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Setup Guide

ScienceClaw is a small project for building and running an OpenClaw-based environmental synthesis workspace on your laptop in Docker.

It persists OpenClaw state in ~/.openclaw, exposes that state inside the container at /data/.openclaw, mounts a narrow ./workspace into /data/workspace and /workspace, and includes helpers for ChatGPT/Codex OAuth login when that route is available.

The image also bootstraps local defaults before each command runs: local Gateway mode, Docker-friendly Gateway bind settings, token auth, Control UI origins for local browser use, a Codex default model, the /data runtime layout, and starter workspace files from docker/seed-workspace.

The default workspace is a scientific working group scaffold for environmental data science. It includes 11 bounded roles, a PI Liaison gateway, shared memory registers, project folders, skeptic review, and human approval rules.

The 0.1.0-alpha.1 baseline is intended to be reproducible from the repository: build the image, provide local .env credentials, and the container seeds the working-group setup automatically.

Quick Start

docker compose build
scripts/start.sh
scripts/login-codex.sh
scripts/status.sh

If OpenClaw opens a login URL from inside Docker, copy it into your laptop browser. If the CLI asks for a callback URL, paste the full browser redirect URL back into the terminal.

For Slack-connected Gateway operation, use the operations runbook:

scripts/start-gateway.sh
docker exec <container-id> openclaw channels status --channel slack --probe --timeout 20000
docker exec -it <container-id> openclaw models auth login --provider openai-codex --set-default
docker exec <container-id> openclaw agent --session-id slack-ready-check --message 'Reply with exactly: PI Liaison ready' --timeout 120

If Slack returns an access pairing code, approve the specific user:

docker exec -it <container-id> openclaw pairing approve slack <PAIRING_CODE>

Generated documents, heartbeat notes, soul files, and memory should be written under /workspace inside the container. They appear on the host under ./workspace.

To inspect or edit files through the optional browser workspace UI:

docker compose up workspace-ui

Then open http://127.0.0.1:8888 and use the WORKSPACE_UI_TOKEN value from .env, or the default local token scienceclaw.

Auth Options

ChatGPT/Codex OAuth can be convenient when your OpenClaw version, account entitlement, quota, and provider policy support it. It is not guaranteed and may require periodic re-login.

OpenAI API-key mode uses OPENAI_API_KEY from .env and bills through your OpenAI API account. It is optional for OAuth mode, but it is usually more predictable for automation.

Safety

Keep ./workspace small and task-specific. Do not mount your whole home directory, browser profile, SSH keys, password manager exports, or other sensitive folders.

Read the full root-level README.md in the repository for troubleshooting details and verified OpenClaw documentation links.