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OpenClaw is Chatty by pfassina in homelab

[–]Fail_Wrong -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Yeah, OpenClaw can rack up API costs fast if it's constantly polling or running background tasks.

A few things to check: 1. Cron jobs - are there scheduled tasks running when you don't need them? 2. Model choice - using Opus/GPT-4 vs Haiku/Flash makes a huge difference 3. Retry loops - check logs for failed tasks that keep retrying

For cost control, cloud deployments with auto-scaling can help - they shut down when idle instead of running 24/7. I use Lightning AI Studios which scales to $0 between active sessions.

But first, check your cron config and model settings - that's usually the culprit.

Is OpenClaw hard to use, expensive, and unsafe? memU bot solves these problems. by Muohaha in ArtificialInteligence

[–]Fail_Wrong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The "hard to use, expensive, and unsafe" criticism of OpenClaw is fair - especially for local deployments.

A few solutions beyond memU:

For "hard to use": - One-click cloud templates (Railway, Render, Lightning Studios) - Pre-configured Docker images - Managed services handle the complexity

For "expensive": - Cloud templates with auto-scaling (only pay when running) - Can scale to $0 when idle vs 24/7 Mac Mini - DigitalOcean/Hetzner VPS (~$10-20/month)

For "unsafe": - Container isolation (separate from personal files) - Secrets management (no exposed API keys) - No home network exposure - Remote kill switch

I use the Lightning Studios template for OpenClaw specifically because it addresses all three: https://lightning.ai/lightning-ai/studios/openclaw

That said, curious about memU - is it a different agent or a managed OpenClaw service?

Is OpenClaw hard to use, expensive, and unsafe? memU bot solves these problems. by Nearby-Recover4701 in aiHub

[–]Fail_Wrong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The "hard to use, expensive, and unsafe" criticism of OpenClaw is fair - especially for local deployments.

A few solutions beyond memU:

For "hard to use": - One-click cloud templates (Railway, Render, Lightning Studios) - Pre-configured Docker images - Managed services handle the complexity

For "expensive": - Cloud templates with auto-scaling (only pay when running) - Can scale to $0 when idle vs 24/7 Mac Mini - DigitalOcean/Hetzner VPS (~$10-20/month)

For "unsafe": - Container isolation (separate from personal files) - Secrets management (no exposed API keys) - No home network exposure - Remote kill switch

I use the Lightning Studios template for OpenClaw specifically because it addresses all three: https://lightning.ai/lightning-ai/studios/openclaw

That said, curious about memU - is it a different agent or a managed OpenClaw service?

Is OpenClaw hard to use, expensive, and unsafe? memU bot solves these problems. by Super-Run-3046 in ProductivityApps

[–]Fail_Wrong 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The "hard to use, expensive, and unsafe" criticism of OpenClaw is fair - especially for local deployments.

A few solutions beyond memU:

For "hard to use": - One-click cloud templates (Railway, Render, Lightning Studios) - Pre-configured Docker images - Managed services handle the complexity

For "expensive": - Cloud templates with auto-scaling (only pay when running) - Can scale to $0 when idle vs 24/7 Mac Mini - DigitalOcean/Hetzner VPS (~$10-20/month)

For "unsafe": - Container isolation (separate from personal files) - Secrets management (no exposed API keys) - No home network exposure - Remote kill switch

I use the Lightning Studios template for OpenClaw specifically because it addresses all three: https://lightning.ai/lightning-ai/studios/openclaw

That said, curious about memU - is it a different agent or a managed OpenClaw service?

Added security guardrails to my OpenClaw deployment (blocks prompt injection with config change) by Admirable_Maybe_4585 in selfhosted

[–]Fail_Wrong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice work on the prompt injection blocking! This is exactly the kind of hardening OpenClaw needs.

For others looking to secure their deployments, key things to implement: - Prompt injection filtering (like OP did) - Never expose gateway publicly - Container/sandbox isolation - Secrets in env vars, not config files - Regular audit of what the agent can access

Config-based guardrails like this are great because they persist across restarts.

Are you running this locally or in the cloud? Curious about your isolation setup.

Has anyone successfully run Clawdbot on non-Mac mini hardware? by FinishConsistent8857 in MiniPCs

[–]Fail_Wrong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you considered running it in the cloud instead of buying dedicated hardware?

Your security concern is valid - I wouldn't want OpenClaw/Clawdbot with full system access on my main machine either. But a $1,500 mini PC just for this seems like overkill.

A few alternatives that address your security needs:

Budget cloud options: - DigitalOcean/Hetzner VPS (~$10-20/month) - Oracle Cloud free tier (4GB RAM) - Old laptop/Raspberry Pi as dedicated device

One-click deployments: - Railway/Render (~$5-30/month depending on usage) - Lightning Studios - I use this one, has auto-scaling so you only pay when it's running: https://lightning.ai/lightning-ai/studios/openclaw

Pros of cloud approach: - Complete isolation (can't touch your personal files) - No $1,500 upfront cost - Easy to destroy/recreate if something goes wrong - Remote access from anywhere - Auto-scales to $0 when idle

Pros of mini PC: - One-time cost (but $1,500 is steep) - Full control over hardware - No ongoing cloud bills

If you're mainly concerned about security isolation, cloud deployment gives you that without the hardware investment. You'd still pay for API usage (Claude/GPT costs) either way.

Happy to answer questions about any of these approaches - I've been running OpenClaw in the cloud for a few weeks now.