fix(gateway): keep container restarts in-process

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Channels/Telegram: keep Bot API network fallbacks sticky after failed attempts and retry timed-out startup control calls once on the fallback route, so `deleteWebhook` IPv6 stalls no longer trigger slow multi-account retry storms. Fixes #73255. Thanks @ttomiczek and @sktbrd.
 - Gateway/models: merge explicit `models.providers.*.models` rows into the Gateway model catalog with normalized provider/model dedupe, and use normalized image-capability lookup so custom vision models keep native image attachments even when Pi discovery omits them or model ID casing differs. Fixes #64213 and #65165. Thanks @billonese and @202233a.
 - Gateway/reload: publish canonical post-write source config to in-process reloaders so simple config saves no longer create phantom plugin diffs or trigger unnecessary Gateway restarts. (#73267) Thanks @szsip239.
+- Gateway/Docker: keep config-triggered restarts in-process inside containers instead of spawning a detached child and exiting PID 1 cleanly, so Docker Swarm and other on-failure supervisors do not leave the service stuck at 0/1 replicas. Fixes #73178. Thanks @du-nguyen-IT007.
 - CLI/tasks: ship the task-registry control runtime in npm packages so `openclaw tasks cancel` can load ACP/subagent cancellation helpers from published builds. Fixes #68997. Thanks @1OAKDesign.
 - Channels/Telegram: preserve unsent generated media after partial reply streaming has already delivered the text, so `image_generate` outputs still reach Telegram as photos instead of being dropped from the final payload. Fixes #73253. Thanks @mlaihk.
 - Export/session: keep inline export HTML scripts and vendor libraries injected after template formatting so generated session exports open with the app code, markdown renderer, and syntax highlighter present. Fixes #41862 and #49957; carries forward #41861 and #68947. Thanks @briannewman, @martenzi, and @armanddp.

src/gateway/net.ts

@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
-import fs from "node:fs";
 import type { IncomingMessage } from "node:http";
 import net from "node:net";
 import type { GatewayBindMode } from "../config/types.gateway.js";
+import {
+  __resetContainerEnvironmentCacheForTest,
+  isContainerEnvironment,
+} from "../infra/container-environment.js";
 import {
   pickMatchingExternalInterfaceAddress,
   readNetworkInterfaces,
@@ -228,60 +231,10 @@ export function isLocalGatewayAddress(ip: string | undefined): boolean {
   return false;
 }
 
-/**
- * Detect whether the current process is running inside a container
- * (Docker, Podman, or Kubernetes).
- *
- * Uses two reliable heuristics:
- * 1. Presence of well-known container sentinel files such as `/.dockerenv`
- *    (Docker) or `/run/.containerenv` (Podman).
- * 2. Presence of container-related cgroup entries in `/proc/1/cgroup`
- *    (covers Docker, containerd, and Kubernetes pods).
- *
- * The result is cached after the first call so filesystem access
- * happens at most once per process lifetime.
- */
-let _containerCacheResult: boolean | undefined;
-export function isContainerEnvironment(): boolean {
-  if (_containerCacheResult !== undefined) {
-    return _containerCacheResult;
-  }
-  _containerCacheResult = detectContainerEnvironment();
-  return _containerCacheResult;
-}
-
-function detectContainerEnvironment(): boolean {
-  // 1. Check common Docker/Podman container sentinel files.
-  for (const sentinelPath of ["/.dockerenv", "/run/.containerenv", "/var/run/.containerenv"]) {
-    try {
-      fs.accessSync(sentinelPath, fs.constants.F_OK);
-      return true;
-    } catch {
-      // not present — continue
-    }
-  }
-  // 2. /proc/1/cgroup contains docker, containerd, kubepods, or lxc markers.
-  //    Covers both cgroup v1 (/docker/<id>, /kubepods/...) and cgroup v2
-  //    (kubepods.slice, cri-containerd-<id>.scope) path formats.
-  try {
-    const cgroup = fs.readFileSync("/proc/1/cgroup", "utf8");
-    if (
-      /\/docker\/|cri-containerd-[0-9a-f]|containerd\/[0-9a-f]{64}|\/kubepods[/.]|\blxc\b/.test(
-        cgroup,
-      )
-    ) {
-      return true;
-    }
-  } catch {
-    // /proc may not exist (macOS, Windows) — not a container
-  }
-  return false;
-}
-
-/** @internal — test-only helper to reset the cached container detection result. */
-export function __resetContainerCacheForTest(): void {
-  _containerCacheResult = undefined;
-}
+export {
+  isContainerEnvironment,
+  __resetContainerEnvironmentCacheForTest as __resetContainerCacheForTest,
+};
 
 /**
  * Resolves gateway bind host with fallback strategy.

