| name | restart |
| description | Build TypeScript and restart the ClawDad service. Use when the user says "restart", "rebuild", "bounce", or after making code changes that need to take effect. Does NOT pull code — use /update for that. |
ClawDad Restart
Build and restart the running service. No git operations.
Steps
1. Build
npm run build
If the build fails, show the error and stop. Don't restart with a broken build.
2. Detect service unit
systemctl --user list-units --type=service --state=running 2>/dev/null | grep -oE '(com-nanoclaw[^ ]+|nanoclaw)\.service' | head -1
3. Restart
If a service unit was found:
systemctl --user restart "$UNIT_NAME"
sleep 3
systemctl --user status "$UNIT_NAME" --no-pager | head -5
If no service unit is found (dev mode):
echo "No systemd service found. Stop any running instance and start manually:"
echo " node dist/index.js"
4. Verify
curl -sf http://localhost:3456/api/health | python3 -c "import sys,json; d=json.load(sys.stdin); print(f\"docker={d['docker']['status']} proxy={d['credential_proxy']['status']} image={d['container_image']['status']}\")"
Container rebuild
If changes were made to container/agent-runner/src/ or container/ files, the host-side TypeScript build is not enough — the Docker image also needs rebuilding:
CONTAINER_RUNTIME=docker ./container/build.sh
The build script automatically clears warm pool source caches (data/sessions/*/agent-runner-src/). Without a container rebuild, agents will still run the old code.
When to rebuild: Any change to files under container/ (agent-runner, MCP server, skills, Dockerfile). Not needed for changes to src/, web/, or groups/ — those are host-side or volume-mounted.
Critical rule
NEVER use kill on the node process directly. The service has Restart=always — killing it just causes systemd to respawn the old build, creating zombie processes and port conflicts. Always use systemctl --user restart.
