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troubleshooting

Fix OpenClaw Gateway Not Running

Diagnose a stopped or crashing OpenClaw Gateway before changing firewall or public access settings.

Symptom
Gateway process is stopped, crashing, or not reachable locally.
Severity
high
Affected Area
gateway
Proceed with caution Do not open your firewall to 'fix' a crashed process. Diagnose locally first.

Symptom

You attempt to connect to the OpenClaw dashboard or send a message via Telegram, but nothing happens. The background process is either stopped or crashing in a loop.

Likely Causes

  • You started OpenClaw inside an SSH session and it died when you closed your laptop/terminal.
  • Another process is using port 18789.
  • A syntax error exists in your claw.config.json (like a missing comma).
  • The Node.js version is too old.

Diagnostic Commands

Run the built-in diagnostic tool first.

bash
openclaw doctor

If you are running OpenClaw as a systemd service or via pm2, check the logs:

bash
pm2 logs openclaw --lines 50

Good Output vs Bad Output

Good Output (Doctor):

✔ Node.js version is v24.x\n✔ Port 18789 is available\n✔ Config syntax is valid

Bad Output (Doctor):

✖ Error parsing claw.config.json: Unexpected token } in JSON at position 402

Fix Steps

Diagnose: Gateway not running

  1. Does `openclaw doctor` show 'Port 18789 is already in use'?

    YES Run `lsof -i :18789` to find the stuck process, then `kill -9 <PID>`.
    NO Continue to check configuration syntax.

  2. Does `openclaw doctor` report 'Error parsing config JSON'?

    YES Open `claw.config.json` and fix the syntax. Look for trailing commas or missing quotes.
    NO Continue to check process managers.

  3. Does Gateway run fine until you close SSH?

    YES You need a process manager. Run OpenClaw using `pm2 start openclaw --name gateway`.
    NO Check your Node version or request deep debugging help.

What NOT to do

  • Do not run sudo openclaw start. If the Gateway crashed due to a permission issue, running it as root creates a massive security vulnerability. Fix the folder permissions (chown -R clawuser:clawuser ~/openclaw-workspace) instead.
  • Do not open ufw ports. If it’s not running locally, opening the firewall will not magically fix it.

When to ask for help

If the process is crashing deeply inside the V8 engine, or if you keep hitting obscure EACCES or EADDRINUSE errors that kill doesn’t solve, request a Troubleshooting Session. We can help you debug the raw logs securely.

Sources

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