Summary

Running btw spawn codex 5.5 with an invalid or expired bearer token returns a 401 (expected), but also appears to destabilize the active OpenClaw gateway session, leading to a disconnect (gateway disconnected: closed | idle). This requires a manual openclaw gateway restart to recover.

Expected Behavior

• btw command fails gracefully with authentication error
• Active agent session and gateway remain stable
• No disconnect or need for restart

Actual Behavior

• btw returns:

  401 authentication_error: Invalid bearer token

• Immediately followed by:

  gateway disconnected: closed | idle

• Session becomes unusable until:

  openclaw gateway restart

Environment

• OpenClaw version: 2026.4.9
• OS: Linux Mint (Ubuntu/Debian-based)
• Hardware: ThinkPad X1 Carbon
• Active agent: github-copilot/claude-opus-4.7
• Running via terminal (local install, systemd service)

Steps to Reproduce

1. Start OpenClaw normally (openclaw or agent session active)

2. Ensure bearer token for btw/Codex route is invalid or expired

3. Run:

   btw spawn codex 5.5

4. Observe:

   • 401 error
   • gateway disconnect

Logs

btw failed: 401 {"type":"error","error":{"type":"authentication_error","message":"Invalid bearer token"}}

gateway disconnected: closed | idle

Impact

• Breaks active session unexpectedly
• Requires manual gateway restart
• Makes btw unsafe to test/debug in live sessions
• Poor failure isolation between auxiliary agent spawning and core gateway

Hypothesis

btw spawn may be:

• Sharing or mutating the same gateway client/session
• Not isolating failed auth paths
• Triggering a teardown on error instead of failing locally

Suggested Fix

• Isolate btw spawn calls from main gateway session
• Ensure auth failures do not propagate to gateway lifecycle
• Add retry-safe or sandboxed execution for helper agents

Additional Notes

This feels like a boundary violation between auxiliary agent execution (btw) and core session stability. Even with invalid credentials, the main agent should remain unaffected.