slopus/happy · error

Not connected to OpenClaw gateway

Error message

Not connected to OpenClaw gateway

What it means

sendPrompt() requires an active WebSocket connection to the OpenClaw gateway before it will forward a prompt. It checks this.socket.isConnected() and throws if the socket has dropped or was never opened. This prevents prompts from being silently lost when the transport is down.

Source

Thrown at packages/happy-cli/src/openclaw/OpenClawBackend.ts:116

      this.connectionReject = reject;
    });

    this.socket.connect(this.gatewayConfig);
    await this.connectionReady;

    this.sessionKey = this.socket.getMainSessionKey();
    if (!this.sessionKey) {
      throw new Error('No main session key from gateway');
    }

    const sessionId = this.sessionKey;
    this.log(`Session started: ${sessionId}`);
    return { sessionId };
  }

  async sendPrompt(sessionId: SessionId, prompt: string): Promise<void> {
    if (!this.socket.isConnected()) {
      throw new Error('Not connected to OpenClaw gateway');
    }

    this.lastDeltaText = null;

    this.turnReady = new Promise<void>((resolve, reject) => {
      this.turnResolve = resolve;
      this.turnReject = reject;
    });

    this.emit({ type: 'status', status: 'running' });

    const result = await this.socket.sendMessage(sessionId, prompt);
    this.log(`Sent prompt, runId: ${result.runId}`);
  }

  async cancel(_sessionId: SessionId): Promise<void> {
    if (this.sessionKey) {
      await this.socket.abortRun(this.sessionKey);

View on GitHub (pinned to b824cd0a46)

Solutions

1. Reconnect (restart the backend / call startSession again) before sending the prompt
2. Check that the openclaw gateway process is still running (`ps aux | grep openclaw`) and restart it
3. Confirm the gateway URL is reachable (`curl` the OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_URL / --gateway-url endpoint)
4. Wrap prompt sending with connection-state checking or automatic reconnect logic

Example fix

// before
await backend.sendPrompt(sessionId, prompt);
// after
if (!backend.isConnected()) {
  await backend.start(); // reconnect + startSession
}
await backend.sendPrompt(sessionId, prompt);

if (!backend.isConnected()) {
  await backend.start(); // reconnect before sending
}

try {
  await backend.sendPrompt(sessionId, prompt);
} catch (err) {
  if (err.message === 'Not connected to OpenClaw gateway') {
    await reconnectWithBackoff(backend);
    await backend.sendPrompt(sessionId, prompt);
  } else throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling OpenClawBackend.sendPrompt() when the underlying socket status is anything other than connected — e.g. after the gateway process exited, the WebSocket closed, or startSession() was never successfully completed.

Common situations: Gateway restarted or crashed between session start and prompt send; network interruption closed the WebSocket; calling sendPrompt on a backend that failed to connect; long idle period where the gateway closed the connection.

Related errors

• Not connected to gateway
• No main session key from gateway
• OpenClaw gateway not found. Either: - Install and run open
• No machine ID found in settings
• RPC target disconnected

AI-assisted analysis of slopus/happy@b824cd0a46 (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e0fb9bd03045ea89. Report an issue: GitHub.