src/infra/container-environment.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+import fs from "node:fs";
+
+/**
+ * Detect whether the current process is running inside a container
+ * (Docker, Podman, or Kubernetes).
+ *
+ * Uses two reliable heuristics:
+ * - Presence of common container sentinel files.
+ * - Container-related entries in /proc/1/cgroup.
+ *
+ * The result is cached after the first call so filesystem access happens at
+ * most once per process lifetime.
+ */
+let containerEnvironmentCache: boolean | undefined;
+
+export function isContainerEnvironment(): boolean {
+  if (containerEnvironmentCache !== undefined) {
+    return containerEnvironmentCache;
+  }
+  containerEnvironmentCache = detectContainerEnvironment();
+  return containerEnvironmentCache;
+}
+
+function detectContainerEnvironment(): boolean {
+  for (const sentinelPath of ["/.dockerenv", "/run/.containerenv", "/var/run/.containerenv"]) {
+    try {
+      fs.accessSync(sentinelPath, fs.constants.F_OK);
+      return true;
+    } catch {
+      // Not present; try the next signal.
+    }
+  }
+
+  try {
+    const cgroup = fs.readFileSync("/proc/1/cgroup", "utf8");
+    if (
+      /\/docker\/|cri-containerd-[0-9a-f]|containerd\/[0-9a-f]{64}|\/kubepods[/.]|\blxc\b/.test(
+        cgroup,
+      )
+    ) {
+      return true;
+    }
+  } catch {
+    // /proc may not exist on non-Linux platforms.
+  }
+
+  return false;
+}
+
+/** @internal test helper */
+export function __resetContainerEnvironmentCacheForTest(): void {
+  containerEnvironmentCache = undefined;
+}

src/infra/process-respawn.test.ts

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import { SUPERVISOR_HINT_ENV_VARS } from "./supervisor-markers.js";
 
 const spawnMock = vi.hoisted(() => vi.fn());
 const triggerOpenClawRestartMock = vi.hoisted(() => vi.fn());
+const isContainerEnvironmentMock = vi.hoisted(() => vi.fn(() => false));
 
 vi.mock("node:child_process", async () => {
   const { mockNodeBuiltinModule } = await import("openclaw/plugin-sdk/test-node-mocks");
@@ -17,6 +18,9 @@ vi.mock("node:child_process", async () => {
 vi.mock("./restart.js", () => ({
   triggerOpenClawRestart: (...args: unknown[]) => triggerOpenClawRestartMock(...args),
 }));
+vi.mock("./container-environment.js", () => ({
+  isContainerEnvironment: () => isContainerEnvironmentMock(),
+}));
 
 import {
   respawnGatewayProcessForUpdate,
@@ -44,6 +48,8 @@ afterEach(() => {
   process.execArgv = [...originalExecArgv];
   spawnMock.mockClear();
   triggerOpenClawRestartMock.mockClear();
+  isContainerEnvironmentMock.mockReset();
+  isContainerEnvironmentMock.mockReturnValue(false);
   if (originalPlatformDescriptor) {
     Object.defineProperty(process, "platform", originalPlatformDescriptor);
   }
@@ -206,6 +212,21 @@ describe("restartGatewayProcessWithFreshPid", () => {
     expect(spawnMock).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
   });
 
+  it("returns disabled in containers so PID 1 stays alive for in-process restart", () => {
+    delete process.env.OPENCLAW_NO_RESPAWN;
+    clearSupervisorHints();
+    setPlatform("linux");
+    isContainerEnvironmentMock.mockReturnValue(true);
+
+    const result = restartGatewayProcessWithFreshPid();
+
+    expect(result).toEqual({
+      mode: "disabled",
+      detail: "container: use in-process restart to keep PID 1 alive",
+    });
+    expect(spawnMock).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
   it("ignores node task script hints for gateway restart detection on Windows", () => {
     clearSupervisorHints();
     setPlatform("win32");

src/infra/process-respawn.ts

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import { spawn, type ChildProcess } from "node:child_process";
 import { normalizeOptionalLowercaseString } from "../shared/string-coerce.js";
+import { isContainerEnvironment } from "./container-environment.js";
 import { formatErrorMessage } from "./errors.js";
 import { triggerOpenClawRestart } from "./restart.js";
 import { detectRespawnSupervisor } from "./supervisor-markers.js";
@@ -66,6 +67,12 @@ export function restartGatewayProcessWithFreshPid(): GatewayRespawnResult {
       detail: "win32: detached respawn unsupported without Scheduled Task markers",
     };
   }
+  if (isContainerEnvironment()) {
+    return {
+      mode: "disabled",
+      detail: "container: use in-process restart to keep PID 1 alive",
+    };
+  }
 
   try {
     const { pid } = spawnDetachedGatewayProcess();