gateway-watchdog

Keeps the OpenClaw gateway alive without killing it during startup. Five defensive layers prevent false restarts and restart loops.

How It Works

1. HTTP check — pings http://127.0.0.1:18789; exits immediately if the gateway responds
2. Boot grace — if the process is <180s old, waits without acting (avoids killing a booting gateway)
3. Port check — if the port is bound but HTTP is slow, waits up to 15s for recovery
4. Progressive retry — 3 retries at 15s / 30s / 45s intervals
5. Cooldown — enforces a 10-minute gap between restarts to prevent loops

Logs go to ~/.openclaw/logs/watchdog.log.

Setup (macOS launchd)

Create ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.openclaw.gateway-watchdog.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.openclaw.gateway-watchdog</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/bin/bash</string>
        <string>/path/to/skills/gateway-watchdog/scripts/gateway-watchdog.sh</string>
    </array>
    <key>StartInterval</key>
    <integer>300</integer>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Then load it:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.openclaw.gateway-watchdog.plist

Usage (manual)

bash scripts/gateway-watchdog.sh

Requirements

• macOS (uses launchctl, lsof, date -j)
• curl in PATH
• OpenClaw gateway running under launchd as ai.openclaw.gateway