openclaw/docs/gateway/doctor.md

summary, read_when, title, sidebarTitle

summary	read_when	title	sidebarTitle
Doctor command: health checks, config migrations, and repair steps	Adding or modifying doctor migrations Introducing breaking config changes	Doctor	Doctor

openclaw doctor is the repair + migration tool for OpenClaw. It fixes stale config/state, checks health, and provides actionable repair steps.

Quick start

openclaw doctor

Headless and automation modes

```bash openclaw doctor --yes ```

Accept defaults without prompting (including restart/service/sandbox repair steps when applicable).

```bash openclaw doctor --repair ```

Apply recommended repairs without prompting (repairs + restarts where safe).

```bash openclaw doctor --repair --force ```

Apply aggressive repairs too (overwrites custom supervisor configs).

```bash openclaw doctor --non-interactive ```

Run without prompts and only apply safe migrations (config normalization + on-disk state moves). Skips restart/service/sandbox actions that require human confirmation. Legacy state migrations run automatically when detected.

```bash openclaw doctor --deep ```

Scan system services for extra gateway installs (launchd/systemd/schtasks).

If you want to review changes before writing, open the config file first:

cat ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json

What it does (summary)

- Optional pre-flight update for git installs (interactive only). - UI protocol freshness check (rebuilds Control UI when the protocol schema is newer). - Health check + restart prompt. - Skills status summary (eligible/missing/blocked) and plugin status. - Config normalization for legacy values. - Talk config migration from legacy flat `talk.*` fields into `talk.provider` + `talk.providers.`. - Browser migration checks for legacy Chrome extension configs and Chrome MCP readiness. - OpenCode provider override warnings (`models.providers.opencode` / `models.providers.opencode-go`). - Codex OAuth shadowing warnings (`models.providers.openai-codex`). - OAuth TLS prerequisites check for OpenAI Codex OAuth profiles. - Legacy on-disk state migration (sessions/agent dir/WhatsApp auth). - Legacy plugin manifest contract key migration (`speechProviders`, `realtimeTranscriptionProviders`, `realtimeVoiceProviders`, `mediaUnderstandingProviders`, `imageGenerationProviders`, `videoGenerationProviders`, `webFetchProviders`, `webSearchProviders` → `contracts`). - Legacy cron store migration (`jobId`, `schedule.cron`, top-level delivery/payload fields, payload `provider`, simple `notify: true` webhook fallback jobs). - Legacy agent runtime-policy migration to `agents.defaults.agentRuntime` and `agents.list[].agentRuntime`. - Session lock file inspection and stale lock cleanup. - Session transcript repair for duplicated prompt-rewrite branches created by affected 2026.4.24 builds. - State integrity and permissions checks (sessions, transcripts, state dir). - Config file permission checks (chmod 600) when running locally. - Model auth health: checks OAuth expiry, can refresh expiring tokens, and reports auth-profile cooldown/disabled states. - Extra workspace dir detection (`~/openclaw`). - Sandbox image repair when sandboxing is enabled. - Legacy service migration and extra gateway detection. - Matrix channel legacy state migration (in `--fix` / `--repair` mode). - Gateway runtime checks (service installed but not running; cached launchd label). - Channel status warnings (probed from the running gateway). - Supervisor config audit (launchd/systemd/schtasks) with optional repair. - Gateway runtime best-practice checks (Node vs Bun, version-manager paths). - Gateway port collision diagnostics (default `18789`). - Security warnings for open DM policies. - Gateway auth checks for local token mode (offers token generation when no token source exists; does not overwrite token SecretRef configs). - Device pairing trouble detection (pending first-time pair requests, pending role/scope upgrades, stale local device-token cache drift, and paired-record auth drift). - systemd linger check on Linux. - Workspace bootstrap file size check (truncation/near-limit warnings for context files). - Shell completion status check and auto-install/upgrade. - Memory search embedding provider readiness check (local model, remote API key, or QMD binary). - Source install checks (pnpm workspace mismatch, missing UI assets, missing tsx binary). - Writes updated config + wizard metadata.

