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Gateway runbook

Mirrored from OpenClaw (MIT)
Canonical source: https://docs.openclaw.ai/gateway
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Gateway runbook

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

  1. Start the Gateway
    openclaw gateway --port 18789
# debug/trace mirrored to stdio
openclaw gateway --port 18789 --verbose
# force-kill listener on selected port, then start
openclaw gateway --force
  2. Verify service health
    openclaw gateway status
openclaw status
openclaw logs --follow

    Healthy baseline: Runtime: running and RPC probe: ok.

  3. Validate channel readiness
    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.

NOTE

Gateway config reload watches the active config file path (resolved from profile/state defaults, or OPENCLAW_CONFIG_PATH when set). Default mode is gateway.reload.mode="hybrid". After the first successful load, the running process serves the active in-memory config snapshot; successful reload swaps that snapshot atomically.

Runtime model

  • One always-on process for routing, control plane, and channel connections.
  • Single multiplexed port for:
    • WebSocket control/RPC
    • HTTP APIs, OpenAI compatible (/v1/models, /v1/embeddings, /v1/chat/completions, /v1/responses, /tools/invoke)
    • 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.

Port and bind precedence

SettingResolution order
Gateway port--port → OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_PORT → gateway.port → 18789
Bind modeCLI/override → gateway.bind → loopback

Hot reload modes

gateway.reload.modeBehavior
offNo config reload
hotApply only hot-safe changes
restartRestart on reload-required changes
hybrid (default)Hot-apply when safe, restart when required

Operator command set

openclaw gateway status
openclaw gateway status --deep   # adds a system-level service scan
openclaw gateway status --json
openclaw gateway install
openclaw gateway restart
openclaw gateway stop
openclaw secrets reload
openclaw logs --follow
openclaw 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:

openclaw gateway status --deep
openclaw 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.

Detailed setup: /gateway/multiple-gateways.

Remote access

Preferred: Tailscale/VPN. Fallback: SSH tunnel.

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

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

WARNING

SSH tunnels do not bypass gateway auth. For shared-secret auth, clients still must send token/password even over the tunnel. For identity-bearing modes, the request still has to satisfy that auth path.

See: Remote Gateway, Authentication, Tailscale.

Supervision and service lifecycle

Use supervised runs for production-like reliability.

macOS (launchd)
openclaw gateway install
openclaw gateway status
openclaw gateway restart
openclaw gateway stop

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

Linux (systemd user)
openclaw gateway install
systemctl --user enable --now openclaw-gateway[-<profile>].service
openclaw gateway status

For persistence after logout, enable lingering:

sudo loginctl enable-linger <user>

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

[Unit]
Description=OpenClaw Gateway
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/openclaw gateway --port 18789
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
TimeoutStopSec=30
TimeoutStartSec=30
SuccessExitStatus=0 143
KillMode=control-group

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
Windows (native)
openclaw gateway install
openclaw gateway status --json
openclaw gateway restart
openclaw 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.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo 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.

Multiple gateways on one host

Most setups should run one Gateway. Use multiple only for strict isolation/redundancy (for example a rescue profile).

Checklist per instance:

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

Example:

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

See: Multiple gateways.

Dev profile quick path

openclaw --dev setup
openclaw --dev gateway --allow-unconfigured
openclaw --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.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

openclaw gateway status
openclaw channels status --probe
openclaw health

Gap recovery

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

Common failure signatures

SignatureLikely issue
refusing to bind gateway ... without authNon-loopback bind without a valid gateway auth path
another gateway instance is already listening / EADDRINUSEPort conflict
Gateway start blocked: set gateway.mode=localConfig set to remote mode, or local-mode stamp is missing from a damaged config
unauthorized during connectAuth 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: