Securing Your Clawdbot Deployment: 6 Tips

If you’re considering deploying Clawdbot—an open-source AI assistant that runs on your PC with shell access and API connections—you need to understand what you’re getting into. Clawdbot has real power to make changes to your systems. And with great power comes, well, you know the rest.

The default settings for Clawdbot can leave you vulnerable to serious security issues, particularly indirect prompt injection attacks where malicious actors manipulate the AI into doing things you never intended. Let me walk you through six essential steps to lock down your deployment.

1. Enable Sandbox Mode

The first and most important step is running your agent inside a Docker container. Think of this as putting your AI in a secure room rather than giving it free rein of your entire house.

When sandbox mode is enabled, each session runs in its own isolated container. If something goes wrong—say, the agent gets tricked into running a malicious command—the damage is contained. The agent won’t have direct access to your main server, limiting what I call the “blast radius” of any potential security incident.

2. Whitelist Tools

Just because Clawdbot can do something doesn’t mean it should. By default, the agent might have access to a wide range of capabilities, but you should explicitly restrict this.

Create an allow list that specifies exactly which tools the agent can use—maybe file reading and web search for your use case. More importantly, explicitly block dangerous actions like shell execution or browser control unless you absolutely need them. It’s easier to add permissions later than to recover from a security breach.