Dreams UI backfill and reset

The Control UI Dreams scene includes Backfill, Reset, and Clear Grounded actions for the grounded dreaming workflow. These actions use gateway doctor-style RPC methods, but they are not part of openclaw doctor CLI repair/migration.

What they do:

• Backfill scans historical memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md files in the active workspace, runs the grounded REM diary pass, and writes reversible backfill entries into DREAMS.md.
• Reset removes only those marked backfill diary entries from DREAMS.md.
• Clear Grounded removes only staged grounded-only short-term entries that came from historical replay and have not accumulated live recall or daily support yet.

What they do not do by themselves:

• they do not edit MEMORY.md
• they do not run full doctor migrations
• they do not automatically stage grounded candidates into the live short-term promotion store unless you explicitly run the staged CLI path first

If you want grounded historical replay to influence the normal deep promotion lane, use the CLI flow instead:

openclaw memory rem-backfill --path ./memory --stage-short-term

That stages grounded durable candidates into the short-term dreaming store while keeping DREAMS.md as the review surface.

Detailed behavior and rationale

If this is a git checkout and doctor is running interactively, it offers to update (fetch/rebase/build) before running doctor. If the config contains legacy value shapes (for example `messages.ackReaction` without a channel-specific override), doctor normalizes them into the current schema.

That includes legacy Talk flat fields. Current public Talk config is `talk.provider` + `talk.providers.<provider>`. Doctor rewrites old `talk.voiceId` / `talk.voiceAliases` / `talk.modelId` / `talk.outputFormat` / `talk.apiKey` shapes into the provider map.

When the config contains deprecated keys, other commands refuse to run and ask you to run `openclaw doctor`.

Doctor will:

- Explain which legacy keys were found.
- Show the migration it applied.
- Rewrite `~/.openclaw/openclaw.json` with the updated schema.

The Gateway also auto-runs doctor migrations on startup when it detects a legacy config format, so stale configs are repaired without manual intervention. Cron job store migrations are handled by `openclaw doctor --fix`.

Current migrations:

- `routing.allowFrom` → `channels.whatsapp.allowFrom`
- `routing.groupChat.requireMention` → `channels.whatsapp/telegram/imessage.groups."*".requireMention`
- `routing.groupChat.historyLimit` → `messages.groupChat.historyLimit`
- `routing.groupChat.mentionPatterns` → `messages.groupChat.mentionPatterns`
- `routing.queue` → `messages.queue`
- `routing.bindings` → top-level `bindings`
- `routing.agents`/`routing.defaultAgentId` → `agents.list` + `agents.list[].default`
- legacy `talk.voiceId`/`talk.voiceAliases`/`talk.modelId`/`talk.outputFormat`/`talk.apiKey` → `talk.provider` + `talk.providers.<provider>`
- `routing.agentToAgent` → `tools.agentToAgent`
- `routing.transcribeAudio` → `tools.media.audio.models`
- `messages.tts.<provider>` (`openai`/`elevenlabs`/`microsoft`/`edge`) → `messages.tts.providers.<provider>`
- `messages.tts.provider: "edge"` and `messages.tts.providers.edge` → `messages.tts.provider: "microsoft"` and `messages.tts.providers.microsoft`
- `channels.discord.voice.tts.<provider>` (`openai`/`elevenlabs`/`microsoft`/`edge`) → `channels.discord.voice.tts.providers.<provider>`
- `channels.discord.accounts.<id>.voice.tts.<provider>` (`openai`/`elevenlabs`/`microsoft`/`edge`) → `channels.discord.accounts.<id>.voice.tts.providers.<provider>`
- `plugins.entries.voice-call.config.tts.<provider>` (`openai`/`elevenlabs`/`microsoft`/`edge`) → `plugins.entries.voice-call.config.tts.providers.<provider>`
