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Gateway

Gateway runbook

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Use this page for day-1 startup and day-2 operations of the Gateway service.

Deep troubleshooting

Symptom-first diagnostics with exact command ladders and log signatures.
Configuration

Task-oriented setup guide + full configuration reference.
Secrets management

SecretRef contract, runtime snapshot behavior, and migrate/reload operations.
Secrets plan contract

Exact secrets apply target/path rules and ref-only auth-profile behavior.

5-minute local startup

  • Start the Gateway

    bash
    openclaw gateway --port 18789# debug/trace mirrored to stdioopenclaw gateway --port 18789 --verbose# force-kill listener on selected port, then startopenclaw gateway --force

  • Verify service health

    bash
    openclaw gateway statusopenclaw statusopenclaw logs --follow

    Healthy baseline: Runtime: running, Connectivity probe: ok, and Capability: ... that matches what you expect. Use openclaw gateway status --require-rpc when you need read-scope RPC proof, not just reachability.

  • Validate channel readiness

    bash
    openclaw channels status --probe

    With a reachable gateway this runs live per-account channel probes and optional audits. If the gateway is unreachable, the CLI falls back to config-only channel summaries instead of live probe output.

    • Runtime model

    • One always-on process for routing, control plane, and channel connections.
    • Single multiplexed port for:
      • WebSocket control/RPC
      • HTTP APIs (/v1/models, /v1/embeddings, /v1/chat/completions, /v1/responses, /tools/invoke)
      • Plugin HTTP routes, such as optional /api/v1/admin/rpc
      • Control UI and hooks
    • Default bind mode: loopback.
    • Auth is required by default. Shared-secret setups use gateway.auth.token / gateway.auth.password (or OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN / OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_PASSWORD), and non-loopback reverse-proxy setups can use gateway.auth.mode: "trusted-proxy".

    OpenAI-compatible endpoints

    OpenClaw's highest-leverage compatibility surface is now:

    • GET /v1/models
    • GET /v1/models/{id}
    • POST /v1/embeddings
    • POST /v1/chat/completions
    • POST /v1/responses

    Why this set matters:

    • Most Open WebUI, LobeChat, and LibreChat integrations probe /v1/models first.
    • Many RAG and memory pipelines expect /v1/embeddings.
    • Agent-native clients increasingly prefer /v1/responses.

    Planning note:

    • /v1/models is agent-first: it returns openclaw, openclaw/default, and openclaw/<agentId>.
    • openclaw/default is the stable alias that always maps to the configured default agent.
    • Use x-openclaw-model when you want a backend provider/model override; otherwise the selected agent's normal model and embedding setup stays in control.

    All of these run on the main Gateway port and use the same trusted operator auth boundary as the rest of the Gateway HTTP API.

    Admin HTTP RPC (POST /api/v1/admin/rpc) is a separate, default-off plugin route for host tooling that cannot use WebSocket RPC. See Admin HTTP RPC.

    Port and bind precedence

    Setting Resolution order
    Gateway port --port → OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_PORT → gateway.port → 18789
    Bind mode CLI/override → gateway.bind → loopback

    Installed gateway services record the resolved --port in supervisor metadata. After changing gateway.port, run openclaw doctor --fix or openclaw gateway install --force so launchd/systemd/schtasks starts the process on the new port.

    Gateway startup uses the same effective port and bind when it seeds local Control UI origins for non-loopback binds. For example, --bind lan --port 3000 seeds http://localhost:3000 and http://127.0.0.1:3000 before runtime validation runs. Add any remote browser origins, such as HTTPS proxy URLs, to gateway.controlUi.allowedOrigins explicitly.

    Hot reload modes

    gateway.reload.mode Behavior
    off No config reload
    hot Apply only hot-safe changes
    restart Restart on reload-required changes
    hybrid (default) Hot-apply when safe, restart when required

    Operator command set

    bash
    openclaw gateway statusopenclaw gateway status --deep   # adds a system-level service scanopenclaw gateway status --jsonopenclaw gateway installopenclaw gateway restartopenclaw gateway stopopenclaw secrets reloadopenclaw logs --followopenclaw doctor

    gateway status --deep is for extra service discovery (LaunchDaemons/systemd system units/schtasks), not a deeper RPC health probe.

    Multiple gateways (same host)

    Most installs should run one gateway per machine. A single gateway can host multiple agents and channels.

    You only need multiple gateways when you intentionally want isolation or a rescue bot.

    Useful checks:

    bash
    openclaw gateway status --deepopenclaw gateway probe

    What to expect:

    • gateway status --deep can report Other gateway-like services detected (best effort) and print cleanup hints when stale launchd/systemd/schtasks installs are still around.
    • gateway probe can warn about multiple reachable gateways when more than one target answers.
    • If that is intentional, isolate ports, config/state, and workspace roots per gateway.

