Version

OpenClaw 2026.4.14 (323493f)

Environment

• macOS 26.4.1 (arm64)
• node 25.9.0
• Gateway mode: local
• LaunchAgent-managed gateway
• Gateway bind: loopback
• Gateway port: 18789

Issue 1

openclaw gateway install --force reports success, but the generated LaunchAgent plist still embeds OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN as a plaintext environment variable.

Command

openclaw gateway install --force

Output

Installed LaunchAgent: /Users/fengzhao/Library/LaunchAgents/ai.openclaw.gateway.plist
Logs: /Users/fengzhao/.openclaw/logs/gateway.log

Verification

grep -n "OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN" ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ai.openclaw.gateway.plist

Output:

35: <key>OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN</key>
60: <string>OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN</string>

Relevant snippet:

<key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
<dict>
  <key>NODE_USE_SYSTEM_CA</key>
  <string>1</string>
  <key>OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN</key>
  <string>c8ab55712240e361468f17dfeb2cb74d6a63ac94aa5ca36130e8e6f4ee53f6d2</string>
  <key>HOME</key>
  <string>/Users/fengzhao</string>
</dict>

openclaw gateway status also warned:

Service config issue: Gateway service embeds OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN and should be reinstalled.
(Run `openclaw gateway install --force` to remove embedded service token.)

But reinstalling with --force did not fix it.

Workaround

I manually removed EnvironmentVariables.OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN from the plist with:

plutil -remove EnvironmentVariables.OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ai.openclaw.gateway.plist
launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u) ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ai.openclaw.gateway.plist 2>/dev/null || true
launchctl bootstrap gui/$(id -u) ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ai.openclaw.gateway.plist
launchctl kickstart -k gui/$(id -u)/ai.openclaw.gateway

After that, openclaw gateway status no longer reported the embedded-token warning.

Issue 2

openclaw channels list throws TypeError: fetch failed when there are no configured chat channels, only auth providers.

Config state

~/.openclaw/openclaw.json contains auth profiles and plugins, but no actual chat channels are configured.

Command

openclaw channels list

Output

Chat channels:

Auth providers (OAuth + API keys):
- openai-codex:openapi@donotbeevil.com (oauth)
- zai:default (api_key)

TypeError: fetch failed

Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/gateway/configuration

Observed behavior

• openclaw gateway status shows gateway is running
• openclaw status works normally
• gateway RPC probe is ok
• logs show successful channels.status responses from the gateway

This makes it look like:

• the gateway itself is healthy
• channels list is failing in a later fetch/render path rather than failing to reach the gateway

Expected behavior

1. openclaw gateway install --force should not embed plaintext OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN in the LaunchAgent plist.
2. openclaw channels list should succeed and show an empty channels list if no chat channels are configured, instead of throwing TypeError: fetch failed.

Notes

These may be independent bugs, but both were observed on the same installation.