- `plugins.entries.voice-call.config.tts.provider: "edge"` and `plugins.entries.voice-call.config.tts.providers.edge` → `provider: "microsoft"` and `providers.microsoft`
- `plugins.entries.voice-call.config.provider: "log"` → `"mock"`
- `plugins.entries.voice-call.config.twilio.from` → `plugins.entries.voice-call.config.fromNumber`
- `plugins.entries.voice-call.config.streaming.sttProvider` → `plugins.entries.voice-call.config.streaming.provider`
- `plugins.entries.voice-call.config.streaming.openaiApiKey|sttModel|silenceDurationMs|vadThreshold` → `plugins.entries.voice-call.config.streaming.providers.openai.*`
- `bindings[].match.accountID` → `bindings[].match.accountId`
- For channels with named `accounts` but lingering single-account top-level channel values, move those account-scoped values into the promoted account chosen for that channel (`accounts.default` for most channels; Matrix can preserve an existing matching named/default target)
- `identity` → `agents.list[].identity`
- `agent.*` → `agents.defaults` + `tools.*` (tools/elevated/exec/sandbox/subagents)
- `agent.model`/`allowedModels`/`modelAliases`/`modelFallbacks`/`imageModelFallbacks` → `agents.defaults.models` + `agents.defaults.model.primary/fallbacks` + `agents.defaults.imageModel.primary/fallbacks`
- remove `agents.defaults.llm`; use `models.providers.<id>.timeoutSeconds` for slow provider/model timeouts
- `browser.ssrfPolicy.allowPrivateNetwork` → `browser.ssrfPolicy.dangerouslyAllowPrivateNetwork`
- `browser.profiles.*.driver: "extension"` → `"existing-session"`
- remove `browser.relayBindHost` (legacy extension relay setting)
- legacy `models.providers.*.api: "openai"` → `"openai-completions"` (gateway startup also skips providers whose `api` is set to a future or unknown enum value rather than failing closed)

Doctor warnings also include account-default guidance for multi-account channels:

- If two or more `channels.<channel>.accounts` entries are configured without `channels.<channel>.defaultAccount` or `accounts.default`, doctor warns that fallback routing can pick an unexpected account.
- If `channels.<channel>.defaultAccount` is set to an unknown account ID, doctor warns and lists configured account IDs.

If you've added `models.providers.opencode`, `opencode-zen`, or `opencode-go` manually, it overrides the built-in OpenCode catalog from `@mariozechner/pi-ai`. That can force models onto the wrong API or zero out costs. Doctor warns so you can remove the override and restore per-model API routing + costs. If your browser config still points at the removed Chrome extension path, doctor normalizes it to the current host-local Chrome MCP attach model:

- `browser.profiles.*.driver: "extension"` becomes `"existing-session"`
- `browser.relayBindHost` is removed

Doctor also audits the host-local Chrome MCP path when you use `defaultProfile: "user"` or a configured `existing-session` profile:

- checks whether Google Chrome is installed on the same host for default auto-connect profiles
- checks the detected Chrome version and warns when it is below Chrome 144
- reminds you to enable remote debugging in the browser inspect page (for example `chrome://inspect/#remote-debugging`, `brave://inspect/#remote-debugging`, or `edge://inspect/#remote-debugging`)

Doctor cannot enable the Chrome-side setting for you. Host-local Chrome MCP still requires:

- a Chromium-based browser 144+ on the gateway/node host
- the browser running locally
- remote debugging enabled in that browser
- approving the first attach consent prompt in the browser

Readiness here is only about local attach prerequisites. Existing-session keeps the current Chrome MCP route limits; advanced routes like `responsebody`, PDF export, download interception, and batch actions still require a managed browser or raw CDP profile.

This check does **not** apply to Docker, sandbox, remote-browser, or other headless flows. Those continue to use raw CDP.

