openclaw-agent-debugger

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name: openclaw-agent-debugger description: Diagnose and fix OpenClaw agent and gateway problems — heartbeats not firing, cron jobs failing, agents not responding, wrong routing, model errors, workspace issues, channel connection failures, and openclaw.json config errors. Use this skill when the user reports: agent not responding, heartbeat stopped, cron job not running, wrong agent getting messages, model errors, gateway won't start, channel disconnected, agent sending to wrong place, memory not writing, session errors, openclaw doctor errors, or any "something isn't working" situation with OpenClaw. This skill reads the openclaw.json config, interprets error patterns, walks through diagnostic steps, identifies the root cause, and produces the exact commands or file changes needed to fix it.

OpenClaw Agent Debugger

Diagnose OpenClaw problems systematically — from symptom to root cause to exact fix.

Diagnostic Philosophy

Every OpenClaw problem has a finite set of root causes. This skill works through them systematically rather than guessing. It always starts with the most likely cause for the reported symptom and works outward.

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Stage 1: Symptom Triage

Classify the reported problem into one of these categories:

Symptom	Most Likely Root Cause	First Check
Agent not responding at all	Gateway down / channel disconnected	openclaw gateway status
Wrong agent responding	Binding order wrong / default agent incorrect	Check bindings in openclaw.json
Heartbeat stopped firing	every: "0m" / activeHours window / no heartbeat block on any agent	Check heartbeat config
Heartbeat fires but no message sent	target: "none" or target resolves to nothing	Check target + to fields
Cron job not running	cron.enabled: false / wrong timezone / job disabled	openclaw cron list
Cron job runs but no delivery	delivery.mode: "none" / wrong channel target	Check job delivery config
Gateway won't start	Config validation error / port conflict / auth missing	openclaw doctor
Model errors	Wrong model string format / missing API key / rate limit	Check model.primary format
Memory not persisting	Workspace path wrong / file permissions / session type	Check workspace config
Channel offline	Auth expired / bot token invalid / account not linked	openclaw channels status --probe
"Unauthorized" on connect	Auth token mismatch	Check OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN
Multiple agents, routing broken	Binding specificity order wrong	Check binding priority order

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Stage 2: Gather Diagnostics

Request or run these commands in order. Each is a gate — stop if you find the problem.

Gate 1: Gateway health

openclaw gateway status           # Is Gateway running?
openclaw gateway status --deep    # Detailed health
openclaw status                   # Quick overview

If Gateway is down → skip to Gateway Recovery section

Gate 2: Config validation

openclaw doctor                   # Config errors, drift, known issues
openclaw doctor --fix             # Auto-repair where possible

If doctor reports errors → fix config errors first, then retest

Gate 3: Channel health

openclaw channels status --probe  # Are channels connected?
openclaw logs --follow            # Live log stream (watch for errors)

Gate 4: Agent and binding state

openclaw agents list --bindings   # Which agent handles which channel/peer?
openclaw agents list              # All agents and their workspaces

Gate 5: Cron state (if cron issues)

openclaw cron list                # All jobs, enabled/disabled status
openclaw cron runs --id <jobId>   # Run history for specific job

Gate 6: Session state

openclaw sessions                 # Active sessions

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Stage 3: Diagnosis by Symptom

HEARTBEAT NOT FIRING

Check 1: Is heartbeat configured?

// In openclaw.json — does agents.defaults.heartbeat exist?
// OR does any agents.list[] entry have a heartbeat block?
// CRITICAL: If ANY agents.list[] entry has a heartbeat block,
// ONLY those agents run heartbeats — not agents without the block.

Fix: Add heartbeat block to the correct agent in agents.list.

Check 2: Is every set to 0?

openclaw config get agents.defaults.heartbeat.every
# If "0m" → heartbeat disabled globally

Fix: openclaw config set agents.defaults.heartbeat.every "30m"

Check 3: activeHours window

// Is current time outside activeHours.start → activeHours.end?
// Check timezone — is it correct IANA timezone?
// "Africa/Johannesburg" not "SAST" not "UTC+2"

Fix: Correct timezone or adjust hours.

Check 4: Target is none

// heartbeat.target: "none" → runs but never delivers

Fix: Set target: "whatsapp" + to: "+27XXXXXXXXX" on the agent.

Check 5: Heartbeat runs but HEARTBEAT_OK is stripped

// If HEARTBEAT.md is empty (only headers/blank lines),
// OpenClaw skips the heartbeat turn to save API calls.

Fix: Add actual checklist items to HEARTBEAT.md.

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CRON JOB NOT RUNNING

Check 1: Cron enabled?

openclaw config get cron.enabled
# Must be true

Check 2: Job state

openclaw cron list
# Check: enabled=true, schedule correct, agentId correct

Check 3: Timezone

# Is the job scheduled in the right timezone?
# "0 7 * * *" with --tz "UTC" fires at 07:00 UTC = 09:00 SAST
# Common mistake: forgetting Africa/Johannesburg is UTC+2

Check 4: Run history

openclaw cron runs --id <jobId>
# Look for error entries — auth failures, model errors, delivery failures

Check 5: Agent binding

# If --agent flag was used, does that agentId exist?
openclaw agents list | grep <agentId>

Fix for stuck job with backoff:

openclaw cron run <jobId>   # Force immediate run

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WRONG AGENT RESPONDING

Root cause: Binding order. More-specific bindings must come BEFORE less-specific ones.

