Blogger runs Zeroclaw, AdGuard Home and more on a $10 OpenStick
A blogger bought an OpenStick on a whim for 10 dollars, shipping included, and wrote up what runs on it. The hardware: 512 MB of RAM (about 450 MB usable), four ARM Cortex-A53 cores at 1 GHz, 4 GB of eMMC flash, 150 Mbit/s Wi-Fi, a 4G modem and GPS, passive cooling and one programmable LED. The author admits a watch may be more powerful, but argues it is a good gadget for starting with self-hosting. Installation is "a bit involved", but afterwards the stick runs Debian with systemd and Podman, which the author calls a home server with minimal power use and no noise.
The post then goes through the favourites, each with its memory footprint. CastSponsorSkip (5 to 10 MB) connects to Google Cast devices and skips sponsorships and sometimes ads. AdGuard Home (40 MB) blocks bad domains at the DNS level; after adding a few blocklists, 60% of the author's queries are blocked. The author runs their own fork that handles large blocklists efficiently and stays at 40 MB regardless of blocklist size, but warns against running binaries from random strangers and links the official AdGuard Home, which also uses 40 MB with a small (200k) blocklist. A DNS blocker cannot catch everything; a proper firewall is needed for that.
The AI piece is Zeroclaw (listed at 64 MB), an agent harness with 30 channels (Telegram, email, WhatsApp and others), sensible security defaults, a web UI and integrations with the major LLM providers. The author previously ran OpenClaw on a Kubernetes cluster: it worked, but used 1 GB+ of memory, broke with every update, and changed functionality in ways that broke existing workflows. Zeroclaw uses about 3 MB RSS when idle. The author looked at Picoclaw and Nullclaw, which are probably good too, but picked Zeroclaw for the best documentation and most active community. It has access to the OpenStick only; the author concedes that is effectively a root shell but accepts the limited blast radius. It is used mainly to monitor the stick, with questions like "anything in the logs that requires my attention?" or "how is the disk space?", and because it talks over Telegram it works even with weak signal in the mountains. The author is implementing rich Telegram message support for Zeroclaw, which the next version will "hopefully" include.
The rest of the stack: Cloudflare Tunnel (about 8 to 20 MB) exposes the services for free without opening ports, with the stated downside that the NSA might be able to read everything, a trade-off the author accepts for a homelab. Beszel (about 20 MB, 10 MB each for agent and server) shows graphs of memory and CPU and sends alerts to Telegram; it replaced a Grafana stack that felt like overkill. Dozzle, a Podman container interface, overlaps with Beszel; it has a better log view but fewer stats, and one of the two goes if 10 or 20 MB must be saved. Gatus (10 MB) monitors services rather than the server, for example a crashed web server or database. Fusion RSS (22 MB of RAM) replaced Feedly, whose Pro tier at 7 USD was more than the author wanted to pay. Shiori (about 10 to 20 MB, with spikes while archiving) is a bookmark manager that archives pages, which helps with dead links. Diun (9 MB) sends a Telegram message when a container has an update.
Key facts
- The OpenStick cost 10 dollars with shipping and has 512 MB of RAM (about 450 MB usable), four Cortex-A53 cores at 1 GHz and 4 GB of eMMC; it runs Debian with systemd and Podman.
- Zeroclaw, an AI agent harness with 30 channels and LLM provider integrations, is listed at 64 MB and uses about 3 MB RSS when idle; the author's earlier OpenClaw setup on Kubernetes used 1 GB+.
- AdGuard Home blocks 60% of the author's DNS queries after a few blocklists were added; the author's own fork uses 40 MB regardless of blocklist size, the official build 40 MB with a 200k list.
- Other services are Cloudflare Tunnel (about 8 to 20 MB), Beszel (about 20 MB), Dozzle, Gatus (10 MB), Fusion RSS (22 MB), Shiori (about 10 to 20 MB), Diun (9 MB) and CastSponsorSkip (5 to 10 MB).
- The author gave Zeroclaw access to the OpenStick only, which is effectively a root shell, and asks it about logs and disk space over Telegram.
Why it matters
The post is a concrete memory budget for a very small server. A 512 MB board runs a DNS blocker, monitoring, an RSS reader, a bookmark archive and an AI agent harness, most of them in tens of megabytes. The AI angle is the contrast the author draws: OpenClaw used 1 GB+ on a Kubernetes cluster, while Zeroclaw idles at about 3 MB RSS. It is a hobbyist write-up, not a benchmark, but it shows how light a self-hosted agent front end can be.
Who it affects
Hobbyists and people starting with self-hosting, who get a cheap, silent, low-power box to learn on. It also speaks to anyone who has found OpenClaw heavy or unstable and is weighing lighter agent harnesses such as Zeroclaw, Picoclaw or Nullclaw.
How to use it
The author's setup is a template: Debian with systemd and Podman on the stick, containers for each service, and Telegram as the alert channel for Beszel, Diun and Zeroclaw. Cloudflare Tunnel exposes the services without opening ports. Memory figures in the post can serve as a rough sizing guide. The installation steps for the OpenStick itself are not described in the post, only that they are a bit involved.
How solid is it
It is a first-person account from an unnamed blogger, so the figures are the author's own and not measured benchmarks. The post gives no combined memory total for all services and no latency numbers. Some figures are loose: Zeroclaw is headed 64 MB but described as about 3 MB RSS when idle, and Shiori is headed about 10 to 20 MB but described as about 10 MB. The claims about smart TVs, washing machines and coffee makers spying come with no source.
Risks and caveats
Zeroclaw effectively has a root shell on the stick; the author accepts this because the blast radius is limited to that device. The author's AdGuard Home fork is a binary from a stranger, and the author themselves says not to run such binaries, pointing to the official build for smaller blocklists. Cloudflare Tunnel may let the NSA read everything, in the author's words an acceptable homelab trade-off. A DNS blocker alone cannot stop all bad requests; a firewall is needed. The Telegram rich message support for Zeroclaw is a pending contribution that the next version will only hopefully include.
“anything in the logs that requires my attention?”
— Example question the blog author asks Zeroclaw to monitor the OpenStick