SkillHub

gw-self-heal

v1.0.0

Self-healing watchdog for OpenClaw gateway. Auto-backup openclaw.json before changes, health-check the gateway process, and auto-rollback to last known good config on failure. Use when setting up gateway resilience, self-recovery, auto-restart, config backup, or when the user mentions watchdog, self...

Sourced from ClawHub, Authored by mupengi-bot

Installation

Please help me install the skill `gw-self-heal` from SkillHub official store. npx skills add mupengi-bot/gw-self-heal

Gateway Watchdog

Automated self-healing system for OpenClaw gateway failures including config corruption, process crashes, and auth failures.

How It Works

Three-layer protection:

  1. Config Guard — Auto-backup openclaw.json on every successful health check
  2. Process Watchdog — Detect gateway process death → auto-restart
  3. Auth Health Check — Detect running-but-broken state → rollback config → restart

Setup

Run the setup script to install the watchdog:

bash scripts/setup-watchdog.sh

This will: - Create the watchdog script at ~/.openclaw/watchdog.sh - Register it as a cron job (every minute) - Take an initial config backup

Manual Commands

# Check watchdog status
bash scripts/watchdog-status.sh

# Force backup current config
cp ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json.bak

# View watchdog logs
cat ~/.openclaw/watchdog.log | tail -20

# Disable watchdog
crontab -l | grep -v watchdog | crontab -

Recovery Levels

Level Condition Action Auto?
1 Process dead, config OK Restart gateway ✅
2 Process alive, health check fail Rollback config + restart ✅
3 No valid backup exists Log alert, notify if possible ⚠️ Manual

Config Backup Strategy

  • Auto-backup: On every successful health check, current config overwrites .bak
  • Pre-change backup: Before any openclaw.json edit, copy to .bak.prev
  • Broken config preserved: Failed configs saved as .broken.<timestamp> for debugging

Logs

All watchdog activity logged to ~/.openclaw/watchdog.log with timestamps.

Platform Support

  • macOS: cron-based (launchd alternative in references/launchd.md)
  • Linux: cron or systemd (see references/systemd.md)
  • Docker: Use HEALTHCHECK directive (see references/docker.md)