Priority order (highest to lowest):

1. peer (exact DM/group ID)
2. parentPeer (thread)
3. guildId + roles (Discord)
4. guildId (Discord)
5. teamId (Slack)
6. accountId
7. channel (no accountId)
8. fallback (default agent)

Diagnosis:

openclaw agents list --bindings
# Review binding order — is the more-specific rule ABOVE the less-specific?

Common mistake:

// WRONG — channel-wide rule catches everything before peer rule
bindings: [
  { agentId: "apex", match: { channel: "whatsapp" } },           // catches all WhatsApp
  { agentId: "sentinel", match: { channel: "whatsapp",
    peer: { kind: "direct", id: "+27XXXXXXXXX" } } },             // never reached
]

// CORRECT — peer rule first
bindings: [
  { agentId: "sentinel", match: { channel: "whatsapp",
    peer: { kind: "direct", id: "+27XXXXXXXXX" } } },             // specific → first
  { agentId: "apex", match: { channel: "whatsapp" } },            // catch-all → last
]

---

GATEWAY WON'T START

Step 1:

openclaw doctor
# Read every error — schema violations stop the Gateway cold

Common config errors:

Error	Fix
Unknown key in config	Remove the unrecognised field — strict schema validation
refusing to bind gateway ... without auth	Non-loopback bind needs gateway.auth.token
EADDRINUSE / port conflict	Another Gateway running: openclaw gateway stop then restart
Gateway start blocked: set gateway.mode=local	Config set to remote mode when running locally
Model string format wrong	Use provider/model format: anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6
agentDir collision	Two agents sharing same agentDir — give each a unique path

Step 2: After fixing, validate:

openclaw doctor --fix     # auto-repair where possible
openclaw gateway status   # confirm running

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CHANNEL DISCONNECTED

WhatsApp:

openclaw channels status --probe
# If offline: re-link the account
openclaw channels login --channel whatsapp --account personal

Telegram:

# If offline: verify bot token is still valid
# Check: channels.telegram.accounts.default.botToken
# Env var: TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN
openclaw logs --follow  # Watch for "bot token invalid" errors

Discord:

# Check bot token, guild invite, Message Content Intent enabled
openclaw logs --follow  # Watch for Discord-specific errors

---

MODEL ERRORS

Check 1: Model string format

// Must be: "provider/model"
// Common mistakes:
"claude-opus-4-6"                      // WRONG — missing provider prefix
"claude-opus-4-20250514"               // WRONG — old model string format
"anthropic/claude-opus-4-6"            // CORRECT
"anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6"          // CORRECT
"anthropic/claude-haiku-4-5-20251001"  // CORRECT

Check 2: API key present

# Anthropic key should be in environment or ~/.openclaw/.env
echo $ANTHROPIC_API_KEY  # should not be empty
cat ~/.openclaw/.env     # check if key is there

Check 3: Rate limits

openclaw logs --follow  # Look for "429" or "overloaded" errors
# Cron jobs have exponential backoff for rate limits — wait and retry

---

MEMORY NOT WRITING

Check 1: Workspace is writable

ls -la ~/.openclaw/workspace-[agentid]/
# Check permissions — should not be 444 on .md files other than SOUL/IDENTITY

Check 2: Correct workspace path

openclaw config get agents.list  # check workspace path for the agent
ls ~/.openclaw/workspace-[agentid]/  # does this directory exist?

Check 3: Session type

// MEMORY.md only loads in main/private sessions, NOT group contexts
// If agent is running in a group chat, MEMORY.md is intentionally excluded

Check 4: Compaction memory flush disabled

// Is memoryFlush.enabled: true?
agents.defaults.compaction.memoryFlush.enabled = true

---

Stage 4: Fix Output Format

After diagnosis, produce the fix in this format:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
DIAGNOSIS: [Agent/Feature] — [Root Cause]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

ROOT CAUSE:
[Clear explanation of what's wrong and why]

FIX:
[Exact commands or file changes — copy-paste ready]

VERIFY:
[Command to confirm the fix worked]

PREVENT:
[One sentence on how to avoid this happening again]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

---

Gateway Recovery (Emergency)

If Gateway is completely unresponsive:

# 1. Check if it's running
openclaw gateway status

# 2. Force stop and restart
openclaw gateway stop
openclaw gateway restart

# 3. If that fails, kill the process directly
pkill -f openclaw
openclaw gateway --port 18789

# 4. Check logs for why it crashed
openclaw logs --follow

# 5. If config is corrupted, validate
openclaw doctor

# 6. Nuclear option — reset to minimal config
cp ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json.bak
# Restore a git-backed version:
cd ~/.openclaw && git log --oneline  # find last good commit
git checkout <commit-hash> -- openclaw.json
openclaw gateway restart

---

Quick Reference: All Diagnostic Commands

openclaw gateway status           # Gateway health
openclaw gateway status --deep    # Detailed health
openclaw doctor                   # Config validation + known issues
openclaw doctor --fix             # Auto-repair
openclaw channels status --probe  # Channel connectivity
openclaw agents list --bindings   # Agent routing state
openclaw cron list                # All cron jobs
openclaw cron runs --id <id>      # Cron run history
openclaw logs --follow            # Live log stream
openclaw sessions                 # Active sessions
openclaw config get <key>         # Read specific config value
openclaw config set <key> <val>   # Set specific config value
openclaw system event --text "x"  # Manual heartbeat trigger
openclaw cron run <id>            # Force cron job run