Week 1: Excitement
Setting up OpenClaw on a Hetzner VPS was genuinely fun. Docker Compose, Tailscale, Let's Encrypt — I had it running in about 4 hours. The AI assistant worked great. I was hooked.
Week 2: First problems
My Docker container crashed overnight. No monitoring in place, so I didn't notice until noon. Missed morning briefings. Set up a basic health check script, but it was fragile.
Week 3: Update anxiety
OpenClaw released a new version. Excited, I updated immediately. Something broke in the Telegram integration. Spent two hours debugging. Rolled back manually.
Week 4: The realization
I was spending more time maintaining the server than using the assistant. SSL certificate renewal failed. Tailscale connection dropped. The "set it and forget it" dream was a myth.
The switch
KanaHost handles all of this. Self-healing watchdog catches crashes in seconds. Updates are tested before deployment and rolled back automatically if anything breaks. I just use my assistant now.