managing-provisioning

name	managing-provisioning
description	Understand and modify the VM provisioning workflow. Use when working on the host-side provisioning sequence, understanding what each phase installs, debugging provisioning failures, or modifying the idempotency/verification flow.

Managing Provisioning

Provisioning installs all system packages, user tools, and OpenClaw inside the VM. It's driven by the claw binary and orchestrated by the host via host-core/src/provision.ts.

Provisioning sequence

1. Create project directory + git repo on the host
2. Create/start the Lima VM
3. Deploy claw binary into the VM
4. sudo claw provision system — APT packages, Node.js, systemd linger, Tailscale
5. claw provision tools — Homebrew, 1Password CLI, shell profile
6. claw provision openclaw — OpenClaw CLI, env vars, gateway stub
7. claw provision workspace — skills, workspace files
8. claw doctor — verify provisioning
9. openclaw onboard — interactive or headless
10. claw provision bootstrap — post-onboard hooks (AGENTS.md sections)

Key properties

• Idempotent — each capability step checks current state before acting; re-running is a fast no-op
• Capability-driven — provisioning logic lives in CapabilityDef modules, not in the host or provision commands
• Verifiable — claw doctor checks health with lifecycle-aware warnings (availableAfter)
• State-tracked — data/capability-state.json records installed versions; supports migrations

Full reference

See references/vm-provisioning.md for the complete documentation including what each phase installs, verification details, re-running provisioning, and troubleshooting.