openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: openclaw nodes commands time out while node pending registry contains request

Bug type

Crash (process/app exits or hangs)

Beta release blocker

No

Summary

openclaw nodes ... commands time out even though the node registry has a pending node request on disk. This makes it impossible to inspect or approve the node request through the normal CLI path.

Steps to reproduce

Run:

timeout 40s openclaw nodes list --json --timeout 15000
timeout 40s openclaw nodes pending --json --timeout 15000
timeout 40s openclaw nodes status --json --timeout 15000

Observed: commands hang/time out.

Also observed: openclaw nodes --help times out, while openclaw devices --help returns normally.

Expected behavior

The openclaw nodes commands should return the pending node request, or at minimum fail quickly with an actionable error.

Actual behavior

The commands time out and do not print the pending node request.

Gateway logs show loopback websocket handshake failures around these attempts:

[ws] handshake timeout ... peer=127.0.0.1:...->127.0.0.1:18789
[ws] closed before connect ... code=1006

OpenClaw version

2026.5.18

Operating system

Ubuntu 22.04

Install method

npm

Model

N/A

Provider / routing chain

openclaw CLI -> local OpenClaw gateway (loopback ws://127.0.0.1:18789) -> node manager / node registry

Additional provider/model setup details

Environment

Linux, systemd user services.

Gateway and node services are both active/running:

• openclaw-gateway.service
• openclaw-node.service

Gateway bind mode is loopback:

• ws://127.0.0.1:18789

Observed state

~/.openclaw/devices/pending.json is empty.

~/.openclaw/nodes/pending.json contains a pending request:

{
  "<request-id-redacted>": {
    "requestId": "<request-id-redacted>",
    "nodeId": "<node-id-redacted>",
    "displayName": "openclaw",
    "platform": "linux",
    "version": "2026.5.18",
    "deviceFamily": "Linux",
    "caps": ["system", "browser", "codex-cli-sessions", "file"],
    "commands": [
      "system.run.prepare",
      "system.run",
      "system.which",
      "browser.proxy",
      "codex.cli.sessions.list"
    ],
    "silent": false
  }
}

~/.openclaw/nodes/paired.json is {}.

Logs, screenshots, and evidence

Impact and severity

The node registry can contain a pending node request, but the documented CLI path to inspect/approve it is unavailable. Control UI/device pairing does not show this request because it is not in the device pending queue.

Additional information

No response