OpenClaw on Docker on Windows

The upstream Docker page has no Windows-specific section, and the Windows page describes three paths of its own, none of them Docker. That is the honest starting point for the search that brings people here: Docker on Windows is possible, it needs Docker Desktop and Compose, and for most people a WSL2 Gateway is the simpler version of the same idea. Here is how the two pages fit together.

What Docker needs

• Docker Desktop, or Docker Engine, plus Docker Compose version two.
• At least six gigabytes of memory for a local source image build; the pre-built images avoid the build.
• Disk for images and logs, and on any public host, the firewall chapter of the security guide for Docker’s own forwarding chains.
• The setup script from the repository root, which builds the image locally or uses the pre-built one from the GitHub container registry when you export the image name first.

What the setup script does

It runs onboarding, prompts for provider keys, generates a Gateway token and writes it to the environment file, creates the auth-profile secret directory and starts the Gateway through Compose. The dashboard opens on the loopback port with that token. Channels are configured through the CLI container: a QR login for WhatsApp, a token for Telegram or Discord. A browser-equipped image variant exists for the Control UI’s browser panel, since Chromium has to live inside the Gateway container.

Pre-built images avoid this build requirement.

When WSL2 is simpler

• WSL2 gives you the Linux Gateway with systemd and the one-line installer, and the docs call it the most Linux-compatible runtime on Windows.
• Docker Desktop on Windows runs through WSL2 anyway; a container adds a layer for isolation and reproducibility, not for compatibility.
• The Windows Hub app provisions an app-owned WSL Gateway for you, which is the least work of all.

the Windows guide weighs the three Windows paths, and OpenClaw on Docker explains the container setup on any host, including what it does not do.

The memory question

A source image build wants six gigabytes; a running Gateway wants some; Docker Desktop wants its own. On a laptop with eight gigabytes the pre-built image is not a preference but a requirement. OpenClaw system requirements has the rest of the list.

On Diali

On Diali there is no Docker Desktop, no WSL2 and no image to choose; the assistant runs on an isolated instance and your Windows machine only enters the picture if you pair it as a node. Hosted OpenClaw on Diali is the assistant.

• Docker Desktop plus Compose, and the pre-built image on any machine under six gigabytes free.
• The setup script does onboarding, the token and the first start.
• WSL2 or the Hub app are the simpler versions of the same idea.