When an OpenAI Codex OAuth profile is configured, doctor probes the OpenAI authorization endpoint to verify that the local Node/OpenSSL TLS stack can validate the certificate chain. If the probe fails with a certificate error (for example `UNABLE_TO_GET_ISSUER_CERT_LOCALLY`, expired cert, or self-signed cert), doctor prints platform-specific fix guidance. On macOS with a Homebrew Node, the fix is usually `brew postinstall ca-certificates`. With `--deep`, the probe runs even if the gateway is healthy. If you previously added legacy OpenAI transport settings under `models.providers.openai-codex`, they can shadow the built-in Codex OAuth provider path that newer releases use automatically. Doctor warns when it sees those old transport settings alongside Codex OAuth so you can remove or rewrite the stale transport override and get the built-in routing/fallback behavior back. Custom proxies and header-only overrides are still supported and do not trigger this warning. When the bundled Codex plugin is enabled, doctor also checks whether `openai-codex/*` primary model refs still resolve through the default PI runner. That combination is valid when you want Codex OAuth/subscription auth through PI, but it is easy to confuse with the native Codex app-server harness. Doctor warns and points to the explicit app-server shape: `openai/*` plus `agentRuntime.id: "codex"` or `OPENCLAW_AGENT_RUNTIME=codex`.

Doctor does not repair this automatically because both routes are valid:

- `openai-codex/*` + PI means "use Codex OAuth/subscription auth through the normal OpenClaw runner."
- `openai/*` + `runtime: "codex"` means "run the embedded turn through native Codex app-server."
- `/codex ...` means "control or bind a native Codex conversation from chat."
- `/acp ...` or `runtime: "acp"` means "use the external ACP/acpx adapter."

If the warning appears, choose the route you intended and edit config manually. Keep the warning as-is when PI Codex OAuth is intentional.

Doctor can migrate older on-disk layouts into the current structure:

- Sessions store + transcripts:
  - from `~/.openclaw/sessions/` to `~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/sessions/`
- Agent dir:
  - from `~/.openclaw/agent/` to `~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/agent/`
- WhatsApp auth state (Baileys):
  - from legacy `~/.openclaw/credentials/*.json` (except `oauth.json`)
  - to `~/.openclaw/credentials/whatsapp/<accountId>/...` (default account id: `default`)

These migrations are best-effort and idempotent; doctor will emit warnings when it leaves any legacy folders behind as backups. The Gateway/CLI also auto-migrates the legacy sessions + agent dir on startup so history/auth/models land in the per-agent path without a manual doctor run. WhatsApp auth is intentionally only migrated via `openclaw doctor`. Talk provider/provider-map normalization now compares by structural equality, so key-order-only diffs no longer trigger repeat no-op `doctor --fix` changes.

Doctor scans all installed plugin manifests for deprecated top-level capability keys (`speechProviders`, `realtimeTranscriptionProviders`, `realtimeVoiceProviders`, `mediaUnderstandingProviders`, `imageGenerationProviders`, `videoGenerationProviders`, `webFetchProviders`, `webSearchProviders`). When found, it offers to move them into the `contracts` object and rewrite the manifest file in-place. This migration is idempotent; if the `contracts` key already has the same values, the legacy key is removed without duplicating the data. Doctor also checks the cron job store (`~/.openclaw/cron/jobs.json` by default, or `cron.store` when overridden) for old job shapes that the scheduler still accepts for compatibility.

Current cron cleanups include:

- `jobId` → `id`
- `schedule.cron` → `schedule.expr`
- top-level payload fields (`message`, `model`, `thinking`, ...) → `payload`
- top-level delivery fields (`deliver`, `channel`, `to`, `provider`, ...) → `delivery`
- payload `provider` delivery aliases → explicit `delivery.channel`
- simple legacy `notify: true` webhook fallback jobs → explicit `delivery.mode="webhook"` with `delivery.to=cron.webhook`

Doctor only auto-migrates `notify: true` jobs when it can do so without changing behavior. If a job combines legacy notify fallback with an existing non-webhook delivery mode, doctor warns and leaves that job for manual review.

