Home Assistant Add-on

OpenClaw gateway running on Home Assistant OS with SSH tunnel support and persistent state.

The Home Assistant Add-on by @ngutman packages the OpenClaw gateway as a native Home Assistant OS add-on, making it trivially easy to run OpenClaw on the same hardware as your smart home hub. It includes SSH tunnel support for remote connections, persistent state across restarts, and bundled tools like gog (Google Workspace CLI) and GitHub CLI — giving your agent access to email, calendar, drive, and code repos right from your HA box. Installation follows the standard HA add-on workflow: add the repository URL in Settings → Add-ons → Repositories, then install 'OpenClaw Gateway' from the store. Configuration options include install mode (pre-built package or source build), gateway port, SSH port for tunnel access, and authorized keys for secure remote connections. The add-on supports both ARM (Raspberry Pi) and x86 architectures. This project bridges two powerful ecosystems. Home Assistant users get an AI agent that can control their smart home through natural conversation. OpenClaw users get a deployment target that's always on, low-power, and already connected to hundreds of smart home devices. The SSH tunnel support is particularly clever — it lets you access your OpenClaw instance from anywhere without exposing ports directly to the internet.

Tags: homeassistant, docker, raspberry-pi, deployment

Category: infrastructure

Tips

  • Add the repo URL (https://github.com/ngutman/openclaw-ha-addon) in HA Settings → Add-ons → Add-on Store → ⋮ → Repositories
  • Use 'package' install mode (default) for faster setup — 'source' mode builds from repo and takes significantly longer on Raspberry Pi
  • Configure SSH authorized keys to enable secure remote tunnel access to your OpenClaw instance from anywhere
  • The bundled gog CLI gives your agent Google Workspace access — set up OAuth once and your agent can manage email, calendar, and drive
  • Run on a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 for the best balance of always-on reliability and low power consumption

Community Feedback

OpenClaw Gateway for HA OS with SSH tunnel support for remote connections. Includes gog (Google Workspace CLI) and GitHub CLI out of the box.

— GitHub

OpenClaw gateway running on Home Assistant OS with SSH tunnel support and persistent state. The perfect always-on deployment for smart home enthusiasts.

— OpenClaw Showcase

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this work on a Raspberry Pi?

Yes. The add-on supports ARM architecture and runs well on Raspberry Pi 4 and newer. Pi 3 may struggle with heavier LLM API traffic but works for basic usage.

Can I control Home Assistant devices through OpenClaw with this?

This add-on runs OpenClaw on your HA hardware. For actual device control, pair it with the Home Assistant skill (available separately on ClawHub) which provides the natural language → HA API bridge.

How does the SSH tunnel work?

The add-on runs an SSH server on a configurable port (default 2222). You add your public keys to the authorized_keys config. Then you can SSH tunnel from any remote machine to access the OpenClaw gateway securely without port forwarding.

Does state persist across add-on restarts?

Yes. The add-on maps persistent storage directories so your OpenClaw workspace, memory files, and configuration survive restarts and updates. This is critical for maintaining agent continuity.