Prerequisites#

Before getting started, check the prerequisites to ensure you have the necessary software and hardware to run NemoClaw.

Hardware#

Resource

Minimum

Recommended

CPU

4 vCPU

4+ vCPU

RAM

8 GB

16 GB

Disk

20 GB free

40 GB free

The sandbox image is approximately 2.4 GB compressed. During image push, the Docker daemon, k3s, and the OpenShell gateway run alongside the export pipeline. The pipeline buffers decompressed layers in memory. On machines with less than 8 GB of RAM, this combined usage can trigger the OOM killer. If you cannot add memory, configuring at least 8 GB of swap can work around the issue at the cost of slower performance.

Software#

Dependency

Version

Node.js

22.16 or later

npm

10 or later

Platform

See Platforms below

Warning

OpenShell Lifecycle For NemoClaw-managed environments, use nemoclaw onboard when you need to create or recreate the OpenShell gateway or sandbox. Avoid openshell self-update, npm update -g openshell, openshell gateway start --recreate, or openshell sandbox create directly unless you intend to manage OpenShell separately and then rerun nemoclaw onboard.

Platforms#

The following table lists tested platform and runtime combinations. Availability is not limited to these entries, but untested configurations can have issues. The table is generated from ci/platform-matrix.json, the single source of truth kept in sync by CI and QA.

OS

Container runtime

Status

Notes

Linux

Docker

Tested

Primary tested path.

macOS (Apple Silicon)

Colima, Docker Desktop

Tested with limitations

Install Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install) and start the runtime before running the installer.

DGX Spark

Docker

Tested

Use the standard installer and nemoclaw onboard. For an end-to-end walkthrough with local Ollama inference, see the NVIDIA Spark playbook.

Windows WSL2

Docker Desktop (WSL backend)

Tested with limitations

Requires WSL2 with Docker Desktop backend.

Next Steps#