Doctor scans every agent session directory for stale write-lock files — files left behind when a session exited abnormally. For each lock file found it reports: the path, PID, whether the PID is still alive, lock age, and whether it is considered stale (dead PID or older than 30 minutes). In `--fix` / `--repair` mode it removes stale lock files automatically; otherwise it prints a note and instructs you to rerun with `--fix`. Doctor scans agent session JSONL files for the duplicated branch shape created by the 2026.4.24 prompt transcript rewrite bug: an abandoned user turn with OpenClaw internal runtime context plus an active sibling containing the same visible user prompt. In `--fix` / `--repair` mode, doctor backs up each affected file next to the original and rewrites the transcript to the active branch so gateway history and memory readers no longer see duplicate turns. The state directory is the operational brainstem. If it vanishes, you lose sessions, credentials, logs, and config (unless you have backups elsewhere).

Doctor checks:

- **State dir missing**: warns about catastrophic state loss, prompts to recreate the directory, and reminds you that it cannot recover missing data.
- **State dir permissions**: verifies writability; offers to repair permissions (and emits a `chown` hint when owner/group mismatch is detected).
- **macOS cloud-synced state dir**: warns when state resolves under iCloud Drive (`~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/...`) or `~/Library/CloudStorage/...` because sync-backed paths can cause slower I/O and lock/sync races.
- **Linux SD or eMMC state dir**: warns when state resolves to an `mmcblk*` mount source, because SD or eMMC-backed random I/O can be slower and wear faster under session and credential writes.
- **Session dirs missing**: `sessions/` and the session store directory are required to persist history and avoid `ENOENT` crashes.
- **Transcript mismatch**: warns when recent session entries have missing transcript files.
- **Main session "1-line JSONL"**: flags when the main transcript has only one line (history is not accumulating).
- **Multiple state dirs**: warns when multiple `~/.openclaw` folders exist across home directories or when `OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR` points elsewhere (history can split between installs).
- **Remote mode reminder**: if `gateway.mode=remote`, doctor reminds you to run it on the remote host (the state lives there).
- **Config file permissions**: warns if `~/.openclaw/openclaw.json` is group/world readable and offers to tighten to `600`.

Doctor inspects OAuth profiles in the auth store, warns when tokens are expiring/expired, and can refresh them when safe. If the Anthropic OAuth/token profile is stale, it suggests an Anthropic API key or the Anthropic setup-token path. Refresh prompts only appear when running interactively (TTY); `--non-interactive` skips refresh attempts.

When an OAuth refresh fails permanently (for example `refresh_token_reused`, `invalid_grant`, or a provider telling you to sign in again), doctor reports that re-auth is required and prints the exact `openclaw models auth login --provider ...` command to run.

Doctor also reports auth profiles that are temporarily unusable due to:

- short cooldowns (rate limits/timeouts/auth failures)
- longer disables (billing/credit failures)

If `hooks.gmail.model` is set, doctor validates the model reference against the catalog and allowlist and warns when it won't resolve or is disallowed. When sandboxing is enabled, doctor checks Docker images and offers to build or switch to legacy names if the current image is missing. Doctor verifies runtime dependencies only for bundled plugins that are active in the current config or enabled by their bundled manifest default, for example `plugins.entries.discord.enabled: true`, legacy `channels.discord.enabled: true`, or a default-enabled bundled provider. If any are missing, doctor reports the packages and installs them in `openclaw doctor --fix` / `openclaw doctor --repair` mode. External plugins still use `openclaw plugins install` / `openclaw plugins update`; doctor does not install dependencies for arbitrary plugin paths.

The Gateway and local CLI can also repair active bundled plugin runtime dependencies on demand before importing a bundled plugin. These installs are scoped to the plugin runtime install root, run with scripts disabled, do not write a package lock, and are guarded by an install-root lock so concurrent CLI or Gateway starts do not mutate the same `node_modules` tree at the same time.

