OpenClaw Disconnected: Troubleshooting Guide

If your agent stops responding in messengers, the issue is usually one of: Gateway down, messenger disconnected, or network problem.

Diagnosis steps:

1. Check Gateway status: Run openclaw status. If the Gateway is stopped, start it. If it's crashing, check the gateway-issues guide.

2. Check messenger connection: openclaw status shows which messengers are connected. If a messenger shows 'disconnected', try repairing: openclaw pair <messenger>.

3. Check network: Can the server reach the internet? Try curl https://api.telegram.org. Firewall rules might have changed, or DNS resolution might be failing.

4. Check API key: If the Gateway is running but not responding, the AI model might be rejecting requests. Check openclaw gateway logs for API errors.

Telegram-specific: - Polling mode: Bot stops receiving messages if another instance is polling. Ensure only one Gateway runs per bot. - Webhook mode: The webhook URL must be publicly accessible with HTTPS. Check that Nginx/Caddy is running.

Discord-specific: - Token invalidation: Discord occasionally invalidates bot tokens. Regenerate the token in Developer Portal and re-pair.

WhatsApp-specific: - Web bridge sessions expire. QR code needs to be scanned again periodically. - Business API requires active webhook URL.

Automatic recovery: OpenClaw includes reconnection logic for transient network failures. If a messenger disconnects, the Gateway retries every 30 seconds for up to 10 minutes.

# Check overall status
openclaw status

# Re-pair a disconnected messenger
openclaw pair telegram

# Check network connectivity
openclaw doctor --network