PM2 Gateway Restart

Use PM2 to reliably restart OpenClaw gateway on Windows. Use when the user wants to restart the OpenClaw gateway, fix port conflicts, or recover from a crash...

Security Scan

Instructions are coherent with the stated purpose (using PM2 to manage/restart an OpenClaw gateway on Windows); nothing requested or instructed appears unrelated to that goal.

Purpose & Capability

The skill's name/description match the runtime instructions (it uses PM2 to restart the OpenClaw gateway). Minor mismatch: registry metadata lists no required binaries, but the instructions clearly rely on pm2, npm/node, PowerShell, and curl — these are expected for the task but should have been declared.

Instruction Scope

SKILL.md only instructs local process management and local health checks (pm2 commands, curl to localhost). It references specific filesystem paths (hard-coded Node and openclaw module paths and the Administrator profile) and suggests installing pm2 globally — all within the restart/recovery scope. It does not ask to read unrelated files or exfiltrate data.

Install Mechanism

This is instruction-only (no install spec). The instructions advise running `npm install -g pm2`, which installs a public npm package globally. That is a normal way to get PM2 but is a system-level change and should be run intentionally by an administrator.

Credentials

The skill requests no environment variables, credentials, or external-host access. The commands operate on local resources only (localhost and local filesystem paths).

Persistence & Privilege

The steps instruct `pm2 save` which persists the PM2 process list for automatic resurrection — expected for a process manager but it does give PM2 a lasting presence on the system. The skill does not request 'always:true' or attempt to change other skills or system-wide agent settings.

Assessment

This skill appears to do what it says: use PM2 to manage the OpenClaw gateway on Windows. Before running the commands: 1) Verify the hard-coded paths (D:/Program Files/nodejs/node.exe and the Administrator AppData path) match your installation — adjust them if they don't. 2) Be aware `npm install -g pm2` and `pm2 save` are system-level actions that install a global package and persist process state; run them as an administrator intentionally. 3) Run the commands manually in a PowerShell session first to confirm behavior and avoid surprising changes. 4) No credentials are requested and no external endpoints are contacted beyond localhost, but always inspect and understand any install commands before executing.

This skill provides reliable gateway restart using PM2 process manager instead of the built-in openclaw gateway commands.

Why PM2?

The standard openclaw gateway start/stop commands on Windows suffer from:

• FIN_WAIT_2 TCP connection timeouts (~60 seconds)
• Scheduled task race conditions
• Inconsistent startup state reporting

PM2 handles process resurrection and provides reliable restarts.

Commands

Quick Restart (Production)

pm2 restart openclaw-gateway

Wait ~15 seconds for the gateway to fully initialize, then verify with:

curl http://127.0.0.1:18789/

Full Cycle Restart (When Issues Persist)

pm2 restart openclaw-gateway; sleep 3; pm2 restart openclaw-gateway

Check Status

pm2 status
pm2 logs openclaw-gateway --lines 50

Start Gateway (If Not Running)

pm2 start "D:/Program Files/nodejs/node.exe" --name "openclaw-gateway" -- "C:/Users/Administrator/AppData/Roaming/npm/node_modules/openclaw/dist/index.js" gateway --port 18789

Troubleshooting

Port Still in Use After Restart

Wait 65 seconds for Windows TCP timeout to clear FIN_WAIT_2 connections, then:

pm2 restart openclaw-gateway

RPC Probe Fails But Gateway Listening

The RPC check may fail briefly during startup. Wait 15 seconds and retry:

curl http://127.0.0.1:18789/

PM2 Process Not Found

Reinstall the gateway process:

pm2 start "D:/Program Files/nodejs/node.exe" --name "openclaw-gateway" -- "C:/Users/Administrator/AppData/Roaming/npm/node_modules/openclaw/dist/index.js" gateway --port 18789
pm2 save

Setup (One Time)

npm install -g pm2
pm2 start "D:/Program Files/nodejs/node.exe" --name "openclaw-gateway" -- "C:/Users/Administrator/AppData/Roaming/npm/node_modules/openclaw/dist/index.js" gateway --port 18789
pm2 save