Doctor detects legacy gateway services (launchd/systemd/schtasks) and offers to remove them and install the OpenClaw service using the current gateway port. It can also scan for extra gateway-like services and print cleanup hints. Profile-named OpenClaw gateway services are considered first-class and are not flagged as "extra." When a Matrix channel account has a pending or actionable legacy state migration, doctor (in `--fix` / `--repair` mode) creates a pre-migration snapshot and then runs the best-effort migration steps: legacy Matrix state migration and legacy encrypted-state preparation. Both steps are non-fatal; errors are logged and startup continues. In read-only mode (`openclaw doctor` without `--fix`) this check is skipped entirely. Doctor now inspects device-pairing state as part of the normal health pass.

What it reports:

- pending first-time pairing requests
- pending role upgrades for already paired devices
- pending scope upgrades for already paired devices
- public-key mismatch repairs where the device id still matches but the device identity no longer matches the approved record
- paired records missing an active token for an approved role
- paired tokens whose scopes drift outside the approved pairing baseline
- local cached device-token entries for the current machine that predate a gateway-side token rotation or carry stale scope metadata

Doctor does not auto-approve pair requests or auto-rotate device tokens. It prints the exact next steps instead:

- inspect pending requests with `openclaw devices list`
- approve the exact request with `openclaw devices approve <requestId>`
- rotate a fresh token with `openclaw devices rotate --device <deviceId> --role <role>`
- remove and re-approve a stale record with `openclaw devices remove <deviceId>`

This closes the common "already paired but still getting pairing required" hole: doctor now distinguishes first-time pairing from pending role/scope upgrades and from stale token/device-identity drift.

Doctor emits warnings when a provider is open to DMs without an allowlist, or when a policy is configured in a dangerous way. If running as a systemd user service, doctor ensures lingering is enabled so the gateway stays alive after logout. Doctor prints a summary of the workspace state for the default agent:

- **Skills status**: counts eligible, missing-requirements, and allowlist-blocked skills.
- **Legacy workspace dirs**: warns when `~/openclaw` or other legacy workspace directories exist alongside the current workspace.
- **Plugin status**: counts enabled/disabled/errored plugins; lists plugin IDs for any errors; reports bundle plugin capabilities.
- **Plugin compatibility warnings**: flags plugins that have compatibility issues with the current runtime.
- **Plugin diagnostics**: surfaces any load-time warnings or errors emitted by the plugin registry.

Doctor checks whether workspace bootstrap files (for example `AGENTS.md`, `CLAUDE.md`, or other injected context files) are near or over the configured character budget. It reports per-file raw vs. injected character counts, truncation percentage, truncation cause (`max/file` or `max/total`), and total injected characters as a fraction of the total budget. When files are truncated or near the limit, doctor prints tips for tuning `agents.defaults.bootstrapMaxChars` and `agents.defaults.bootstrapTotalMaxChars`. Doctor checks whether tab completion is installed for the current shell (zsh, bash, fish, or PowerShell):

- If the shell profile uses a slow dynamic completion pattern (`source <(openclaw completion ...)`), doctor upgrades it to the faster cached file variant.
- If completion is configured in the profile but the cache file is missing, doctor regenerates the cache automatically.
- If no completion is configured at all, doctor prompts to install it (interactive mode only; skipped with `--non-interactive`).

Run `openclaw completion --write-state` to regenerate the cache manually.

Doctor checks local gateway token auth readiness.

- If token mode needs a token and no token source exists, doctor offers to generate one.
- If `gateway.auth.token` is SecretRef-managed but unavailable, doctor warns and does not overwrite it with plaintext.
- `openclaw doctor --generate-gateway-token` forces generation only when no token SecretRef is configured.

Some repair flows need to inspect configured credentials without weakening runtime fail-fast behavior.

- `openclaw doctor --fix` now uses the same read-only SecretRef summary model as status-family commands for targeted config repairs.
- Example: Telegram `allowFrom` / `groupAllowFrom` `@username` repair tries to use configured bot credentials when available.
