openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: openclaw-weixin assistant replies intermittently lost — some delivered, some silently dropped

Bug type

Behavior bug (intermittent — some replies delivered, some lost)

Summary

On openclaw-weixin (ilinkai / pettalk), assistant replies are intermittently not delivered to the WeChat user. The Control UI (local dashboard) shows all replies correctly, but some replies never reach WeChat. Messages are received from WeChat 100% reliably — only outbound replies are affected.

Additionally, cron announcement delivery and the message tool fail with: Outbound not configured for channel: openclaw-weixin.

Steps to reproduce

1. Install OpenClaw 2026.5.5 via npm global on macOS
2. Configure openclaw-weixin channel on ilinkai platform
3. Start gateway
4. Send messages from WeChat — most replies arrive correctly
5. After a reply that involves multiple tool calls / longer processing (e.g., exec, ps, launchctl), the reply may not arrive on WeChat
6. Control UI shows the reply was generated and sent
7. Cron jobs with delivery.mode: announce always fail with "Outbound not configured"
8. openclaw message send --channel openclaw-weixin also fails with the same error

Expected behavior

• All assistant replies should be delivered to WeChat consistently
• Cron announce delivery should work via the weixin outbound channel
• message tool should be usable for sending media/notifications via weixin

Actual behavior

• ~80-90% of simple text replies arrive on WeChat
• Some replies (especially after multi-tool sequences) are silently dropped
• Cron delivery: always "Outbound not configured for channel: openclaw-weixin"
• Heartbeat notifications: same outbound error
• message tool: same outbound error
• openclaw channels list shows openclaw-weixin as "configured, enabled" — no "logged in" indicator

OpenClaw version

2026.5.5 (b1abf9d)

Operating system

macOS 26.4 (Darwin 25.2.0, arm64)

Install method

npm global (/opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/openclaw/)

Model

deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro

Additional findings from investigation

1. Nexu Desktop sidecar conflict (now resolved)

We discovered an additional OpenClaw Gateway bundled inside the Nexu Desktop app (~/.nexu/openclaw-sidecar/node_modules/openclaw/) trying to bind to port 18789 and initializing its own weixin runtime. This was stopped by disabling io.nexu.openclaw.plist. Related: #68451 (openclaw-weixin sidecar kills main gateway — fixed in 2026.4.15).

2. No weixin reply/send activity in gateway logs

The gateway log shows weixin monitor starting at 08:13 AM, but absolutely NO subsequent weixin send/reply/delivery log entries for the entire day — even for replies that DID arrive on WeChat. This suggests the reply path may not be instrumented in the weixin plugin's logging.

3. Hypothesis: reply time window

The lost replies tend to be the ones that took longer to generate (multiple tool calls). Shorter replies arrive reliably. This suggests the WeChat ilinkai platform may have a reply window that expires before complex responses are ready.

4. OutboundDeliveryError

Related issue #82833 mentions: OutboundDeliveryError: weixin not configured: please run openclaw channels login --channel openclaw-weixin

Logs, screenshots, and evidence

# Gateway log - only startup, no subsequent send/reply activity
2026-05-26T08:13:07 [openclaw-weixin] starting weixin provider
2026-05-26T08:13:08 [openclaw-weixin] weixin monitor started
(no further weixin log entries for the entire day)

# Heartbeat delivery failure
2026-05-26T08:15:37 [heartbeat] failed: Outbound not configured for channel: openclaw-weixin

# Channel status
$ openclaw channels list
openclaw-weixin default: configured, enabled
(no "logged in" indicator visible)

Impact and severity

• Affected: All openclaw-weixin users
• Severity: High — reply delivery is unreliable, cron/automation delivery completely broken
• Frequency: Intermittent for session replies (70-90% delivered), always for cron/message-tool
• Consequence: Users miss important replies, daily news cron silently fails, cannot send proactive notifications