Self-Hosting

PocketPaw is designed to be self-hosted. Here’s how to deploy it on your own server.

Requirements

• Python 3.11+
• 2GB RAM minimum (4GB recommended with Mem0)
• Linux, macOS, or Windows (Linux recommended for servers)
• Anthropic API key (for Claude Agent SDK backend)

Basic Deployment

Install

# Create a dedicated user (optional)
sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash pocketpaw

# Install PocketPaw
curl -fsSL https://pocketpaw.xyz/install.sh | sh

Configure

Create the config file:

mkdir -p ~/.pocketclaw
cat > ~/.pocketclaw/config.json << 'EOF'
{
  "anthropic_api_key": "sk-ant-your-key",
  "agent_backend": "claude_agent_sdk",
  "tool_profile": "coding"
}
EOF
chmod 600 ~/.pocketclaw/config.json

Run

pocketpaw

The dashboard starts on http://0.0.0.0:8000.

Production Deployment

Behind a Reverse Proxy

For production, put PocketPaw behind nginx or Caddy:

Caddy (recommended):

pocketpaw.example.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8000
}

nginx:

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name pocketpaw.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/pocketpaw.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/pocketpaw.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }
}

Environment Variables

Set environment variables in a .env file or your system’s environment:

POCKETCLAW_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
POCKETCLAW_DASHBOARD_HOST=127.0.0.1
POCKETCLAW_DASHBOARD_PORT=8000
POCKETCLAW_TOOL_PROFILE=coding

Security Hardening

1. Run as a dedicated user — Don’t run as root
2. Restrict file permissions — Config files should be 600
3. Use a firewall — Only expose the reverse proxy port
4. Enable Guardian AI — Active by default with Anthropic key
5. Set allowed IDs — Restrict channel access to specific users
6. Run security audit — pocketpaw --security-audit

Resource Planning

For a typical deployment with Claude Agent SDK (cloud) and Mem0 with Ollama:

• Minimum: 4GB RAM, 2 CPU cores
• Recommended: 8GB RAM, 4 CPU cores