fix(docker): add config dir defaults

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Telegram/exec: infer native exec approvers from `commands.ownerAllowFrom` and auto-enable the Telegram approval client when an owner is resolvable, so owner-only commands such as `/diagnostics` can be approved in Telegram without duplicate per-channel approver config. Thanks @pashpashpash.
 - Auto-reply/session: carry the tail of user/assistant turns into the freshly-rotated transcript on silent in-reply session resets (compaction failure, role-ordering conflict) so direct-chat continuity survives the rebind. Fixes #70853. (#70898) Thanks @neeravmakwana.
 - Config: skip malformed non-string `env.vars` entries before env-reference checks, so config loading no longer crashes on JSON values like numbers or booleans. (#42402) Thanks @MiltonHeYan.
+- Docker Compose: default missing config and workspace bind mounts to `${HOME:-/tmp}/.openclaw` so manual compose runs do not create invalid empty-source volume specs. (#64485) Thanks @jlapenna.
 
 ## 2026.4.27
 

docker-compose.yml

@@ -26,8 +26,8 @@ services:
       OPENCLAW_PLUGIN_STAGE_DIR: /var/lib/openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps
       TZ: ${OPENCLAW_TZ:-UTC}
     volumes:
-      - ${OPENCLAW_CONFIG_DIR}:/home/node/.openclaw
-      - ${OPENCLAW_WORKSPACE_DIR}:/home/node/.openclaw/workspace
+      - ${OPENCLAW_CONFIG_DIR:-${HOME:-/tmp}/.openclaw}:/home/node/.openclaw
+      - ${OPENCLAW_WORKSPACE_DIR:-${HOME:-/tmp}/.openclaw/workspace}:/home/node/.openclaw/workspace
       - openclaw-plugin-runtime-deps:/var/lib/openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps
       ## Uncomment the lines below to enable sandbox isolation
       ## (agents.defaults.sandbox). Requires Docker CLI in the image
@@ -90,8 +90,8 @@ services:
       OPENCLAW_PLUGIN_STAGE_DIR: /var/lib/openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps
       TZ: ${OPENCLAW_TZ:-UTC}
     volumes:
-      - ${OPENCLAW_CONFIG_DIR}:/home/node/.openclaw
-      - ${OPENCLAW_WORKSPACE_DIR}:/home/node/.openclaw/workspace
+      - ${OPENCLAW_CONFIG_DIR:-${HOME:-/tmp}/.openclaw}:/home/node/.openclaw
+      - ${OPENCLAW_WORKSPACE_DIR:-${HOME:-/tmp}/.openclaw/workspace}:/home/node/.openclaw/workspace
       - openclaw-plugin-runtime-deps:/var/lib/openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps
     stdin_open: true
     tty: true