    Checklist per instance:

    • Unique gateway.port
    • Unique OPENCLAW_CONFIG_PATH
    • Unique OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR
    • Unique agents.defaults.workspace

    Example:

    bash
    OPENCLAW_CONFIG_PATH=~/.openclaw/a.json OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR=~/.openclaw-a openclaw gateway --port 19001OPENCLAW_CONFIG_PATH=~/.openclaw/b.json OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR=~/.openclaw-b openclaw gateway --port 19002

    Detailed setup: /gateway/multiple-gateways.

    Remote access

    Preferred: Tailscale/VPN. Fallback: SSH tunnel.

    bash
    ssh -N -L 18789:127.0.0.1:18789 user@host

    Then connect clients locally to ws://127.0.0.1:18789.

    See: Remote Gateway, Authentication, Tailscale.

    Supervision and service lifecycle

    Use supervised runs for production-like reliability.

    macOS (launchd)

    bash
    openclaw gateway installopenclaw gateway statusopenclaw gateway restartopenclaw gateway stop

    Use openclaw gateway restart for restarts. Do not chain openclaw gateway stop and openclaw gateway start as a restart substitute.

    On macOS, gateway stop uses launchctl bootout by default — this removes the LaunchAgent from the current boot session without persisting a disable, so KeepAlive auto-recovery still works after unexpected crashes and gateway start re-enables cleanly. To persistently suppress auto-respawn across reboots, pass --disable: openclaw gateway stop --disable.

    LaunchAgent labels are ai.openclaw.gateway (default) or ai.openclaw.<profile> (named profile). openclaw doctor audits and repairs service config drift.

    Linux (systemd user)

    bash
    openclaw gateway installsystemctl --user enable --now openclaw-gateway[-<profile>].serviceopenclaw gateway status

    For persistence after logout, enable lingering:

    bash
    sudo loginctl enable-linger <user>

    Manual user-unit example when you need a custom install path:

    ini
    [Unit]Description=OpenClaw GatewayAfter=network-online.targetWants=network-online.target [Service]ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/openclaw gateway --port 18789Restart=alwaysRestartSec=5TimeoutStopSec=30TimeoutStartSec=30SuccessExitStatus=0 143KillMode=control-group [Install]WantedBy=default.target

    Windows (native)

    powershell
    openclaw gateway installopenclaw gateway status --jsonopenclaw gateway restartopenclaw gateway stop

    Native Windows managed startup uses a Scheduled Task named OpenClaw Gateway (or OpenClaw Gateway (<profile>) for named profiles). If Scheduled Task creation is denied, OpenClaw falls back to a per-user Startup-folder launcher that points at gateway.cmd inside the state directory.

    Linux (system service)

    Use a system unit for multi-user/always-on hosts.

    bash
    sudo systemctl daemon-reloadsudo systemctl enable --now openclaw-gateway[-<profile>].service

    Use the same service body as the user unit, but install it under /etc/systemd/system/openclaw-gateway[-<profile>].service and adjust ExecStart= if your openclaw binary lives elsewhere.

    Do not also let openclaw doctor --fix install a user-level gateway service for the same profile/port. Doctor refuses that automatic install when it finds a system-level OpenClaw gateway service; use OPENCLAW_SERVICE_REPAIR_POLICY=external when the system unit owns the lifecycle.

    Dev profile quick path

    bash
    openclaw --dev setupopenclaw --dev gateway --allow-unconfiguredopenclaw --dev status

    Defaults include isolated state/config and base gateway port 19001.

    Protocol quick reference (operator view)

    • First client frame must be connect.
    • Gateway returns hello-ok snapshot (presence, health, stateVersion, uptimeMs, limits/policy).
    • hello-ok.features.methods / events are a conservative discovery list, not a generated dump of every callable helper route.
    • Requests: req(method, params) → res(ok/payload|error).
    • Common events include connect.challenge, agent, chat, session.message, session.operation, session.tool, sessions.changed, presence, tick, health, heartbeat, pairing/approval lifecycle events, and shutdown.

    Agent runs are two-stage:

    1. Immediate accepted ack (status:"accepted")
    2. Final completion response (status:"ok"|"error"), with streamed agent events in between.

    See full protocol docs: Gateway Protocol.

    Operational checks

    Liveness

    • Open WS and send connect.
    • Expect hello-ok response with snapshot.

    Readiness

    bash
    openclaw gateway statusopenclaw channels status --probeopenclaw health

    Gap recovery

    Events are not replayed. On sequence gaps, refresh state (health, system-presence) before continuing.

    Common failure signatures

    Signature Likely issue
    refusing to bind gateway ... without auth Non-loopback bind without a valid gateway auth path
    another gateway instance is already listening / EADDRINUSE Port conflict
    Gateway start blocked: set gateway.mode=local Config set to remote mode, or local-mode stamp is missing from a damaged config
    unauthorized during connect Auth mismatch between client and gateway

    For full diagnosis ladders, use Gateway Troubleshooting.

    Safety guarantees

    • Gateway protocol clients fail fast when Gateway is unavailable (no implicit direct-channel fallback).
    • Invalid/non-connect first frames are rejected and closed.
    • Graceful shutdown emits shutdown event before socket close.

    Related:

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