Summary

The WhatsApp web monitor watchdog has a hardcoded MESSAGE_TIMEOUT_MS of 30 minutes (1800s). On low-traffic setups (e.g., DM-only with dmPolicy: allowlist), it's common to go hours without inbound messages. The watchdog treats this as a dead connection and force-closes it with status 499 ("watchdog-timeout"), triggering reconnect loops that eventually escalate to 440 (session conflict).

Root Cause

In channel.runtime-Cu2TxQlg.js (line ~2531):

const MESSAGE_TIMEOUT_MS = tuning.messageTimeoutMs ?? 1800 * 1e3;
const WATCHDOG_CHECK_MS = tuning.watchdogCheckMs ?? 60 * 1e3;

The WebMonitorTuning type defines messageTimeoutMs and watchdogCheckMs as optional, but no config path in openclaw.json exposes them. The tuning object is passed as {} from the gateway, so the 30-minute default always wins.

Environment

• OS: Ubuntu 22.04 (DigitalOcean VPS)
• OpenClaw: 2026.3.23-2
• Node: v22.22.0
• Config: channels.whatsapp.dmPolicy: allowlist, single allowed number

Steps to Reproduce

1. Configure WhatsApp with dmPolicy: allowlist and a single allowed number
2. Start gateway
3. Wait ~30 minutes without sending any WhatsApp messages
4. Observe watchdog firing every 60s, force-closing the connection with 499

Logs

12:47:14 [whatsapp] No messages received in 150m - restarting connection
12:47:15 [whatsapp] Web connection closed (status 499). Retry 1/12 in 2.19s… (status=499)
12:47:18 [whatsapp] Listening for personal WhatsApp inbound messages.
12:48:18 [whatsapp] No messages received in 151m - restarting connection
... (repeats every 60s)
12:53:41 [whatsapp] Web connection closed (status 440: session conflict)

Expected Behavior

Either:

1. Make messageTimeoutMs configurable via channels.whatsapp.messageTimeoutMs (or plugins.entries.whatsapp.config.messageTimeoutMs)
2. Disable the watchdog by default for allowlist DM-only setups where long idle periods are normal
3. Increase the default significantly (e.g., 24h) — a 30-minute timeout is unreasonable for a personal assistant bot

Workaround

Gateway restart resets the lastInboundAt timer, temporarily clearing the loop. But it recurs after the next 30-minute idle window.

Related Issues

• [Bug]: WhatsApp provider enters infinite retry loop on status 440 (session conflict) #25591 (440 non-retryable fix — merged, but doesn't prevent the 499 watchdog loop that causes it)
• WhatsApp: Add circuit breaker to prevent reconnect loops from triggering account bans #16270 (circuit breaker for reconnect loops)
• Outbound message queue for WhatsApp disconnects #30806 (outbound messages lost during disconnect windows)