Doctor

• 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.<provider>.
• 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.
• Plugin/tool allowlist warnings when plugins.allow is restrictive but tool policy still asks for wildcard or plugin-owned tools.
• 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 whole-agent runtime-policy cleanup; provider/model runtime policy is the active route selector.
• Stale plugin config cleanup when plugins are enabled; when plugins.enabled=false, stale plugin references are treated as inert containment config and are preserved.

• Session lock file inspection and stale lock cleanup.
• Session transcript repair for duplicated prompt-rewrite branches created by affected 2026.4.24 builds.
• Wedged subagent restart-recovery tombstone detection, with --fix support for clearing stale aborted recovery flags so startup does not keep treating the child as restart-aborted.
• 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).
• Channel-specific permission checks live under openclaw channels capabilities; for example, Discord voice channel permissions are audited with openclaw channels capabilities --channel discord --target channel:<channel-id>.
• WhatsApp responsiveness checks for degraded Gateway event-loop health with local TUI clients still running; --fix stops only verified local TUI clients.
• Codex route repair for legacy openai-codex/* model refs in primary models, fallbacks, heartbeat/subagent/compaction overrides, hooks, channel model overrides, and session route pins; --fix rewrites them to openai/*, removes stale session/whole-agent runtime pins, and leaves canonical OpenAI agent refs on the default Codex harness.
• Supervisor config audit (launchd/systemd/schtasks) with optional repair.
• Embedded proxy environment cleanup for gateway services that captured shell HTTP_PROXY / HTTPS_PROXY / NO_PROXY values during install or update.
• 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).
• Skills readiness check for the default agent; reports allowed skills with missing bins, env, config, or OS requirements, and --fix can disable unavailable skills in skills.entries.
• 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.

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 speech config is talk.provider + talk.providers.<provider>, and realtime voice config is talk.realtime.*. Doctor rewrites old talk.voiceId / talk.voiceAliases / talk.modelId / talk.outputFormat / talk.apiKey shapes into the provider map, and rewrites legacy top-level realtime selectors (talk.mode, talk.transport, talk.brain, talk.model, talk.voice) into talk.realtime.

Doctor also warns when plugins.allow is non-empty and tool policy uses wildcard or plugin-owned tool entries. tools.allow: ["*"] only matches tools from plugins that actually load; it does not bypass the exclusive plugin allowlist. Doctor writes plugins.bundledDiscovery: "compat" for migrated legacy allowlist configs to preserve existing bundled provider behavior, and then points to the stricter "allowlist" setting.

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.

Gateway startup refuses legacy config formats and asks you to run openclaw doctor --fix; it does not rewrite openclaw.json on startup. Cron job store migrations are also 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
• channels.telegram.requireMention → channels.telegram.groups."*".requireMention
• configured-channel configs missing visible reply policy → messages.groupChat.visibleReplies: "message_tool"
• 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>
• legacy top-level realtime Talk selectors (talk.mode/talk.transport/talk.brain/talk.model/talk.voice) + talk.provider/talk.providers → talk.realtime
• 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.

Doctor checks for legacy openai-codex/* model refs. Native Codex harness routing uses canonical openai/* model refs; OpenAI agent turns go through the Codex app-server harness instead of the OpenClaw PI OpenAI path.

In --fix / --repair mode, doctor rewrites affected default-agent and per-agent refs, including primary models, fallbacks, heartbeat/subagent/compaction overrides, hooks, channel model overrides, and stale persisted session route state:

• openai-codex/gpt-* becomes openai/gpt-*.
• Stale whole-agent runtime config and persisted session runtime pins are removed because runtime selection is provider/model-scoped.
• Explicit provider/model runtime policy is preserved.
• Existing model fallback lists are preserved with their legacy entries rewritten; copied per-model settings move from the legacy key to the canonical openai/* key.
• Persisted session modelProvider/providerOverride, model/modelOverride, fallback notices, auth-profile pins, and Codex harness pins are repaired across all discovered agent session stores.
• /codex ... means "control or bind a native Codex conversation from chat."
• /acp ... or runtime: "acp" means "use the external ACP/acpx adapter."

Doctor also scans discovered agent session stores for stale auto-created route state after you move configured models or runtime away from a plugin-owned route such as Codex.

openclaw doctor --fix can clear auto-created stale state such as modelOverrideSource: "auto" model pins, runtime model metadata, pinned harness ids, CLI session bindings, and auto auth-profile overrides when their owning route is no longer configured. Explicit user or legacy session model choices are reported for manual review and left untouched; switch them with /model ..., /new, or reset the session when that route is no longer intended.

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.

On Linux, doctor also warns when the user's crontab still invokes legacy ~/.openclaw/bin/ensure-whatsapp.sh. That host-local script is not maintained by current OpenClaw and can write false Gateway inactive messages to ~/.openclaw/logs/whatsapp-health.log when cron cannot reach the systemd user bus. Remove the stale crontab entry with crontab -e; use openclaw channels status --probe, openclaw doctor, and openclaw gateway status for current health checks.

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 removes legacy OpenClaw-generated plugin dependency staging state in openclaw doctor --fix / openclaw doctor --repair mode. This covers stale generated dependency roots, old install-stage directories, package-local debris from earlier bundled-plugin dependency repair code, and orphaned or recovered managed npm copies of bundled @openclaw/* plugins that can shadow the current bundled manifest.

Doctor can also reinstall missing downloadable plugins when config references them but the local plugin registry cannot find them. Examples include material plugins.entries, configured channel/provider/search settings, and configured agent runtimes. During package updates, doctor avoids running package-manager plugin repair while the core package is being swapped; run openclaw doctor --fix again after the update if a configured plugin still needs recovery. Gateway startup and config reload do not run package managers; plugin installs remain explicit doctor/install/update work.

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."

On Linux, if the user-level gateway service is missing but a system-level OpenClaw gateway service exists, doctor does not install a second user-level service automatically. Inspect with openclaw gateway status --deep or openclaw doctor --deep, then remove the duplicate or set OPENCLAW_SERVICE_REPAIR_POLICY=external when a system supervisor owns the gateway lifecycle.

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.

When openclaw doctor --fix removes a missing channel plugin, it also removes the dangling channel-scoped config that referenced that plugin: channels.<id> entries, heartbeat targets that named the channel, and agents.*.models["<channel>/*"] overrides. This prevents Gateway boot loops where the channel runtime is gone but config still asks the gateway to bind to it.

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 cached 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. Doctor does not start a fresh embedding ping on the default path; use the deep memory status command when you want a live provider check.

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.
• On Linux, doctor does not rewrite command/entrypoint metadata while the matching systemd gateway unit is active. It also ignores inactive non-legacy extra gateway-like units during the duplicate-service scan so companion service files do not create cleanup noise.
• 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.
• Doctor detects when the service command still pins an old --port after gateway.port changes and rewrites the service metadata to the current port.
• 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.
• 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).

Newly installed or repaired macOS LaunchAgents use a canonical system PATH (/opt/homebrew/bin:/opt/homebrew/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin) instead of copying the interactive shell PATH, so Homebrew-managed system binaries remain available while Volta, asdf, fnm, pnpm, and other version-manager directories do not change which Node child processes resolve. Linux services still keep explicit environment roots (NVM_DIR, FNM_DIR, VOLTA_HOME, ASDF_DATA_DIR, BUN_INSTALL, PNPM_HOME) and stable user-bin directories, but guessed version-manager fallback directories are only written to the service PATH when those directories exist on disk.

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 for a full guide to workspace structure and git backup (recommended private GitHub or GitLab).