Common issues when running OpenClaw in a sandbox.

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Gateway Won’t Start

Symptom: openclaw gateway fails with “port already in use” or “already running” Fix: Kill the old process and restart: 
pkill -f openclaw-gateway
sleep 2
nohup openclaw gateway > ~/.openclaw/logs/gateway-sandbox.log 2>&1 &
Verify: 
tail -10 ~/.openclaw/logs/gateway-sandbox.log
You should see ws client ready if a channel (Feishu/Discord) is configured.

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Gateway Running but Bot Doesn’t Reply

Symptom: Gateway logs show ws client ready but no messages arrive from Feishu/Discord. Check channel status: 
openclaw channels status --json
Look at lastInboundAt — if it’s null, no messages have ever been received. Common causes:
CauseFix
Feishu: im.message.receive_v1 event not subscribedAdd it in Feishu Developer Console → Events and Callbacks
Feishu: persistent connection mode not enabledEnable in Developer Console → Events and Callbacks → Subscription mode
Feishu: app not publishedPublish in Developer Console → Version Management
Discord: bot not in the serverInvite the bot with the correct OAuth2 URL
Discord: message content intent not enabledEnable in Discord Developer Portal → Bot → Privileged Intents

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Model Auth Errors

Symptom: No API key found for provider "anthropic" or "openai-codex" Check: 
openclaw models status --json
What you want:
  • defaultModel is set (e.g., openai-codex/gpt-5.4)
  • missingProvidersInUse is empty
  • providersWithOAuth shows your provider
Fix: See Model Auth for setup commands. Common mistake: Setting the auth profile fields individually instead of as a JSON object: 
# WRONG — fails validation because provider and mode must be set together
openclaw config set auth.profiles.openai-codex:default.provider openai-codex
openclaw config set auth.profiles.openai-codex:default.mode oauth

# RIGHT — set as one JSON object
openclaw config set auth.profiles.openai-codex:default '{"provider":"openai-codex","mode":"oauth"}' --json

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cue: command not found

Symptom: cue is not found in the terminal after bootstrap. Check if installed: 
ls ~/.cue/bin/cue 2>/dev/null || ls /usr/local/bin/cue 2>/dev/null || echo "Not installed"
If installed but not in PATH: 
export PATH="$HOME/.cue/bin:$PATH"
cue --version
To make it permanent: 
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.cue/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
If not installed: Run bootstrap from the sandbox API or install manually: 
curl -fsSL https://cueosai.sfo3.digitaloceanspaces.com/cue-cli/dev/latest.tgz | \
  tar xz --strip-components=1 -C ~/.cue/lib/cue-cli
mkdir -p ~/.cue/bin
ln -sf ~/.cue/lib/cue-cli/bin/cue.js ~/.cue/bin/cue
chmod +x ~/.cue/bin/cue ~/.cue/lib/cue-cli/dist/cli.mjs

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Updating the CLI

Self-update from the sandbox terminal: 
cue update
This fetches the latest tarball from S3 and re-extracts in place. No sudo needed.

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Gateway Doesn’t Pick Up New CLI

Symptom: After cue update, the gateway still uses the old CLI version. Fix: Restart the gateway: 
pkill -f openclaw-gateway
sleep 2
nohup openclaw gateway > ~/.openclaw/logs/gateway-sandbox.log 2>&1 &
The gateway spawns agent processes using the cue binary from PATH. Restarting makes it pick up the updated version.

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Stale Processes After Bootstrap

Symptom: Bootstrap says success but nothing works because old processes are still running. Fix: Kill all old processes: 
pkill -f openclaw
pkill -f cue
Then restart what you need: 
# Restart gateway
nohup openclaw gateway > ~/.openclaw/logs/gateway-sandbox.log 2>&1 &

# Restart cue manager (if needed)
cue --manager start

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Checking Logs

LogPurpose
~/.openclaw/logs/gateway-sandbox.logGateway and channel events
~/.cue/logs/debug.logCue CLI runtime
/tmp/cue-install.logCLI install output

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Remote Debug via API

If you can’t access the terminal, use the sandbox execute API: 
TOKEN="<user-access-token>"
SANDBOX_ID="<sandbox-id>"

curl -s "https://api.cueos.ai/api/v1/sandboxes/$SANDBOX_ID/execute" \
  -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"command": "openclaw channels status --json 2>&1"}'
To get a user token via admin API, see the Sandbox Debug Guide in the backend docs.