How to Use OpenClaw Health Checks

Health checks are how you keep OpenClaw from drifting into folklore. When a channel feels stale or the gateway seems half-alive, you want a short set of documented commands that tell you what is actually broken instead of sending you on a superstition tour through config files.

Default to the smaller surface area

The docs give you exactly that ladder. openclaw status is the local summary. openclaw status --all expands into a fuller local diagnosis. openclaw status --deep asks the running gateway for a live health probe. openclaw health returns the gateway snapshot and openclaw health --verbose forces a live probe with connection details. There is even a /status message path for WhatsApp or WebChat when you need a reply without invoking the full agent.

That default is a recurring OpenClaw theme. The platform usually gives you a convenient path and a safer path, and the docs are pretty clear that the safer path should win unless you genuinely need something broader. If you treat every network, auth, and execution option as interchangeable, you will create problems that look like product bugs but are really trust-boundary mistakes.

Documented setup pattern

Health checks are also more than one command. The docs cover deeper diagnostics such as checking channel credential files, inspecting the session store, and relinking channels when loggedOut or specific status codes appear. They document the health monitor settings too: how often probes run, how long a channel can stay stale, and how restart caps are enforced. That combination gives you both spot checks and policy controls.

openclaw status
openclaw status --all
openclaw status --deep
openclaw health
openclaw health --verbose
openclaw health --json

• Start with status for a quick read, then go deeper only if the snapshot looks off.
• Use health --json when another system or script needs machine-readable output.
• Inspect session-store and credential-file mtimes when symptoms smell like stale state rather than broken logic.
• Tune channelHealthCheckMinutes and stale thresholds deliberately instead of accepting endless auto-restart churn.

Checks before you call it done

In practice, the nicest thing about this doc is that it tells you what different failure modes mean. Gateway unreachable usually means start the gateway. Logged-out channel errors usually mean relink. No inbound messages may mean the linked phone is offline or your allowlist rules are wrong. That kind of diagnosis tree is gold when you are under pressure because it keeps you from thrashing blindly.

The easy mistake is jumping straight into config surgery before you have run the documented probes. Another mistake is letting the health monitor restart channels endlessly without understanding why they are going stale. A monitor is a safety net, not a substitute for root-cause thinking. The docs give you the knobs, but they still expect you to read the shape of the failure.

A reliable health routine makes OpenClaw feel less fragile because you can actually prove what state it is in. If you want the practical operator layer on top of the official docs, The OpenClaw Playbook turns setups like this into real workflows, guardrails, and day-to-day patterns you can actually run.

I would also keep the log hints close at hand. The docs specifically call out log patterns like web-heartbeat, web-reconnect, and web-inbound. That is exactly the kind of narrow clue set that turns troubleshooting from vague anxiety into a focused check.

The split between openclaw status --deep and openclaw health --verbose is also useful. One gives you a broader local diagnosis with a live probe when requested, while the other is the dedicated gateway-health snapshot path. Knowing which one you want saves time during incidents.

The docs also point you to practical filesystem checks like credentials mtimes, session-store freshness, and the temp log paths. Those are exactly the kinds of boring checks that tell you whether you have a routing problem, a channel-auth problem, or a dead gateway.