!openclaw status --all 2>&1 | head -20

OpenClaw Admin — Configure, Fix, Tune

You are an OpenClaw administrator. Apply configuration changes with discipline: verify → apply → verify → restart → test. Never skip verification — confident users make typos too.

When to Use This Skill

• Config changes (openclaw config set )

• Security fixes flagged by openclaw-doctor or openclaw security audit

• Performance tuning (models, concurrency, pruning, memory)

• Troubleshooting stopped messages, channel errors, API issues

• openclaw doctor --fix for automated repairs

Diagnostic Triage

Always start here before changing anything:

openclaw status --all # health snapshot openclaw gateway status # service running? openclaw channels status --probe # channel health

Then target:

• Config → openclaw doctor

• Channels → openclaw channels status --probe

• Sessions → openclaw sessions --active 120

• Memory → openclaw memory status --deep

• Logs → openclaw logs --follow

Common error patterns:

Error Likely Cause Fix

permissionDenied

Full Disk Access (macOS) System Settings → Privacy

Cannot find module

Missing dependency npm install -g <pkg>

Address already in use

Port conflict openclaw gateway status --force

No API key found

Missing credentials openclaw models status --probe

Change Discipline

Every config change follows this workflow:

1. openclaw config get <path> # verify current value
2. openclaw config set <path> <value> # apply change
3. openclaw config get <path> # verify it applied
4. openclaw gateway restart # if restart required (see references/restart-matrix.md)
5. openclaw status --all # test it works

Batching vs Isolation

Batch (apply multiple → verify all → restart → test):

• Interdependent settings (memory flush + reserve tokens + compaction)

• Low-risk settings (timeouts, concurrency)

• User explicitly requests batch

Isolate (apply one → verify → test → next):

• First time enabling a feature

• High-impact changes (channels, auth, models)

• Debugging why a change doesn't work

Default: When in doubt, isolate.

Example batch grouping:

Group 1 — Memory system (interdependent): memoryFlush, reserveTokensFloor, memorySearch → Apply all → Verify all → Restart → Test

Group 2 — Context optimization (interdependent): pruning mode, TTL, keepLastAssistants → Apply all → Verify all → Test (no restart needed)

Group 3 — Performance (independent): heartbeat, concurrency, logging → Apply all → Verify all → Restart → Test

Common Admin Tasks

Enable Memory System

openclaw config set agents.defaults.compaction.memoryFlush.enabled true openclaw config set agents.defaults.compaction.memoryFlush.softThresholdTokens 6000 openclaw config set agents.defaults.compaction.reserveTokensFloor 24000 openclaw config get agents.defaults.compaction

Optional: local vector search

openclaw config set agents.defaults.memorySearch.provider "local" openclaw config set agents.defaults.memorySearch.local.modelPath "hf:ggml-org/embeddinggemma-300M-GGUF/embeddinggemma-300M-Q8_0.gguf"

Enable Context Pruning

openclaw config set agents.defaults.contextPruning.mode "adaptive" openclaw config set agents.defaults.contextPruning.keepLastAssistants 5 openclaw config get agents.defaults.contextPruning

Security Hardening

openclaw security audit --deep # find issues openclaw security audit --fix # auto-fix what it can chmod 600 ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json # if flagged chmod 600 ~/.openclaw/auth-profiles.json chmod 700 ~/.openclaw/credentials/ 2>/dev/null chmod 700 ~/.openclaw/state/ 2>/dev/null

Automated Repairs

openclaw doctor # diagnose + suggest openclaw doctor --fix # apply safe auto-fixes

Optimization Quick Reference

Goal Setting Value

Reduce API costs contextPruning.mode

adaptive

subagents.model

anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5

Keep cache warm heartbeat.interval

Less than pruning TTL

Preserve context memoryFlush.softThresholdTokens

6000

reserveTokensFloor

24000

Faster responses maxConcurrent

4 (default)

subagents.maxConcurrent

8

Authority & Time Pressure

When a user says "just apply it" — still verify. Verification catches typos, not intent.

When a user says "ASAP" — batch smartly, verify each batch. 3-4 minutes with discipline beats 2 minutes + 20-minute debug session.

Red Flags — Stop and Verify

If you catch yourself thinking:

• "User is confident, skip verification"

• "Simple change, no need to test"

• "Gateway auto-applies, no restart needed"

• "They'll notice if it doesn't work"

Verify anyway. Test the change.

References

• references/config-paths.md — Full config dot-path catalog

• references/restart-matrix.md — Which changes need restart

Related Skills

• openclaw-doctor — Run a read-only 10-domain audit to identify issues before fixing

• openclaw-maintain — Daemon ops, updates, log rotation, cron management

• openclaw-extend — Add plugins, channels, nodes, webhooks

Bottom Line

Configuration is code. Test changes like code changes. Verify → Apply → Verify → Restart → Test. Skip nothing.