Gateway Restart Skill

The Problem

Multiple methods of restarting the gateway are unreliable and can leave the system in a broken state requiring manual rescue.

The Solution

Always use this command to restart the gateway:

systemctl --user restart openclaw-gateway.service

When to Use

• After modifying openclaw.json config
• When the gateway is unresponsive
• Any time a restart is needed

What This Does

• Cleanly stops the current gateway process
• Starts a fresh gateway instance via systemd
• Properly handles port cleanup

What NOT to Use

• openclaw gateway restart — unreliable, causes port conflicts
• openclaw gateway stop + openclaw gateway start — leaves orphaned processes
• pkill openclaw — too aggressive, can corrupt state