Vps

VPS Hosting (Docker)

This guide covers running crocbot on a VPS using Docker.

How it works

• The Gateway runs on the VPS inside a Docker container and owns state + workspace.
• You connect from your laptop/phone via the Control UI or Tailscale/SSH.
• Treat the VPS as the source of truth and back up the state + workspace.
• Secure default: keep the Gateway on loopback and access it via SSH tunnel or Tailscale Serve. If you bind to lan/tailnet, require gateway.auth.token or gateway.auth.password.

Setup

1. Provision a VPS with any cloud provider (Hetzner, DigitalOcean, AWS, GCP, etc.)
2. Install Docker on the VPS
3. Clone the repo and build:

git clone https://github.com/moshehbenavraham/crocbot.git
cd crocbot
pnpm install
pnpm build
docker build -t crocbot:local .

4. Configure environment — create a .env file with your API keys and tokens
5. Start the gateway:

docker compose up -d crocbot-gateway

Remote access

The Gateway runs on the VPS and handles all Telegram traffic. Access the Gateway remotely via Tailscale Serve/Funnel or SSH tunnel.

Docs: Remote access, Tailscale

Resource requirements

Resource	Minimum	Recommended
Memory	512MB	2GB
Storage	1GB	5GB+
CPU	1 vCPU	2 vCPU

Backups

See Backup & Restore for backup procedures.

Remote access: Gateway remote Platforms hub: Platforms