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Prerequisites

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Before you start, verify that your machine has the software and hardware needed to run NemoClaw.

Hardware

ResourceMinimumRecommended
CPU4 vCPU4+ vCPU
RAM8 GB16 GB
Disk20 GB free40 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, configure at least 8 GB of swap to work around the issue at the cost of slower performance.

Software

DependencyVersion
Node.js22.16 or later
npm10 or later
DockerDocker Engine, Docker Desktop, or Colima on a tested platform
PlatformRefer to Platforms below

On Linux, the installer can install Docker, start the Docker service, and add your user to the docker group. If the group change is not active in the current shell, the installer exits with newgrp docker guidance before it starts onboarding. If you choose the native Linux Ollama install path, the onboard wizard also requires zstd for Ollama archive extraction. The installer also requires strings from binutils to verify the OpenShell binary before it continues with OpenShell install work.

Docker Group Access

NemoClaw needs Docker access. On personal Linux development machines, adding your user to the docker group is the standard way to run Docker without sudo. Members of the docker group can control the daemon with root-level impact. Grant this access only to trusted local accounts. On shared or managed systems, use your organization’s approved Docker access path. For background, review Docker’s daemon attack surface guidance.

On Debian and Ubuntu, NemoClaw installs zstd with apt-get if it is missing; on other Linux distributions, install zstd before onboarding. If the installer reports that strings is missing, install binutils and rerun the installer:

$sudo apt-get install -y binutils

On macOS, NemoClaw uses the Docker-driver OpenShell gateway path with Docker Desktop or Colima. You do not need to install or sign a separate OpenShell VM driver helper for standard macOS onboarding. If you use Homebrew Colima, install the Docker CLI package with Colima because brew install colima does not provide the docker command:

$brew install colima docker
$colima start --cpu 4 --memory 8
$docker info
OpenShell Lifecycle

For NemoClaw-managed environments, use nemo-deepagents 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 nemo-deepagents onboard.

Docker Storage Driver

On Linux hosts running Docker 26 or later with the containerd image store enabled, nemo-deepagents onboard transparently builds a fuse-overlayfs-enabled cluster image. The containerd image store is the install-time default for fresh docker-ce installations on Ubuntu 24.04 and similar distros. The fuse-overlayfs-enabled image bypasses a kernel-level nested-overlay limitation in k3s. You do not need manual setup.

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 comes from ci/platform-matrix.json, the single source of truth kept in sync by CI and QA.

OSContainer runtimeStatusNotes
LinuxDockerTestedPrimary tested path. Ubuntu 24.04 is the validated distro in production source (DEFAULT_COMPAT_IMAGE in src/lib/onboard/docker-driver-gateway-compat.ts:11 and the preflight tests pin 24.04 only); the installer’s package-manager probes assume apt-get. Other distros (Ubuntu 22.04, Fedora, Rocky, Alma, NixOS, Arch) may work but are not validated.
macOS (Apple Silicon)Colima, Docker DesktopTested with limitationsStart the container runtime (Colima or Docker Desktop) before running the installer. Homebrew Colima users must install both Colima and the Docker CLI (brew install colima docker) before docker info can work. Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install) are typically required for Node native modules during install. NemoClaw recommends them but does not enforce them during preflight.
DGX SparkDockerTestedUse the standard installer and nemo-deepagents onboard. For an end-to-end walkthrough with local inference, see the NVIDIA Spark playbook.
Windows WSL2Docker Desktop (WSL backend)Tested with limitationsRequires WSL2 with Docker Desktop backend.

Next Steps