DeadClaw — Emergency Kill Switch for OpenClaw Agents

"One tap. Everything stops."

DeadClaw is a single-purpose emergency kill switch. When triggered, it immediately halts all running OpenClaw agent processes, stops Docker containers, pauses all scheduled cron jobs and heartbeats, kills all active sessions, and writes a timestamped incident log. It then confirms back to whichever surface triggered it.

Works with both native OpenClaw installs and Docker-based deployments (Hostinger VPS, etc.). Auto-detects your setup.

Why DeadClaw Exists

The ClawHavoc attack (February 2026) exposed 1,184 malicious skills in the OpenClaw ecosystem. People run agents autonomously — often overnight, often unattended. When something goes wrong, you need a way to stop everything from wherever you are, even from your phone. DeadClaw is that way.

Activation Methods

DeadClaw supports three activation methods. All three execute the exact same kill sequence — the only difference is how the user triggers it.

Method 1: Message Trigger

The user sends a trigger word to any connected OpenClaw channel (Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, or any other connected channel). The following words activate DeadClaw:

• kill or KILL
• dead
• stop everything
• emergency stop
• deadclaw
• 🔴

When a trigger word is detected:

1. Execute scripts/kill.sh from the DeadClaw skill directory
2. Capture the output (process count, containers stopped, cron jobs paused, timestamp)
3. Send confirmation back to the same channel the trigger came from: 🔴 DeadClaw activated. All agents stopped. [timestamp] — [X] killed ([X] processes, [X] containers). [X] cron jobs paused. See deadclaw.log for full report.

Method 2: WebChat Kill Button

A persistent red button rendered in the OpenClaw WebChat dashboard. The HTML widget is located at ui/deadclaw-button.html. It calls kill.sh via OpenClaw's WebChat API hooks (window.OpenClaw.exec()). If the WebChat hooks are unavailable, the button degrades to showing an error message with manual instructions.

To embed the button, use OpenClaw's WebChat customization hooks:

OpenClaw.WebChat.registerWidget('deadclaw-button', {
  src: 'skills/deadclaw/ui/deadclaw-button.html',
  position: 'top-bar',
  persistent: true
});

Method 3: Phone Home Screen Shortcut

A pre-built shortcut that sends the kill trigger message (deadclaw) to the user's configured Telegram bot. Setup guides for iOS and Android are in docs/:

• docs/iphone-shortcut-guide.md — iOS Shortcuts setup
• docs/android-widget-guide.md — Android widget setup (Tasker or HTTP Shortcuts)

Watchdog (Passive Protection)

DeadClaw includes a background watchdog (scripts/watchdog.sh) that monitors for dangerous conditions and auto-triggers the kill without any user action.

The watchdog checks every 60 seconds for (after a 5-minute startup grace period):

1. Runaway loops — Any agent process or Docker session running longer than 30 minutes
2. Token burn — Token spend exceeding 50,000 tokens in under 10 minutes
3. Unauthorized network — Outbound network calls to domains not on the user's whitelist
4. Sandbox escape — Any process attempting to write outside the designated OpenClaw workspace

The watchdog uses zero AI tokens — all checks use local system commands only.

When the watchdog auto-triggers, it sends an alert explaining the reason: 🔴 DeadClaw auto-triggered. Reason: [specific reason]. All processes stopped. Check deadclaw.log.

Watchdog Configuration

The watchdog reads its thresholds from environment variables (with sensible defaults):

Start the watchdog:

scripts/watchdog.sh start

Stop the watchdog:

scripts/watchdog.sh stop

Additional Commands

Status Check

User sends status to any connected channel. DeadClaw responds with a plain-English health report by executing scripts/status.sh:

• What agents are currently running (name, PID, uptime)
• Current token spend rate
• Whether the watchdog is active
• Any warnings about approaching thresholds

Restore After Kill

User sends restore to any connected channel. DeadClaw executes scripts/restore.sh, which:

1. Shows what will be restored (backed-up crontab entries, stopped Docker containers, disabled services)
2. Prompts: "Restore [X] cron jobs from backup taken at [timestamp]? (yes/no)"
3. Restores the crontab from the most recent backup
4. Restarts stopped OpenClaw Docker containers
5. Detects the OpenClaw gateway
6. Confirms restoration with a summary

The watchdog does NOT auto-start after restore — the user verifies stability first, then starts it manually with scripts/watchdog.sh start.

Scripts Reference

All scripts support a --dry-run flag that logs what would happen without taking action.

Incident Log

All kill events are logged to deadclaw.log in the skill directory. Each entry records: timestamp, trigger source (channel name), trigger method (message/button/ watchdog/auto), processes killed (count and PIDs), Docker containers stopped, cron jobs paused, and token spend at time of kill. The log is append-only and never automatically cleared.

Platform Support

DeadClaw works on both Linux (VPS, bare metal) and macOS (Mac Mini, MacBook). Scripts auto-detect the OS and use the appropriate commands:

• Linux: systemctl for services, pgrep for processes, Docker support
• macOS: launchctl for agents, pgrep for processes, Docker support