OpenClaw Safe Change Flow

Safe OpenClaw config change workflow with backup, minimal edits, validation, health checks, and rollback. Single-instance first; secondary instance optional.

Goal: avoid outages, keep rollback ready, verify every change. Use single-instance mode by default. Secondary-instance checks are optional.

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Scope

Default (recommended): single instance

• Main config: ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json

Optional (advanced): dual instance

• Secondary config: ~/.openclaw-secondary/openclaw.json (or your custom path)

If you do not need high-availability validation, single-instance flow is enough.

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Required single-instance flow

1. Backup first
   • Create timestamped backup: *.bak.safe-YYYYmmdd-HHMMSS
2. Make minimal edits
   • Change only necessary keys
3. Validate immediately
   • Run: openclaw status --deep
4. Auto rollback on failure
   • Restore backup and restart gateway
5. Confirm availability
   • Verify channels/interfaces respond correctly

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Agent execution convention (default behavior)

After this skill is installed, treat this as default policy for config changes:

• Default entrypoint: run config changes through safe-change.sh
• Avoid direct edits + bare restart
• If user explicitly asks to bypass: allow it, but warn about risk

Mental model:

• Before: edit config directly
• Now: create a small edit script and run safe-change.sh --main-script ./edit-main.sh

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Optional dual-instance enhancement

On top of single-instance flow, you may also verify a secondary instance:

• OPENCLAW_HOME=<secondary-home> openclaw gateway health --url <secondary-url> --token "$SECONDARY_TOKEN"
• If either instance validation fails, rollback

Use this only when change risk is high or HA checks are required.

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Automation script (v1.0.2+)

This skill includes safe-change.sh to enforce:

backup → change → validate → rollback on failure

Recommended: single-instance usage

cat > ./edit-main.sh <<'SH'
#!/usr/bin/env bash
python3 edit_main.py
SH
chmod +x ./edit-main.sh

./safe-change.sh --main-script ./edit-main.sh

Optional: dual-instance usage

cat > ./edit-main.sh <<'SH'
#!/usr/bin/env bash
python3 edit_main.py
SH
chmod +x ./edit-main.sh

cat > ./edit-secondary.sh <<'SH'
#!/usr/bin/env bash
python3 edit_secondary.py
SH
chmod +x ./edit-secondary.sh

export SECONDARY_TOKEN="<your-secondary-token>"
./safe-change.sh \
  --main-script ./edit-main.sh \
  --secondary-script ./edit-secondary.sh

When secondary checks are enabled, set SECONDARY_TOKEN as an environment variable.

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Safety rules

• Never hardcode tokens or secrets
• Validate before announcing success
• Restore service first, investigate later
• Always keep a recent known-good backup in production

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Manual quick template (single instance)

TS=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)
cp ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json.bak.safe-$TS

# ...apply minimal config edits...

openclaw status --deep

If validation fails:

cp ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json.bak.safe-$TS ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json
openclaw gateway restart