, DeepSeek, Grok, or Kimi

Quick Start

1. Deploy to Railway

Click the deploy button above, or:

  1. Fork this repo to your GitHub account
  2. Create a new project in Railway
  3. Select "Deploy from GitHub repo" and pick your fork
  4. Add a Volume mounted at /data (persists config and workspace across deploys)

2. Set Environment Variables

The template auto-generates secrets and wires all cross-service connections. You only need to fill in three values:

Variable Required Description
SETUP_PASSWORD Yes Password to access the /setup wizard
TAILSCALE_AUTHKEY Yes Tailscale auth key (reusable + ephemeral)
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY Recommended Set here or enter during the setup wizard

Everything else is pre-configured with sensible defaults. See .env.example for the full variable list.

3. Run the Setup Wizard

Once deployed, open your Railway service URL and navigate to /setup. Enter your SETUP_PASSWORD and follow the wizard:

  1. Choose your model provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, etc.)
  2. Enter your API key
  3. Optionally configure Telegram, Discord, or Slack channels
  4. Click Run setup

The wizard applies cost-optimized defaults, copies 39 skills to your workspace, and starts the gateway automatically.

4. Connect from Your Local Machine

With Tailscale installed on your Mac/PC, your Railway instance appears on your tailnet:

# Verify the instance is visible
tailscale status | grep openclaw

# The OpenClaw gateway is accessible at:
# https://openclaw-railway.<tailnet>.ts.net

Your local OpenClaw CLI connects to the remote gateway over Tailscale — no SSH, no exposed ports.

Common Configurations

After deploying, delete any companion services you don't need from the Railway dashboard to reduce cost.

Configuration Keep Delete
OpenClaw only OpenClaw n8n, Postgres, Redis, Postiz, Temporal
OpenClaw + n8n OpenClaw, n8n Primary, n8n Worker, Postgres, Redis Postiz, Temporal
Full stack Everything —

Architecture

Request Flow

Internet → Railway :8080 → Express (server.js)
                                │
              ┌─────────────────┴──────────────────┐
              │                                     │
         /setup/* routes                   All other routes
         (setup wizard)                    (proxy to gateway)
              │                                     │
              ▼                                     ▼
          Setup UI                         Gateway :18789
          (browser)                        (OpenClaw core)
                                                    │
                                    ┌───────────────┼───────────────┐
                                    │               │               │
                                   LLM           Skills            n8n
                                  (API)          (tools)        (webhooks)
  • Express listens on port 8080 (Railway's public domain)
  • /setup/* routes serve the setup wizard UI (protected by SETUP_PASSWORD)
  • All other routes proxy to the OpenClaw gateway on 127.0.0.1:18789
  • The gateway only binds to loopback — never directly exposed to the internet
  • Tailscale provides end-to-end encrypted access from your local machine

Compute Routing

The template routes workloads across 4 platforms automatically:

Platform Best For Cost
Railway (this container) Gateway, web server, cron, lightweight CLI tasks ~$5–20/mo fixed
Modal (serverless) ML inference, image/video gen, batch processing Pay-per-second
n8n (orchestration) Multi-step workflows, scheduled jobs, webhook chains Included in Railway plan
Composio (SaaS bridge) Direct SaaS actions (email, Slack, GitHub, CRM) Free tier available

Examples:

"Fix the auth bug in middleware.ts"     → Railway local + Claude Opus
"Generate 100 product thumbnails"       → Modal A10G GPU + vision model
"Every morning, email a sales report"   → n8n scheduled workflow
"Post a message to Slack"               → Composio Rube MCP

Cost Optimization (Auto-Applied)

This template applies cost-optimized defaults on first setup that reduce LLM API spend by 90%+:

Setting Value Why
Heartbeat model Free-tier via OpenRouter Background checks use the cheapest compatible model
Active hours 06:00–23:00 UTC Skip heartbeats while nobody's awake
Context pruning cache-ttl with 6h TTL Reduce token bloat automatically
Memory compaction Flush at 40k tokens Distill sessions into daily memory files
Concurrency limits 4 agents, 8 subagents max Prevent runaway token consumption

Multi-Provider Auto-Registration

Set multiple API keys in Railway Variables — every available provider is detected and registered automatically at boot:

Variable Provider Models
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY Anthropic Opus 4.6, Sonnet 4.6, Haiku 4.5
OPENAI_API_KEY OpenAI GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 Mini, GPT-4.1 Nano
DEEPSEEK_API_KEY DeepSeek DeepSeek Chat (V3), DeepSeek Reasoner (R1)
GROK_API_KEY xAI Grok 3, Grok 3 Mini
KIMI_API_KEY Moonshot Kimi K2

Heartbeat Fallback Chain

Free-tier models via OpenRouter with automatic failover:

  1. nvidia/nemotron-3-nano-30b-a3b:free — primary (256K context)
  2. stepfun/step-3.5-flash:free — fallback (256K context)
  3. upstage/solar-pro-3:free — fallback (128K context)
  4. arcee-ai/trinity-mini:free — fallback (131K context)

Pre-Installed Skills & Tools

39 skills and 3 CLI tools ship with this template — your instance is productive from first boot.

