Description

Running OpenClaw in Docker with multiple agents (multi-agent setup), sessions_send between agents fails due to two compounding issues:

Issue 1: bind=lan + security check conflict

With gateway.bind: "lan" (default in Docker), the internal gateway URL resolves to the Docker bridge IP (e.g., ws://172.21.0.2:18789). The security check in call.ts (isSecureWebSocketUrl) rejects this because it's ws:// to a non-loopback address.

The gateway is talking to itself within the same container, but OpenClaw doesn't recognize this as a local connection.

Issue 2: Device auto-pairing gives operator.read only

When using bind=loopback (workaround for Issue 1), the device auto-pairing works (isLocalClient=true, silent=true) but only grants operator.read scope. sessions_send requires operator.write, triggering a scope-upgrade request that fails silently.

The device-auth.json and paired.json files must be manually edited to add operator.write scope.

Environment

• OpenClaw: v2026.2.20 (Docker ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw:latest)
• Docker Compose with --bind ${OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_BIND:-lan}
• Multi-agent: main (Keno) + alecar (Lex)
• tools.agentToAgent: { enabled: true, allow: ["main", "alecar"] }

Workaround

The following combination works:

{
  "gateway": {
    "bind": "loopback",
    "tls": { "enabled": true, "autoGenerate": true },
    "auth": { "mode": "none" }
  },
  "tools": {
    "agentToAgent": { "enabled": true, "allow": ["main", "alecar"] },
    "sessions": { "visibility": "all" }
  }
}

Plus: OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_BIND=loopback in docker-compose env (overrides config JSON).

Plus: manually editing ~/.openclaw/identity/device-auth.json and ~/.openclaw/devices/paired.json to include operator.write in scopes.

Expected Behavior

1. sessions_send between agents in the same Docker container should work with default bind=lan config
2. Device auto-pairing for local clients should grant sufficient scopes for sessions_send (at minimum operator.write)

Relevant Code

• Security check: src/gateway/call.ts → isSecureWebSocketUrl()
• URL resolution: src/gateway/call.ts → localUrl uses lanIPv4 when bind=lan
• Local client detection: src/gateway/auth.ts → isLocalDirectRequest()
• Auto-pairing: src/gateway/server/ws-connection/message-handler.ts → silent: isLocalClient && reason === "not-paired"

Labels

bug, docker, multi-agent