- If the Telegram bot token is configured via SecretRef but unavailable in the current command path, doctor reports that the credential is configured-but-unavailable and skips auto-resolution instead of crashing or misreporting the token as missing.

Doctor runs a health check and offers to restart the gateway when it looks unhealthy. Doctor checks whether the configured memory search embedding provider is ready for the default agent. The behavior depends on the configured backend and provider:

- **QMD backend**: probes whether the `qmd` binary is available and startable. If not, prints fix guidance including the npm package and a manual binary path option.
- **Explicit local provider**: checks for a local model file or a recognized remote/downloadable model URL. If missing, suggests switching to a remote provider.
- **Explicit remote provider** (`openai`, `voyage`, etc.): verifies an API key is present in the environment or auth store. Prints actionable fix hints if missing.
- **Auto provider**: checks local model availability first, then tries each remote provider in auto-selection order.

When a gateway probe result is available (gateway was healthy at the time of the check), doctor cross-references its result with the CLI-visible config and notes any discrepancy.

Use `openclaw memory status --deep` to verify embedding readiness at runtime.

If the gateway is healthy, doctor runs a channel status probe and reports warnings with suggested fixes. Doctor checks the installed supervisor config (launchd/systemd/schtasks) for missing or outdated defaults (e.g., systemd network-online dependencies and restart delay). When it finds a mismatch, it recommends an update and can rewrite the service file/task to the current defaults.

Notes:

- `openclaw doctor` prompts before rewriting supervisor config.
- `openclaw doctor --yes` accepts the default repair prompts.
- `openclaw doctor --repair` applies recommended fixes without prompts.
- `openclaw doctor --repair --force` overwrites custom supervisor configs.
- `OPENCLAW_SERVICE_REPAIR_POLICY=external` keeps doctor read-only for gateway service lifecycle. It still reports service health and runs non-service repairs, but skips service install/start/restart/bootstrap, supervisor config rewrites, and legacy service cleanup because an external supervisor owns that lifecycle.
- If token auth requires a token and `gateway.auth.token` is SecretRef-managed, doctor service install/repair validates the SecretRef but does not persist resolved plaintext token values into supervisor service environment metadata.
- Doctor detects managed `.env`/SecretRef-backed service environment values that older LaunchAgent, systemd, or Windows Scheduled Task installs embedded inline and rewrites the service metadata so those values load from the runtime source instead of the supervisor definition.
- If token auth requires a token and the configured token SecretRef is unresolved, doctor blocks the install/repair path with actionable guidance.
- If both `gateway.auth.token` and `gateway.auth.password` are configured and `gateway.auth.mode` is unset, doctor blocks install/repair until mode is set explicitly.
- For Linux user-systemd units, doctor token drift checks now include both `Environment=` and `EnvironmentFile=` sources when comparing service auth metadata.
- Doctor service repairs refuse to rewrite, stop, or restart a gateway service from an older OpenClaw binary when the config was last written by a newer version. See [Gateway troubleshooting](/gateway/troubleshooting#split-brain-installs-and-newer-config-guard).
- You can always force a full rewrite via `openclaw gateway install --force`.

Doctor inspects the service runtime (PID, last exit status) and warns when the service is installed but not actually running. It also checks for port collisions on the gateway port (default `18789`) and reports likely causes (gateway already running, SSH tunnel). Doctor warns when the gateway service runs on Bun or a version-managed Node path (`nvm`, `fnm`, `volta`, `asdf`, etc.). WhatsApp + Telegram channels require Node, and version-manager paths can break after upgrades because the service does not load your shell init. Doctor offers to migrate to a system Node install when available (Homebrew/apt/choco). Doctor persists any config changes and stamps wizard metadata to record the doctor run. Doctor suggests a workspace memory system when missing and prints a backup tip if the workspace is not already under git.

See [/concepts/agent-workspace](/concepts/agent-workspace) for a full guide to workspace structure and git backup (recommended private GitHub or GitLab).

Related

• Gateway runbook
• Gateway troubleshooting