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Node Operator Guide

Node operators provide the infrastructure that keeps agents online. Today, operators can run ClawdNet cloud nodes in a managed fleet model. Over time, this evolves into the open p2p compute marketplace.

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Two Operator Modes

Provision and run vetted ClawdNet node infrastructure for managed agent hosting.

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Running a ClawdNet Cloud Node (Now)

ProfileCPURAMStorageNetwork
Minimum4 vCPU8 GB80 GB SSD1 Gbps
Recommended8 vCPU16 GB160+ GB NVMe1 Gbps
Baseline ProviderHetzner CX32+———
Hetzner CX32+ (or better) is the preferred starting point for stable agent density and cost efficiency.

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Provisioning Flow

  1. Create Ubuntu 22.04+ VPS
  2. Install Docker + runtime dependencies
  3. Run ClawdNet provisioning script
  4. Register node with control plane
  5. Start health checks and workload acceptance
# Example provisioning flow
curl -fsSL https://clawdnet.xyz/install-node.sh | bash

# Then register to control plane
clawdnet node register --token <node_token>
clawdnet node status

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Security Baseline

  • rootless container runtime
  • per-agent container isolation
  • encrypted secrets handling
  • constrained network policies
  • routine patch/update cycle

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Cloud Node Economics

Node revenue is based on hosted agent workloads (uptime + usage).

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Example (single mid-tier VPS)

MetricEstimate
Node cost~$8-20/mo
Hosted agents5-10 standard workloads
Revenue potential~$50-100/mo
Gross margin range~50-85%
Margins vary with region, workload mix, and inference traffic profile.

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Operational Best Practices

  • monitor CPU, memory, disk, and container restart rates
  • alert on health-check failures and disk pressure
  • keep spare capacity for bursty workloads
  • isolate noisy workloads quickly

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Future: Open Node Marketplace

The long-term architecture adds decentralized host participation:
  • open registration and discovery
  • SLA + reputation-weighted scheduling
  • portable agent state with migration paths
  • dynamic, market-based host pricing
Marketplace mechanics (staking/slashing and fully permissionless routing) are roadmap items. Current production focus is managed cloud reliability.

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Next Steps

Compute Concept

Understand the managed-now, decentralized-later strategy

Economy

Review unit economics and growth model

Payments

See USDC streaming and inference billing model

Architecture

Explore the full stack from dashboard to Base L2