OpenClaw Gateway Startup Timing and Health Checks

🦞 The First 10 Seconds

When you run docker compose up -d, the OpenClaw gateway container starts — but it’s not immediately ready to serve requests. There’s a startup window (typically 8–12 seconds) during which the gateway initializes its subsystems, loads hooks, and connects to external providers.

During this window, any requests to the gateway will fail:

$ curl -I http://127.0.0.1:18789
curl: (56) Recv failure: Connection reset by peer

This isn’t a crash. It’s the gateway booting up. Understanding this timing is critical for building reliable health checks and avoiding false positives in monitoring.

🔄 The Boot Sequence

Based on real-world observation of OpenClaw v2026.2.25 startup logs, the gateway goes through these phases:

Phase 1: Container Init (~1-2s)

Docker starts the container, docker-init spawns the gateway process:

$ docker exec openclaw-openclaw-gateway-1 ps aux
PID  USER  COMMAND
  1  node  /sbin/docker-init -- docker-entrypoint.sh openclaw-gateway
  7  node  openclaw-gateway

The gateway process (PID 7) begins loading the Node.js runtime and parsing configuration.

Phase 2: Listener Binding (~2-4s)

The gateway binds to the configured address and port:

[gateway] listening on ws://0.0.0.0:18789 (PID 7)

Important: Just because the port is bound doesn’t mean the gateway is ready. The WebSocket server is listening, but hook loading hasn’t completed yet.

Phase 3: Hook Loading (~4-8s)

OpenClaw loads its hook system — the middleware pipeline that processes messages:

[gateway] hooks/
[gateway]   ├─ health-monitor
[gateway]   ├─ heartbeat
[gateway]   ├─ canvas-mount
[gateway]   ├─ browser
[gateway]   └─ server

Each hook initializes in sequence. The hooks include:

Phase 4: Provider Initialization (~6-10s)

Channel providers connect to their external services:

[discord] [default] starting provider (@openclaw)
[discord] [default] logged in as MyBot#1234

This is where fatal errors typically occur (e.g., Discord Error 4014). If a provider fails to connect and the error is fatal, the gateway crashes and restarts.

Phase 5: Ready (~8-12s)

Once all hooks and providers complete initialization, the gateway is fully operational:

$ curl -I http://127.0.0.1:18789
HTTP/1.1 200 OK

⏱️ Timing Breakdown

Real-world measurements from an Azure Standard B2s VM (2 vCPU, 4 GiB RAM):

These timings vary based on:

• VM size: Smaller VMs (B1s, B1ms) take longer
• Number of providers: More channels = longer init
• External service latency: Discord login, API key validation
• Cold start vs warm start: First boot after image pull is slower

🏥 Building Health Checks

Docker Compose Health Check

Add a health check to your docker-compose.yml (or override file):

services:
  openclaw-gateway:
    # ... existing config ...
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://127.0.0.1:18789"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
      start_period: 15s

Key parameters:

• start_period: 15s — Grace period before health checks begin. Set this to be longer than your typical startup time.
• interval: 10s — Time between health checks after the start period.
• retries: 5 — Number of consecutive failures before marking unhealthy.

Checking Health Status

$ docker inspect --format='{{.State.Health.Status}}' \
    openclaw-openclaw-gateway-1
healthy

Possible statuses:

• starting — Within the start_period
• healthy — Last health check passed
• unhealthy — Consecutive failures exceeded retries
• (empty) — No health check configured

Startup Script Health Wait

If you have scripts that need to wait for the gateway to be ready:

#!/bin/bash
# wait-for-gateway.sh

MAX_WAIT=30
INTERVAL=2
ELAPSED=0

echo "Waiting for OpenClaw gateway..."

while [ $ELAPSED -lt $MAX_WAIT ]; do
    if curl -sf http://127.0.0.1:18789 > /dev/null 2>&1; then
        echo "Gateway is ready! (${ELAPSED}s)"
        exit 0
    fi
    sleep $INTERVAL
    ELAPSED=$((ELAPSED + INTERVAL))
done

echo "Gateway failed to start within ${MAX_WAIT}s"
exit 1

📊 Monitoring Startup in Real Time

Method 1: Follow Logs

docker compose logs -f openclaw-gateway

Watch for the “listening on” message followed by provider login confirmation.

Method 2: Poll with Watch

watch -n 1 'docker compose ps && echo "---" && \
  curl -s -o /dev/null -w "HTTP %{http_code}\n" \
  http://127.0.0.1:18789 2>/dev/null || echo "Not ready"'

This refreshes every second, showing you both the container status and HTTP readiness.

Method 3: Timestamps

# Record start time
START=$(date +%s)
docker compose up -d

# Poll until ready
while ! curl -sf http://127.0.0.1:18789 > /dev/null 2>&1; do
    sleep 1
done

END=$(date +%s)
echo "Ready in $((END - START)) seconds"

🚨 Distinguishing Startup from Crash-Loop

The symptoms look identical — both show connection resets. Here’s how to tell them apart:

The 30-second test: If curl still returns “Connection reset by peer” after 30 seconds, it’s a crash loop, not a slow startup.

🔧 Tuning Startup Performance

Pre-pull the Image

docker compose pull

Pulling the image before starting avoids the large download during the first startup.

Reduce Provider Count

If you only need the API gateway (no Discord, no other channels), disable unused providers:

docker compose run --rm openclaw-cli config set \
  channels.discord.enabled false

Fewer providers = faster startup.

Increase VM Resources

On an Azure B1s (1 vCPU, 1 GiB), startup can take 20+ seconds. Upgrading to a B2s (2 vCPU, 4 GiB) cuts it roughly in half.

Use docker compose up —wait

Docker Compose v2 supports the --wait flag that blocks until health checks pass:

docker compose up -d --wait

This requires a healthcheck configured in docker-compose.yml.

📈 Production Readiness Checklist

Before considering your OpenClaw deployment production-ready, verify:

• Health checks configured in docker-compose.yml
• start_period set to at least 15s (or your observed max startup time + buffer)
• Monitoring/alerting on container health status
• Startup wait script for dependent processes
• Tested cold-start timing on your specific VM size
• Crash-loop detection (alerts if uptime resets more than N times in M minutes)

🔗 Series Navigation

• Previous: Understanding OpenClaw dangerouslyAllowHostHeaderOriginFallback
• See Also: Troubleshooting OpenClaw Docker Deployments