openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: [Windows] exec spawn: all commands hang with no output (stdio pipe deadlock) [1 pull requests]

Bug type

Crash (process/app exits or hangs)

Beta release blocker

No

Summary

Environment:

• OS: Windows 11 (NT 10.0.26200)
• Node: v24.14.1
• OpenClaw: latest (2026.5.19+)
• Start method: manual openclaw gateway from PowerShell

Symptom: All exec tool calls start a child process (PID assigned) but produce zero output. Process never exits naturally; only terminates when killed by timeout (SIGKILL).

Steps to reproduce

What we ruled out:

• Node.js child_process.spawn itself works fine on this machine (manual spawn test in PowerShell succeeds)
• The issue is in OpenClaw's exec wrapper layer (runCommandWithTimeout)
• Changing resolveCommandStdio from "inherit" to "pipe" does NOT fix it
• Not caused by Windows security software (already whitelisted)

Expected behavior

Reproduction: Any exec call, even echo hello or node -v, exhibits this behavior. The gateway is started from PowerShell (not as a Windows service).

Actual behavior

Additional notes:

• echo hello returned output exactly ONCE after modifying source and restarting, then all subsequent calls (including the same command) failed again.
• The gateway process runs under the same user account.

OpenClaw version

openclaw 2026.5.19+ (latest)

Operating system

Windows 11 Pro (NT 10.0.26200, x64)

Install method

Node.js v24.14.1 / OpenClaw Gateway (manual start from PowerShell)

Model

bailian/qwen3.6-plus

Provider / routing chain

OpenClaw Gateway (localhost:18789) → bailian provider → https://token-plan.cn-beijing.maas.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1 (Alibaba Cloud Bailian MaaS, Beijing region, OpenAI-compatible API) → qwen3.6-plus. No intermediate proxies configured.

Additional provider/model setup details

Logs, screenshots, and evidence

Impact and severity

No response

Additional information

No response