README.md

OpenClaw Docker

Custom OpenClaw container image with extra command-line tools, Vaultwarden secret access through rbw, and bundled custom extensions.

The badge shows the upstream ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw base image version used for the most recent image build.

Image

Published images are available from GitHub Container Registry:

docker pull ghcr.io/maxim-mityutko/openclaw-docker:v2026.5.26.0

To build locally, pass the OpenClaw base image version explicitly or omit the build argument to use latest:

docker build --build-arg OPENCLAW_IMAGE_VERSION=2026.5.26 -t openclaw-docker:local .

Tools

Tool	Installed as	Purpose
curl	APT package	Fetch files, APIs, install scripts, and release artifacts.
ffmpeg	APT package	Audio and video processing dependency for media workflows.
gh	GitHub APT repository package	GitHub CLI for issues, pull requests, releases, and repository automation.
git	APT package	Source control and repository operations.
helm	Helm release binary (v3.19.2)	Kubernetes package manager for rendering, installing, and inspecting Helm charts.
jq	APT package	Parse and transform JSON from command-line workflows.
karakeep	Global npm package	Karakeep CLI for interacting with Karakeep services.
kubectl	Kubernetes release binary	Kubernetes CLI for inspecting and managing clusters from inside the container.
pinentry.py	Local helper script	Pinentry-compatible helper that reads BITWARDEN_MASTER_PASSWORD.
rbw	Release binary	Unofficial Bitwarden CLI for retrieving secrets from Vaultwarden.
rbw-agent	Release binary	Background agent used by rbw to unlock and cache vault access.
rg	APT package (ripgrep)	Fast recursive text and file search for code and logs.
summarize	Global npm package	Summarization CLI used by skills and media workflows.
yt-dlp	APT package	Media download/extraction tool used with summarization workflows.

Custom Extensions

This image installs custom OpenClaw extensions under /app/custom/extensions. The image currently bundles the @openclaw/discord plugin at /app/custom/extensions/discord during the image build.

OpenClaw only loads custom plugin directories that are part of its plugin load configuration. Add /app/custom/extensions to plugins.load.paths in the OpenClaw config used by the container:

{
  "plugins": {
    "load": {
      "paths": ["/app/custom/extensions"]
    }
  }
}

If the config already defines plugins.load.paths, keep the existing entries and append /app/custom/extensions to the same array.

Custom Skills

This image bundles the repository skills/ directory into /app/custom/skills during the image build. The bundled skills are not loaded automatically unless the OpenClaw config includes that directory in the skills load configuration.

Add /app/custom/skills to skills.load.extraDirs in the OpenClaw config used by the container:

{
  "skills": {
    "load": {
      "extraDirs": ["/app/custom/skills"]
    }
  }
}

If the config already defines skills.load.extraDirs, keep the existing entries and append /app/custom/skills to the same array.

The bundled skills are:

Skill	Description
GitHub App Token	Mint a short-lived GitHub App installation token for gh.
Discord Command Sync	Copy Discord slash commands from one OpenClaw bot account to another.

Why

• Running OpenClaw in a containerized environment has trade-offs, but it provides stronger security boundaries and tighter control over the agent's access;
• Some skills require additional libraries that are not included in the upstream OpenClaw container;
• Custom OpenClaw plugins can be preinstalled once and shared by every runtime environment that uses this image;
• Secret management is handled through Vaultwarden, which simplifies Kubernetes deployment and removes the need to create or update encrypted secrets every time an agent needs access to a new service. See home-infra for the Kubernetes deployment this image is designed to support;

Secrets Management

OpenClaw should retrieve service credentials from Vaultwarden instead of receiving each secret as a separate container environment variable.

The container only needs the Vaultwarden master password, exposed as BITWARDEN_MASTER_PASSWORD, so rbw can unlock the vault at runtime and fetch the specific credentials OpenClaw needs. For better isolation, create a dedicated Vaultwarden account for OpenClaw and share only the items that are required by the bot.

Vault interactions are handled by the Bitwarden Skill.

RBW

RBW is an unofficial Bitwarden command-line client. This image includes rbw and rbw-agent so tools inside the container can retrieve Bitwarden secrets without relying on a browser or desktop integration.

rbw-agent normally asks pinentry to prompt for the master password. In this container, interactive pinentry prompts are awkward and often unavailable, so the pinentry command should be replaced with /usr/local/bin/pinentry.py. The script emulates the small pinentry protocol surface that rbw-agent needs and returns the master password from the BITWARDEN_MASTER_PASSWORD environment variable instead.

rbw config set email john@doe.com
rbw config set base_url https://vault.doe.com
rbw config set pinentry /usr/local/bin/pinentry.py
rbw login
rbw unlock

rbw writes its configuration to ~/.config/rbw/config.json. If the container cannot create or update that file, mount a prepared config file at that path instead:

{
  "email": "john@doe.com",
  "sso_id": null,
  "base_url": "https://vault.doe.com",
  "identity_url": null,
  "ui_url": null,
  "notifications_url": null,
  "lock_timeout": 3600,
  "sync_interval": 300,
  "pinentry": "/usr/local/bin/pinentry.py",
  "client_cert_path": null
}

Refer to the RBW configuration docs for the details about supported options.

Versioning

This image does not use semantic versioning. Tags are based on the upstream OpenClaw image version, with one additional digit for revisions to this custom image. This keeps the base image version visible while still allowing local image changes to be released independently.

For example, v2026.5.26.0 is the first custom image revision built from the OpenClaw 2026.5.26 base image.