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Deploying ElizaOS to Production

A guide to deploying and maintaining an ElizaOS agent in a production environment.

Assumptions​

  • Freshly installed Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
  • RAM >= 4GB
  • Disk space >= 20GB
  • You have a user, not root, with sudo access that can ssh into the server

Basic System Setup​

A slightly opinionated list of tools that we need to install.

sudo apt update
sudo apt -y upgrade
sudo apt -y install \
    neovim \
    curl \
    git \
    unzip \
    zip \
    ntp \
    ufw \
    python3 \
    python3-pip

Configure and enable firewall.

sudo ufw default deny incoming
sudo ufw default allow outgoing
sudo ufw allow 22/tcp

If you want to publicly expose the API, you can do so with:

sudo ufw allow 3000/tcp

Enable the firewall.

sudo ufw --force enable

Note: For a Discord bot, no additional ports need to be opened. The bot makes outbound connections to Discord's servers which are allowed by default.

Locale​

The following ensures that your agent's date and time matches yours. Adjust to suit.

sudo timedatectl set-timezone Europe/London
sudo locale-gen en_GB.UTF-8 > /dev/null
sudo update-locale LANG=en_GB.UTF-8

Service user​

Create a system user called eliza with a home directory of /opt/elizaos.

sudo useradd -r -s /bin/bash -d /opt/elizaos -m eliza
sudo chown -R eliza:eliza /opt/elizaos
sudo chmod 750 /opt/elizaos

Install dependencies and configure the agent​

Switch to the eliza user and clone the repository.

sudo su - eliza # this puts you in /opt/elizaos

git clone https://github.com/elizaOS/eliza.git

Switch to the latest release branch.

cd eliza
git checkout $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0)

You can see which release you're on using git status.

eliza@parzival:~$ git status
HEAD detached at v0.25.6-alpha.1

Install nvm.

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | bash
export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"

Install the correct version of Node.js using nvm.

nvm install v23.3.0
nvm use v23.3.0

Install pnpm globally and verify the installation:

# Install pnpm
npm install -g pnpm
pnpm setup
source ~/.bashrc

# Verify pnpm installation and path
which pnpm
# Should output something like: /opt/elizaos/.local/share/pnpm/pnpm

Install and build the workspace.

pnpm install --no-frozen-lockfile
pnpm build

Configure Environment​

# Copy example environment file
cp -v .env.example .env

Make changes to the .env file for your production environment as required.

For example, your .env might look like this for a simple Discord bot:

USE_CHARACTER_STORAGE=true

# Discord Configuration
DISCORD_APPLICATION_ID=...
DISCORD_API_TOKEN=...

# AI Provider Keys
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-...

Setup a default character and storage for the character's state.

cd characters
ln -svf snoop.character.json default.character.json
cd ..
mkdir -p data/memory/default
chmod 750 data

Shell Environment Setup​

We need to properly configure the shell environment for the eliza user so nvm/pnpm works:

sudo tee /opt/elizaos/.profile << 'EOL'
# NVM setup
export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"

# pnpm setup
export PNPM_HOME="$HOME/.local/share/pnpm"
case ":$PATH:" in
  *":$PNPM_HOME:"*) ;;
  *) export PATH="$PNPM_HOME:$PATH" ;;
esac
EOL

Set ownership of the profile file.

sudo chown eliza:eliza /opt/elizaos/.profile

systemd Service​

To enable eliza to start automatically on boot, we need to create a systemd service.

Logout as eliza using CTRL-D, which should drop you back into your user with sudo access.

Create the systemd service file:

sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/eliza.service << 'EOL'
[Unit]
Description=Eliza AI Chat Agent
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=eliza
WorkingDirectory=/opt/elizaos/eliza

# Environment setup
Environment=NODE_ENV=production
Environment=HOME=/opt/elizaos
Environment=HTTP_PORT=3000
Environment=PATH=/opt/elizaos/.local/share/pnpm:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin
Environment=NVM_DIR=/opt/elizaos/.nvm

# Source NVM and start app
ExecStart=/bin/bash -c '. $NVM_DIR/nvm.sh && exec pnpm start --characters="characters/default.character.json"'

# Logging
StandardOutput=append:/var/log/eliza/eliza.log
StandardError=append:/var/log/eliza/eliza-error.log

# Restart configuration
Restart=always
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOL

Create the log directory.

sudo mkdir -p /var/log/eliza
sudo chown -R eliza:eliza /var/log/eliza

Enable and start the service:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable eliza
sudo systemctl start eliza

The API should now be running on port 3000. Note that external access to this port is blocked by default unless you explicitly allowed it in the firewall configuration during basic system setup.

If you need to troubleshoot, you can:

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status eliza

# View service logs with journald
sudo journalctl -u eliza -f

FAQ​

How do I run multiple agents?​

Create separate characterfiles or Docker containers for each agent with unique configurations and credentials.

What are the resource requirements?​

Minimum >=4GB recommended and 20G disk space is recommended. CUDA optional unless using local LLMs.