--- title: "Capstone: Your Sovereign AI Assistant with OpenClaw" description: "Design, deploy, and harden a fully sovereign AI assistant with OpenClaw on STACKIT Compute Engine and AI Model Serving in this capstone project." scfAsset: managed: false category: "guide" maintainers: - user: "can.celik1" external: true tags: ["STACKIT University", "Learning", "Capstone", "OpenClaw", "AI Agent", "Compute Engine"] source_url: "https://framework.stackit.cloud/data-and-ai/assetcontainer/stackit/capstone-sovereign-ai-agent/" source_file: "docs/data-and-ai/assetcontainer/stackit/capstone-sovereign-ai-agent.mdx" --- ## Course Overview In this self-directed capstone, you deploy OpenClaw — a self-hosted, open-source personal AI assistant that went from zero to one of the most-starred repositories on GitHub in days, precisely because it puts control back in the operator's hands instead of a corporate cloud you can't inspect — on STACKIT Compute Engine, connect it to STACKIT AI Model Serving, and extend it with custom agents and integrations. There are no templates and no step-by-step walkthroughs here: you've completed the rest of the AI Engineer learning path, and this is where you prove you can combine those skills independently. The result is a production-hardened, fully sovereign AI assistant where every prompt, response, and byte of memory stays within European data centers — something you can actually use day to day, and something you can defend in front of a compliance officer. Mastery is judged across four dimensions rather than a checklist: sovereignty rigor (can you trace every data flow and enforce boundaries at the infrastructure level, not just document them), a working deployment connected to real messaging integrations, sound architectural thinking captured in an Architecture Decision Record, and creative problem-solving in how far you push the custom agents and integrations beyond the minimum. ### What You'll Learn - Deploy and operate OpenClaw as a self-hosted, sovereign personal AI assistant on STACKIT Compute Engine - Wire STACKIT AI Model Serving in as the LLM backend so no prompt, response, or memory leaves Europe - Trace and enforce data-sovereignty boundaries at the infrastructure level using Security Groups and secrets management - Extend OpenClaw with custom agents, including a compliance-monitoring agent - Harden a production deployment for observability, resilience, and GDPR-readiness, and justify the design in an ADR ### Modules - The Architecture of a Personal AI OS - OpenClaw Meets STACKIT AI Model Serving - Deploy on STACKIT Compute Engine - Custom Skills and Sovereign Integrations - Production Hardening and the Final Challenge