Quickstart#

Follow these steps to get started with NemoClaw and your first sandboxed OpenClaw agent.

Note

NemoClaw currently requires a fresh installation of OpenClaw.

Prerequisites#

Check the prerequisites before you start 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, which 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

Linux

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or later

Node.js

20 or later

npm

10 or later

Container runtime

Supported runtime installed and running

OpenShell

Installed

Container Runtime Support#

Platform

Supported runtimes

Notes

Linux

Docker

Primary supported path today

macOS (Apple Silicon)

Colima, Docker Desktop

Recommended runtimes for supported macOS setups

macOS

Podman

Not supported yet. NemoClaw currently depends on OpenShell support for Podman on macOS.

Windows WSL

Docker Desktop (WSL backend)

Supported target path

💡 Tip

For DGX Spark, follow the DGX Spark setup guide. It covers Spark-specific prerequisites, such as cgroup v2 and Docker configuration, before running the standard installer.

Install NemoClaw and Onboard OpenClaw Agent#

Download and run the installer script. The script installs Node.js if it is not already present, then runs the guided onboard wizard to create a sandbox, configure inference, and apply security policies.

$ curl -fsSL https://www.nvidia.com/nemoclaw.sh | bash

If you use nvm or fnm to manage Node.js, the installer may not update your current shell’s PATH. If nemoclaw is not found after install, run source ~/.bashrc (or source ~/.zshrc for zsh) or open a new terminal.

When the install completes, a summary confirms the running environment:

──────────────────────────────────────────────────
Sandbox      my-assistant (Landlock + seccomp + netns)
Model        nvidia/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b (NVIDIA Cloud API)
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
Run:         nemoclaw my-assistant connect
Status:      nemoclaw my-assistant status
Logs:        nemoclaw my-assistant logs --follow
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

[INFO]  === Installation complete ===

Chat with the Agent#

Connect to the sandbox, then chat with the agent through the TUI or the CLI.

$ nemoclaw my-assistant connect

OpenClaw TUI#

The OpenClaw TUI opens an interactive chat interface. Type a message and press Enter to send it to the agent:

sandbox@my-assistant:~$ openclaw tui

Send a test message to the agent and verify you receive a response.

ℹ️ Note

The TUI is best for interactive back-and-forth. If you need the full text of a long response (for example, large code generation output), use the CLI instead:

sandbox@my-assistant:~$ openclaw agent --agent main --local -m "<prompt>" --session-id <id>

This prints the complete response directly in the terminal and avoids relying on the TUI view for long output.

OpenClaw CLI#

Use the OpenClaw CLI to send a single message and print the response:

sandbox@my-assistant:~$ openclaw agent --agent main --local -m "hello" --session-id test

Next Steps#

Troubleshooting#

If you run into issues during installation or onboarding, refer to the Troubleshooting guide for common error messages and resolution steps.