Connect Your Own Machine
Run OpenClaw agents on any machine you control — a laptop, a home server, a cloud VM from any provider — while keeping the same governance policies, observability, and cost controls as Curate-Me’s managed runners. Ready in 2 minutes.
How It Works
Your Machine Curate-Me Platform
+-----------------------+ +---------------------------+
| OpenClaw Agent | | Dashboard |
| + Governance Agent | ------> | Gateway API |
| + Your Skills | HTTPS | Control Plane |
| | <------ | + Job Dispatch |
+-----------------------+ | + Cost Tracking |
heartbeat every 30s | + Audit Trail |
polls for jobs +---------------------------+
reports resultsYour machine initiates all connections outbound — no inbound ports needed. The agent:
- Registers with the gateway using a one-time token
- Heartbeats every 30 seconds to report health and resource usage
- Polls for queued jobs and executes them locally
- Reports results, costs, and audit events back to the platform
Why Connect Your Own Machine?
| Feature | Managed Runners | Your Machines |
|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure | Curate-Me provisions VMs | You provide the machine |
| Cost | Per-minute compute billing | Your own compute, free |
| Location | Hetzner Cloud regions | Anywhere you have a machine |
| GPU Access | Limited | Use your own GPUs |
| Data Residency | Hetzner EU/US | Your chosen location |
| Network | Internet-facing | Behind your firewall |
| Governance | Full governance chain | Full governance chain |
| Observability | Full dashboard visibility | Full dashboard visibility |
Supported Platforms
| OS | Container Runtime | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 22.04+ | Docker | Fully supported |
| Debian 12+ | Docker | Fully supported |
| macOS 14+ (Sonoma) | Docker Desktop | Supported |
| Windows 11 / Server 2022 | Docker Desktop | Supported |
Architecture
Each connected machine runs a lightweight agent that handles:
- Authentication — Durable per-agent token (SHA-256 hashed, plaintext never stored)
- Heartbeat — Resource usage reporting (CPU, memory, disk)
- Job execution — Session create/exec/stop commands
- Cost recording — Per-request LLM cost tracking
- Audit trail — Immutable event log for compliance
Agent Lifecycle
REGISTERING ──> ONLINE ──> BUSY (executing job)
^ |
| v
+── ONLINE <──+
| |
v |
STALE ──> DEAD |
(5 min no (15 min
heartbeat) total)Agents automatically recover from STALE to ONLINE when heartbeats resume.
Next Steps
- Setup Guide — Step-by-step installation
- Fleet Deployment — Manage multiple agents
- Troubleshooting — Common issues and fixes
- Runners Security — Security model deep-dive
- Runners API — Full API reference