Gateway Watchdog

A Windows background watchdog for the OpenClaw Gateway. It health-checks the Gateway every 5 seconds, automatically restarts it when it goes down, and runs hidden in the background — no CMD window — with a system-tray status icon.

Its key feature is a maintenance lock: while a repair such as doctor --fix is running, the watchdog suspends all health checks and restart attempts, so the two never fight each other. Version-agnostic path resolution, HTTP-first health probing, log rotation, and deadlock-safe lock expiry are all included.

When to Use

• Gateway keeps crashing / restarting in a loop
• Watchdog log spams !! Gateway OFFLINE even though the port is listening
• A doctor --fix run keeps getting interrupted by the watchdog trying to restart
• You want the Gateway + watchdog to run hidden (no CMD window)
• Installing or repairing the watchdog service on Windows

Architecture

How the Maintenance Lock Works

The lock file is ~/.openclaw/watchdog-maintenance.lock (JSON: owner, pid, createdAt).

1. Any repair routine creates the lock before it starts.
2. While a fresh lock exists, the watchdog pauses all health judgement and restart attempts, and switches the tray icon to "maintenance".
3. A lock older than LOCK_STALE_SEC (default 300s) is treated as abandoned and removed automatically (dead-lock protection).
4. The lock is re-checked immediately before any restart, so maintenance that begins mid-wait still wins.
5. The lock is released in a finally block, always.

Usage

Check status

Get-Content "$env:USERPROFILE\.openclaw\watchdog-status.json" -Raw
Get-Content "$env:USERPROFILE\.openclaw\watchdog.log" -Tail 20

The status file holds: state (starting/ok/down/restarting/maintenance), cycle, failCount, updatedAt, uptimeMin.

Run a repair safely (coordinated with the watchdog)

powershell -NoProfile -File "$env:USERPROFILE\.openclaw\workspace\watchdog-maintenance.ps1" doctor --fix --non-interactive

The wrapper takes the lock, runs the command, releases the lock. Never run a repair bare while the watchdog is live — it will fight you.

Install / repair (needs Administrator)

Right-click -> Run as administrator:
  install_watchdog_admin.bat

This switches the Gateway task to the hidden VBS launcher, updates the Watchdog task to run hidden PowerShell, restarts the Gateway silently, and verifies the port.

Tray States

• Shield — healthy
• Warning — restarting
• Info — maintenance in progress
• Error — offline

$SHOW_TRAY = $false in watchdog.ps1 disables the tray (headless mode). Without an interactive session the tray is skipped automatically — the status file is still written.

Tuning (watchdog.ps1 top block)

Troubleshooting

• !! Gateway OFFLINE while port is listening — usually a restart-timing race; HTTP probe first. If persistent, check the maintenance lock is not stuck.
• Watchdog cannot enter maintenance mode / schtasks Access denied — the scheduled task needs Administrator. Run the installer as admin.
• Two watchdogs running — end the old instance with PowerShell Stop-Process.
• Gateway starts but window pops — the task still points at gateway.cmd; re-run the installer to switch it to run_gateway_silent.vbs.

License

MIT-0 — see LICENSE.