[Bug] Dashboard unreachable + gateway instability on Windows in 2026.2.22-2 (fixed by downgrading to 2026.2.21-2)

Summary

On Windows 11, upgrading to openclaw 2026.2.22-2 caused dashboard/web UI instability and repeated gateway failures.

Symptoms:

• Dashboard/web UI intermittently unreachable from both localhost and tailnet
• http://127.0.0.1:18789/ and https://<tailnet-host>:8443/ often returned 404 Not Found
• openclaw gateway status frequently reported service stopped / exited immediately
• CLI failures with websocket close error:
  • gateway closed (1006 abnormal closure (no close frame))
• In failing windows, curl to 127.0.0.1:18789 returned connect failures despite intermittent listeners

Downgrading to 2026.2.21-2 restored stable behavior immediately.

Environment

• OS: Windows 11 (Windows_NT 10.0.26200 x64)
• Node: 22.15.0
• OpenClaw bad version: 2026.2.22-2
• OpenClaw stable version: 2026.2.21-2
• Gateway mode: local loopback (127.0.0.1:18789)
• Tailnet exposure: tailscale serve mapping 8443 -> 18789

Repro (intermittent but frequent)

1. Install/upgrade to openclaw@2026.2.22-2 on Windows
2. Start gateway service via openclaw gateway start
3. Open dashboard URL (tokenized) or tailnet route on :8443
4. Observe one or more of:
   • dashboard returns 404
   • UI fails to connect
   • openclaw gateway status flips to stopped
   • CLI shows ws close 1006 abnormal closure

Expected behavior

• Gateway service remains running
• Dashboard route is consistently available
• No repeated 1006 websocket closure from local loopback gateway

Actual behavior

• Gateway appears to crash/stop intermittently
• Dashboard route becomes unavailable/404 during failures
• CLI/Gateway sessions show websocket abnormal closure

Evidence snippets

From debug output captured during failure:

• Failed to start CLI: Error: gateway closed (1006 abnormal closure (no close frame))
• Runtime: stopped (state Ready, last run time ...)
• RPC probe: failed
• curl: (7) Failed to connect to 127.0.0.1 port 18789 ... Could not connect to server

Workaround

Downgrade and pin:

openclaw gateway stop
npm uninstall -g openclaw
npm i -g openclaw@2026.2.21-2
openclaw gateway start

After downgrade:

• dashboard restored
• gateway status stable/running

Impact

High: Blocks dashboard/web UI and makes gateway reliability unpredictable on affected Windows setup.

Request

Please investigate regression between 2026.2.21-2 and 2026.2.22-2 around:

• gateway service lifecycle on Windows (scheduled task / process ownership)
• dashboard route availability under local loopback
• websocket connection handling causing 1006 abnormal closure