Description

openclaw gateway run hangs silently on Node.js v24.14.0 with no output to stdout/stderr. The openclaw.mjs launcher's respawn mechanism spawns a child process that silently fails.

Reproduction

1. Node.js v24.14.0 on Alibaba Cloud ECS (Alibaba Cloud Linux 3)
2. openclaw gateway run --bind loopback --port 14720
3. Command hangs indefinitely with zero output, no port listening

Diagnosis

• openclaw.mjs → dist/entry.js has a respawn mechanism that spawns a child Node.js process
• The child process exits silently (exit code 1) without producing any log output
• strace shows the child loads modules (including exec-safety, exec, typebox) then gets killed
• Workaround: Bypass the respawn mechanism by calling dist/index.js directly:

  node /path/to/openclaw/dist/index.js gateway --port 14720
  

  This produces proper log output and the gateway starts successfully (though slowly — ~30s module loading)

Expected Behavior

openclaw gateway run should work the same as calling dist/index.js directly. The respawn mechanism should either:

• Not trigger for the gateway run subcommand, OR
• Forward all stdout/stderr from child process to parent

Environment

• Node.js: v24.14.0
• OS: Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 (kernel 5.10.x)
• openclaw: 2026.4.24 (cbcfdf6)
• CPU: 2 cores
• RAM: 1.8GB