Skills by Category

Railway (7 skills) — deploy, status, environment, service, database, domain, projects

n8n (8 skills) — workflow patterns, JavaScript/Python code nodes, node configuration, expression syntax, MCP tools, validation, full knowledge base (545 node docs, 20 templates)

Development & DevOps (4 skills) — coding agent (Claude Code, Codex CLI), PR creator, TDD workflow, implementation planning

Communication & Productivity (4 skills) — Google Workspace CLI, email (IMAP/SMTP), WhatsApp CLI, Jira

Research & Analytics (5 skills) — last 30 days research (Reddit, X, YouTube, web), data storytelling, visualization, project planning, strategy advisory

Content & Creative (3 skills) — changelog social announcements, scientific slides, viral generator builder

CLI Tools (pre-installed in Docker)

Tool Purpose
Rube MCP (@composio/rube-mcp) 500+ SaaS integrations (Gmail, Slack, Notion, GitHub, and more)
yt-dlp YouTube video metadata and transcript extraction
Modal Serverless GPU/compute — deploy functions, run batch jobs on A10G/A100/H100
Homebrew Install additional CLI tools at runtime

Observability

Built-in OpenTelemetry instrumentation — all tracing is opt-in and degrades gracefully if no keys are set.

Backend Purpose Required Variables
Langfuse LLM tracing, evals, cost tracking LANGFUSE_PUBLIC_KEY + LANGFUSE_SECRET_KEY
PostHog Product analytics (setup and gateway events) POSTHOG_API_KEY
OTLP Generic APM (Grafana, Jaeger, etc.) OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT

Managing Your Instance

Setup Wizard (/setup)

  • Status — Gateway health, version, links to the OpenClaw UI
  • Debug console — Run safe diagnostics without SSH
  • Config editor — Edit openclaw.json with backup
  • Backup/restore — Download and upload .tar.gz archives of /data
  • Device pairing — Approve Telegram/Discord DM pairing requests

Updating OpenClaw

Live update (no restart): Open /setup → Debug console → openclaw.update → enter a ref:

--stable    # Latest release tag
--beta      # Latest pre-release
--canary    # Latest main branch commit
v2026.3.1   # Pin to a specific version

Boot-time update (no rebuild): Set OPENCLAW_UPDATE_REF in Railway Variables.

Full Docker rebuild: Redeploy from Railway dashboard (~10 min). Pin a version with build arg OPENCLAW_GIT_REF=v2026.2.19.

Safe Restart

To restart only OpenClaw without touching companion services:

scripts/safe-restart-openclaw.sh --yes

Connect Your Local Mac CLI

scripts/connect-mac-to-railway-gateway.sh

Verifies Tailscale, fetches the gateway token from Railway, and configures your local OpenClaw CLI against the remote gateway automatically.

Troubleshooting

Symptom Cause Fix
ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:18789 Gateway not started Check /setup/api/debug, verify API key is set
Gateway did not become ready in time Timeout Increase healthcheckTimeout in railway.toml
No model providers configured Missing API key Set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or another LLM key in Railway Variables
n8n relation does not exist DB not connected Check DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST spelling, redeploy n8n
Tailscale not connecting Expired or unapproved key Verify TAILSCALE_AUTHKEY is reusable + ephemeral + pre-approved
No traces in Langfuse Missing keys Set LANGFUSE_PUBLIC_KEY + LANGFUSE_SECRET_KEY

For full troubleshooting details, visit /setup/api/debug for live diagnostics or open the Debug console at /setup and run openclaw doctor.

Security

  • Setup wizard protected by SETUP_PASSWORD via HTTP Basic auth
  • OpenClaw gateway binds to `127.0.

About

One-click Railway template: OpenClaw AI agent gateway + n8n workflow automation + Tailscale mesh networking. Pre-wired with Postgres, Redis, Modal GPU compute, 500+ SaaS integrations via Composio, and Langfuse observability. 90%+ LLM cost savings out of the box.

Topics

docker typescript mcp self-hosted railway workflow-automation ai-agents n8n tailscale llm railway-template langfuse ai-gateway composio n8n-automation self-hosted-ai-stack openclaw openclaw-setup

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MIT license

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OpenClaw AI Agent Stack on Railway — n8n Workflows, Tailscale Mesh, GPU Compute & 500+ Integrations - v1.0.2 Latest
Mar 1, 2026

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