Principle:Openclaw Openclaw Gateway Server Startup
| Knowledge Sources | |
|---|---|
| Domains | Deployment, Docker |
| Last Updated | 2026-02-06 12:00 GMT |
Overview
Gateway server startup is the concept of initializing a WebSocket gateway server: binding to network interfaces, loading configuration, initializing channel connections, and serving HTTP health endpoints.
Description
The OpenClaw gateway is the central process that bridges AI providers with messaging channels (Telegram, Discord, Slack, Signal, WhatsApp, and others). Starting the gateway involves a complex initialization sequence that must handle configuration loading and validation, network binding, authentication setup, channel management, plugin loading, health monitoring, and graceful shutdown.
The startup process is designed to be resilient and self-configuring. It reads the configuration file, auto-migrates legacy entries, validates the schema, auto-enables plugins based on environment detection, and resolves runtime configuration from a combination of config file values, CLI options, and environment variables. The gateway supports multiple bind modes (loopback, lan, tailnet, auto) to accommodate different deployment scenarios from local development to cloud containers.
In Docker deployments, the gateway is typically started with --bind lan (to accept connections from outside the container) and --allow-unconfigured (to start even without full onboarding, allowing web-based setup). The Docker Compose command overrides the default loopback bind to enable container-to-host and cross-container communication.
Usage
Apply this concept when starting the OpenClaw gateway in any deployment context. The startup function is the core of the openclaw gateway CLI command and is invoked as the container's main process in Docker deployments. Understanding the startup sequence is essential for debugging deployment issues, configuring authentication, and managing channel connections.
Theoretical Basis
The gateway startup follows a phased initialization pattern:
- Configuration phase:
- Read and validate the config file snapshot.
- Migrate legacy config entries if not in Nix mode.
- Auto-enable plugins based on environment variables.
- Load the active configuration.
- Infrastructure phase:
- Resolve bind host, port, TLS, and authentication configuration.
- Load gateway plugins and register their methods.
- Initialize the Control UI assets (browser-based management interface).
- Create the HTTP/WebSocket server runtime state.
- Service phase:
- Start channel managers for all configured messaging channels.
- Initialize mDNS/Bonjour discovery for LAN-based node detection.
- Start maintenance timers (health refresh, deduplication cleanup, presence ticks).
- Start the heartbeat runner, cron service, and Tailscale exposure if configured.
- Attach WebSocket message handlers for all gateway methods.
- Sidecar phase:
- Start browser control server if enabled.
- Start plugin services.
- Begin config file watching for hot-reload.
The function returns a GatewayServer object with a single close method that performs orderly shutdown of all subsystems in reverse order.