Description

On Windows, the OpenClaw gateway service has two critical deficiencies compared to macOS:

1. No auto-restart mechanism after crash (macOS has launchd KeepAlive)
2. No file logging - errors are lost when running via scheduled task

These issues make Windows deployments unreliable and difficult to debug.

Problem 1: No Auto-Restart After Crash

macOS behavior (working)

• Uses launchd with KeepAlive: true
• When gateway process crashes, launchd automatically restarts it
• Feishu and other connections are automatically re-established

Windows behavior (broken)

• Uses schtasks (Scheduled Task) without any keep-alive mechanism
• When gateway process crashes, the service remains stopped
• No automatic restart occurs
• User must manually run openclaw gateway start to recover service
• Feishu bot remains unresponsive until manual intervention

Root Cause

From src/daemon/schtasks.ts, the Windows scheduled task is created with:

const baseArgs = [
  "/Create",
  "/F",
  "/SC", "ONLOGON",  // Only runs once at user login
  "/RL", "LIMITED",
  "/TN", taskName,
  "/TR", quoteCmdArg(scriptPath)  // Points to gateway.cmd
];

There is no configuration for automatic restart on failure.

In contrast, macOS src/daemon/launchd.ts generates:

<key>KeepAlive</key>
<true/>

Problem 2: No File Logging

macOS behavior (working)

The launchd plist configuration includes:

<key>StandardOutPath</key>
<string>/path/to/gateway.log</string>
<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/path/to/gateway.err.log</string>

All stdout and stderr output is persisted to log files for debugging.

Windows behavior (broken)

The generated gateway.cmd contains:

@echo off
rem OpenClaw Gateway (v2026.2.3-1)
set PATH=...
set OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_PORT=18789
...
"D:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe" C:\...\openclaw\dist\index.js gateway --port 18789

There is no output redirection. When the scheduled task runs this script:

• Console output is discarded
• Error messages are lost
• Crash reasons cannot be determined
• No ~/.openclaw/logs/ directory is created

Impact

These deficiencies cause significant issues for Windows users:

Windows users experience much lower reliability compared to macOS users due to these missing features.

Environment

• OS: Windows 10/11
• OpenClaw Version: 2026.2.3-1
• Node.js Version: v24.13.0
• Installation Method: npm global install

Related Code

• src/daemon/schtasks.ts - Windows service installation (lacks KeepAlive equivalent)
• src/daemon/launchd.ts - macOS service installation (has KeepAlive and logging)
• src/daemon/service.ts - Platform abstraction layer