OpenClaw Urgent Care#

When your OpenClaw setup breaks, use this skill to diagnose what happened and get the shortest safe path to recovery.

When to use this skill#

Use when:

• OpenClaw went silent after an update
• The gateway is unreachable or keeps crashing
• Your agent can see messages but can't do anything
• Commands that used to run automatically are now blocked
• A Discord channel is routing to the wrong agent
• Scheduled jobs stopped running
• A plugin or skill failed to install
• You want to verify your setup is healthy before making changes

Do NOT use for:

• Initial OpenClaw installation (use the official docs at openclaw.ai)
• Multi-agent architecture design
• Skill development or publishing

---

Common Failure Modes#

1. Gateway Offline#

Symptoms: Agent stopped responding. Dashboard unreachable. Discord bot silent.

Quick fix:

bash

openclaw gateway restart

If that doesn't work after an update:

bash

openclaw gateway install
openclaw status

---

2. Agent Can See Messages But Can't Do Anything (v2026.3.2)#

Symptom: Agent responds but can't run tools, execute commands, or take actions.

Cause: The v2026.3.2 update defaulted tools.profile to messages — restricting the agent to message-only mode.

Fix:

1. Open ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json
2. Find or add: "tools": { "profile": "full" }
3. Run: openclaw gateway restart

⚠️ full grants full tool access. Review your security posture before applying.

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3. Provider / Billing / Auth Failure#

Symptoms: Gateway is up. Agent is silent. Session logs show disabled:billing, usage limits, or authentication_error.

This is NOT a gateway problem. The gateway is fine — the model provider is blocking calls.

For disabled:billing (Anthropic cached penalty):

1. Find: ~/.openclaw/agents/<agent>/agent/auth-profiles.json
2. Remove the usageStats.anthropic:default entry
3. Restart: openclaw gateway restart

For usage cap:

• Raise the limit in your provider dashboard, or temporarily switch models.

For auth error:

• Verify and rotate your API key in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json.

---

4. Wrong Agent Handling a Channel (Routing / Binding)#

Symptom: Discord messages go to the default agent instead of the intended one.

Fix: Check ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json → bindings. Every non-default Discord account needs an explicit binding:

json

{
  "agentId": "your-agent-name",
  "match": {
    "channel": "discord",
    "accountId": "your-account-id"
  }
}

Then: openclaw gateway restart

---

5. Channel Connected But Messages Don't Flow#

Symptom: Channel shows connected/ready. Agent doesn't respond.

Common causes: @mention required, pairing not approved, allowlist blocking, missing OAuth scope.

Check:

bash

openclaw channels status --probe
openclaw logs --follow

Look for: allowlist blocked, pairing pending, permission denied, missing scope.

---

6. Commands Require Unexpected Approval (Post-Update)#

Symptom: Commands that ran automatically are now waiting for approval or timing out.

Cause: A recent update tightened exec approval defaults.

Check:

bash

openclaw config get | grep -A10 exec

Review ask, security, and host settings. Update to match your intended defaults, then restart.

---

7. Scheduled Jobs Not Running#

Symptom: Morning briefing didn't arrive. Cron jobs silent.

Check:

bash

openclaw cron status
openclaw cron list

Common causes: scheduler disabled after update, wrong delivery accountId, quiet hours active.

---

8. Plugin / Skill Won't Load#

Symptom: A skill fails after an update or fresh install.

Check:

bash

openclaw skills list --failed
openclaw logs --follow

Common causes: missing runtime dependency, package shape changed, security scan blocked install.

---

9. Gateway Installed But Not Staying Up#

Symptom: Service shows as loaded but keeps crashing. Dashboard unreachable. Restart loop.

Check:

bash

openclaw gateway status
openclaw logs --follow
openclaw doctor
lsof -i :18789

Common causes: port 18789 conflict, auth/bind config error, startup config mismatch.

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Automated Recovery Tool#

The full OpenClaw Urgent Care product automates all of the above:

• Runs preflight, collection, classification, and AI explanation in one command
• Covers all 11 failure modes with confidence scoring and evidence
• Safe auto-fix for gateway restart and tools.profile lockout
• Works completely offline — local model only, no cloud API needed
• Writes a full markdown recovery report

bash

# Install once
bash /path/to/openclaw-urgent-care/install.sh

# Then run from anywhere
urgentcare

Available at Claw Mart: shopclawmart.com → Search "OpenClaw Urgent Care"

One-time purchase · All future updates included

---

Triage Checklist (copy-paste for fast debugging)#

bash

# Step 1 — Is the gateway up?
openclaw status

# Step 2 — Any errors in recent sessions?
openclaw logs --follow

# Step 3 — Is config valid?
openclaw config validate

# Step 4 — Gateway restart (safe to run anytime)
openclaw gateway restart

# Step 5 — If still broken after an update
openclaw gateway install
openclaw doctor

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Built by Andre Bradford / S.C. Says Poetry LLC Full product: shopclawmart.com → OpenClaw Urgent Care