Properties3

Type	Practice
Note created	Feb 4, 2026
Last updated	Feb 6, 2026

This note includes the setup I use to have OpenClaw on a Google Cloud Compute Engine instance using VertexAI to authenticate including Anthropic models. Since that is not supported at the moment, I use LiteLLM as a proxy to communicate with VertexAI.

This note is related to the installation and setup; for the configuration and skills included, you can check Clippy, the assistant’s page.

Setting up OpenClaw

Provisioning the instance

There is no need to create a specific machine to hold it, except you expect to run the models locally. I don’t, so a basic machine does the job. For my setup, I tend to forward two ports locally, one for OpenClaw’s gateway and one for the headless Obsidian instance in it via VNC.

# SSH into the instance
gcloud compute ssh <YOUR_INSTANCE> --zone=us-central1-f
 
# SSH with port forwarding (OpenClaw + VNC)
gcloud compute ssh <YOUR_INSTANCE> --zone=us-central1-f -- -L 18789:localhost:18789 -L 5900:localhost:5900

Installation

Prerequisites

# Node.js 22
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_22.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
 
# Git
sudo apt-get install -y git
 
# Homebrew (Linux)
NONINTERACTIVE=1 /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
echo 'eval "$(/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin/brew shellenv bash)"' >> ~/.bashrc

OpenClaw

sudo npm install -g openclaw@latest

On my machine, I have installed the version 2026.2.1

LiteLLM Proxy

LiteLLM is used to proxy VertexAI models (including Claude via Vertex) to OpenClaw, since OpenClaw doesn’t natively support Anthropic via VertexAI.

# Install
sudo apt-get install -y python3-pip
pip3 install 'litellm[proxy]' --break-system-packages
pip3 install -U 'google-cloud-aiplatform>=1.38' --break-system-packages

Configuration

VertexAI Authentication

Uses Application Default Credentials (ADC) for Vertex AI access.

# Set up user ADC (run interactively)
gcloud auth application-default login --no-launch-browser

The ADC file is stored at ~/.config/gcloud/application_default_credentials.json.

LiteLLM Config

Location: ~/.litellm/config.yaml

model_list:
  - model_name: claude-opus-4-5
    litellm_params:
      model: vertex_ai/claude-opus-4-5
      vertex_project: <YOUR_GCP_PROJECT>
      vertex_location: us-east5
 
  - model_name: gemini-2.5-pro
    litellm_params:
      model: vertex_ai/gemini-2.5-pro
      vertex_project: <YOUR_GCP_PROJECT>
      vertex_location: us-central1
 
  - model_name: gemini-2.5-flash
    litellm_params:
      model: vertex_ai/gemini-2.5-flash
      vertex_project: <YOUR_GCP_PROJECT>
      vertex_location: us-central1
 
litellm_settings:
  drop_params: true
 
general_settings:
  master_key: "<YOUR_MASTER_KEY>"

OpenClaw Config

Location: ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": {
        "primary": "litellm/claude-opus-4-5"
      }
    }
  },
  "models": {
    "mode": "merge",
    "providers": {
      "litellm": {
        "baseUrl": "http://localhost:4000/v1",
        "apiKey": "<YOUR_MASTER_KEY>",
        "api": "openai-completions",
        "models": [
          {
            "id": "claude-opus-4-5",
            "name": "Claude Opus 4.5 (via LiteLLM/Vertex)",
            "contextWindow": 200000,
            "maxTokens": 64000
          },
          {
            "id": "gemini-2.5-pro",
            "name": "Gemini 2.5 Pro (via LiteLLM/Vertex)",
            "contextWindow": 1000000,
            "maxTokens": 8192
          },
          {
            "id": "gemini-2.5-flash",
            "name": "Gemini 2.5 Flash (via LiteLLM/Vertex)",
            "contextWindow": 1000000,
            "maxTokens": 8192
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  },
  "gateway": {
    "mode": "local",
    "auth": {
      "token": "<YOUR_GATEWAY_TOKEN>"
    }
  }
}

Systemd Services

All services run independently of SSH sessions and start on boot.

LiteLLM Service

File: /etc/systemd/system/litellm.service

[Unit]
Description=LiteLLM Proxy Server
After=network.target
 
[Service]
Type=simple
User=dvicente
Group=dvicente
WorkingDirectory=/home/dvicente
Environment="PATH=/home/dvicente/.local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"
Environment="HOME=/home/dvicente"
Environment="GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=/home/dvicente/.config/gcloud/application_default_credentials.json"
ExecStart=/home/dvicente/.local/bin/litellm --config /home/dvicente/.litellm/config.yaml --port 4000
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
 
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

OpenClaw Service

File: /etc/systemd/system/openclaw.service

[Unit]
Description=OpenClaw Gateway Server
After=network-online.target litellm.service
Wants=network-online.target litellm.service
 
[Service]
Type=simple
User=dvicente
Group=dvicente
WorkingDirectory=/home/dvicente
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node /usr/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/index.js gateway --port 18789
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
KillMode=process
Environment="HOME=/home/dvicente"
Environment="PATH=/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin:/home/dvicente/.local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"
Environment="NODE_ENV=production"
Environment="GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT=<YOUR_GCP_PROJECT>"
Environment="CLOUDSDK_CORE_PROJECT=<YOUR_GCP_PROJECT>"
Environment="OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_PORT=18789"
Environment="OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN=<YOUR_GATEWAY_TOKEN>"
 
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Note: This replaces any user-level Systemd service (~/.config/systemd/user/openclaw-gateway.service) that OpenClaw may have installed. If you see lock conflicts, remove the user service:

systemctl --user stop openclaw-gateway.service
systemctl --user disable openclaw-gateway.service
rm ~/.config/systemd/user/openclaw-gateway.service

Service Management

# Enable all services (auto-start on boot)
sudo systemctl enable litellm openclaw
 
# Start/Stop/Restart
sudo systemctl start litellm openclaw
sudo systemctl restart openclaw
 
# Check status
sudo systemctl status litellm openclaw
 
# View logs
sudo journalctl -u litellm -f
sudo journalctl -u openclaw -f

Accessing OpenClaw Gateway

Web UI

Port forward: gcloud compute ssh <YOUR_INSTANCE> --zone=us-central1-f -- -L 18789:localhost:18789
Open: http://localhost:18789/?token=<YOUR_GATEWAY_TOKEN>

To-Do

Configure WhatsApp Business using a landline ⏳ 2026-02-05 📅 2026-02-07 ✅ 2026-02-05
Configure it to connect to mail/calendar 🔼 ➕ 2026-02-06 ⏳ 2026-02-06 ✅ 2026-02-06

Diego's Digital Garden

Installing OpenClaw in Google Cloud