DigitalOcean supports custom images, so this target ships as a real snapshot built by Packer rather than a boot-time recipe — you get the baked-image guarantees.

Building the snapshot

The build calls DigitalOcean’s API, so it needs a token:

export DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN=dop_v1_...
make build TARGET=digitalocean PROFILE=openclaw TIER=standard

Packer creates a temporary droplet, bakes the image, snapshots it and cleans up. Expect fifteen to twenty minutes and a few cents of droplet time.

Creating the droplet

Create from Snapshots, choosing the deputyos-* snapshot. A Basic droplet with 2 GB RAM runs the lean tier; 4 GB is right for standard.

Reach the wizard at http://<droplet-ip> and complete setup promptly, then move to the tunnel and close the public port:

deputyctl tunnel --integrated

Costs

Droplet	RAM	~Cost	Suits
Basic 2 GB	2 GB	$12/mo	Lean tier
Basic 4 GB	4 GB	$24/mo	Standard tier

DigitalOcean is more expensive than Hetzner for equivalent specs. It is worth it if you already use DO, want the custom-image path, or need a region Hetzner does not serve.

Snapshot storage is billed separately at around $0.06/GB/month.