openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: Discord Channel Session Not Recreated After Gateway Restart [4 comments, 2 participants]

Bug type

Behavior bug (incorrect output/state without crash)

Beta release blocker

No

Summary

Problem Description

After a gateway restart, the Discord channel session for #infrastructure (channel ID 1495439766987083796) is not being recreated, even though:

1. The channel configuration is loaded
2. The channel is resolved by the Discord provider (discord channels resolved)
3. No errors are logged

Expected Behavior

After gateway restart, all configured Discord channel sessions should be automatically recreated and begin processing messages.

Actual Behavior

• Channel resolution happens: discord channels resolved: 1494388374545498224/1495439766987083796
• But no channel session is created (session agent:main:discord:channel:1495439766987083796 doesn't appear in openclaw status)
• No message events are logged for this channel after restart
• Bot appears "offline" in the channel - no response to mentions

Environment

• OpenClaw Version: 2026.5.7
• OS: macOS 14.4
• Discord Plugin Version: 2026.5.7
• Node Version: 25.9.0

Configuration

{
  "channels": {
    "discord": {
      "enabled": true,
      "token": "<snip>...",
      "groupPolicy": "allowlist",
      "dmPolicy": "allowlist",
      "allowFrom": ["689143376745857091", "711007255088201728", "1495439766987083796"],
      "guilds": {
        "1494388374545498224": {
          "requireMention": true,
          "users": ["689143376745857091", "711007255088201728"],
          "channels": {
            "1495439766987083796": {
              "requireMention": false
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Log Evidence

From /tmp/openclaw/openclaw-2026-05-12.log:

Before restart (working):

• Session existed: agent:main:discord:channel:1495439766987083796 (3h old, 79% tokens)
• Messages were being processed

After restart (21:54:53):

discord channels resolved: 1494388374545498224/1495439766987083796 (guild:UberNethers; channel:vivisect-dev)

But no session created and no message events logged.

Root Cause Analysis

The Discord channel plugin's session management has a bug where:

1. Channel configuration is correctly loaded after restart
2. Channel resolution succeeds (discord channels resolved logged)
3. But the channel session is never actually created/connected

This is likely a race condition or missing event handler in the plugin that handles channel session recreation after gateway restart.

Additional Notes

• This is NOT a permissions issue (bot was responding fine before restart)
• This is NOT a configuration issue (config hasn't changed)
• This is NOT a Discord API issue (other channels like 1500814266964508713 work fine)
• The issue is specific to the #infrastructure channel session not being recreated

Workaround (Not a Fix)

Manually restarting the session or reconnecting to the channel works temporarily, but the issue reoccurs after every gateway restart.

Steps to reproduce

Reproduction Steps

1. Ensure Discord channel session exists (openclaw status shows agent:main:discord:channel:1495439766987083796)
2. Run openclaw gateway restart
3. Check openclaw status - the channel session is missing
4. Tag the bot in Discord - no response

Expected behavior

Reconnecting all Discord channels after gateway restart... always maintaining access to Discord channels the agent has been @tagged/invited to, unless told to go away or otherwise kicked.

Actual behavior

• Channel resolution happens: discord channels resolved: 1494388374545498224/1495439766987083796
• But no channel session is created (session agent:main:discord:channel:1495439766987083796 doesn't appear in openclaw status)
• No message events are logged for this channel after restart
• Bot appears "offline" in the channel - no response to mentions

OpenClaw version

• OpenClaw Version: 2026.5.7

Operating system

• OS: macOS 14.4

Install method

web site install script

Model

ollama/kimi-k2.5:cloud and ollama/qwen3-coder-next:cloud

Provider / routing chain

OpenClaw -> Ollama -> Ollama Cloud

Additional provider/model setup details

No response

Logs, screenshots, and evidence

Impact and severity

Wastes a ton of time while the user attempts to continue the conversation and not lose potentially hours of prep work. The agent simply doesn't realize a message is being sent to them. In some cases, I've had the EYEBALLS emoji and the "<bot> is typing..." show up. Today, not even that. All occasions, when directly queried, the agent says they aren't in than channel, and didn't receive a message.

Additional information

No response