This is an overview of how to run OpenClaw version 2026.7.1 in a Podman container on a home server.
Why don't I run it on my personal Windows computer using the standard method "iwr -useb https://openclaw.ai/install.ps1 | iex"?
I don't want to run an uncontrolled AI agent on a computer that has my personal data and full admin rights. That is why I prefer an isolated Podman container in rootless mode.
Why don't I use the ready-made script "./scripts/podman/setup.sh"?
- I don't want to run third-party scripts.
- I don't plan to use the OpenClaw CLI.
- I don't want unnecessary files on my server.
- I don't want to build the image (podman build) directly on the server.
I planned to run OpenClaw with a single podman run command, but it was more complicated than I thought. In this post, I want to show what the problems were and how I solved them.
