Interactive Wizard

When you run create-better-openclaw without the --yes flag, the interactive wizard guides you through configuring your stack step by step. This page explains each prompt and how your choices affect the generated output.

Launching the Wizard

npx create-better-openclaw@latest my-stack

The wizard runs in your terminal and asks a series of questions. You can press Ctrl+C at any point to cancel.

Step 1: Project Name

? Project name: › my-stack

Enter the name for your project directory. This is also used as the Docker Compose project name. If you already passed a name as an argument (e.g. create-better-openclaw my-stack), this step is skipped.

  • Must be a valid directory name (no spaces or special characters)
  • Used as the Docker Compose project prefix
  • Will create a directory with this name in the current folder

Step 2: Select a Preset (or Custom)

? Start from a preset or build custom?
  ● minimal     — OpenClaw + Redis (lightweight)
  ○ researcher  — OpenClaw + Qdrant + SearXNG + Browserless
  ○ devops      — OpenClaw + n8n + Grafana + Prometheus
  ○ local-ai    — OpenClaw + Ollama + Whisper (fully local)
  ○ full        — All services enabled
  ○ custom      — Pick services manually

Presets include a curated set of services and skill packs. Selecting a preset skips the service and skill selection steps. Choose custom to handpick services individually.

Step 3: Select Services (Custom Only)

? Select companion services (space to toggle, enter to confirm):
  ◉ redis          — In-memory cache and message broker
  ◉ qdrant         — Vector database for embeddings
  ◻ postgres       — Relational database
  ◻ n8n            — Workflow automation
  ◻ searxng        — Privacy-respecting search
  ◻ browserless    — Headless browser for web scraping
  ... (58+ services across 8 categories)

This step only appears if you chose custom in Step 2. Services are organized by category. Use:

  • Space to toggle a service on/off
  • ↑ / ↓ to navigate
  • Enter to confirm your selection

The wizard automatically handles dependencies — if you select a service that requires Redis, Redis will be added automatically.

Step 4: Select Skill Packs

? Select skill packs to enable:
  ◉ researcher     — Web search, content extraction, citation
  ◻ automation     — n8n workflows, scheduled tasks
  ◻ memory         — Long-term memory with vector storage
  ◻ local-ai       — Local LLM inference with Ollama
  ◻ code           — Code execution sandbox
  ... (10 skill packs)

Skill packs are curated bundles of OpenClaw skills that work with specific services. The wizard will warn you if a skill pack requires services that aren't selected. See the Skill Packs reference for details.

Step 5: Reverse Proxy

? Configure a reverse proxy?
  ● none     — No proxy (development/local use)
  ○ caddy    — Automatic HTTPS with Let's Encrypt
  ○ traefik  — Dynamic routing with dashboard
  ○ nginx    — Traditional reverse proxy

For local development, none is fine. For production deployments, Caddy is recommended for its automatic HTTPS. If you select a proxy, you'll be asked for a domain name next.

Step 6: Domain Name (Proxy Only)

? Domain name: › openclaw.example.com

Only shown if you selected a reverse proxy. This domain is used in the proxy configuration and SSL certificate generation. You can change it later by editing the generated config files.

Step 7: GPU Passthrough

? Enable GPU passthrough for AI services? (y/N)

Only shown if you selected GPU-capable services (Ollama, Whisper, etc.). Enabling this adds NVIDIA GPU device requests to the Docker Compose file. Requires the nvidia-container-toolkit to be installed on the host.

Step 8: Confirmation

  Stack Summary
  ─────────────
  Project:    my-stack
  Services:   openclaw, redis, qdrant, searxng (4)
  Skills:     researcher, memory (2)
  Proxy:      caddy → openclaw.example.com
  GPU:        disabled
  Output:     ./my-stack

? Generate this stack? (Y/n)

Review the summary. Press Enter to confirm or n to go back and make changes.

Step 9: Generation

  ✔ Created docker-compose.yml (4 services)
  ✔ Created .env.example (23 variables)
  ✔ Created Caddyfile
  ✔ Created configs/openclaw/config.yaml
  ✔ Created scripts/ (5 helper scripts)
  ✔ Created README.md

  🦞 Stack generated in ./my-stack

  Next steps:
    cd my-stack
    cp .env.example .env   # Add your API keys
    docker compose up -d

The wizard generates all files and provides next steps. Your stack is ready to configure and launch.

Tips

  • Arrow keys navigate between options
  • Space toggles selection in multi-select prompts
  • Type to filter in long lists (services, skills)
  • Ctrl+C cancels at any point without creating files
  • Run with --dry-run to preview without writing anything

Next Steps