Summary

On v2026.5.3, the generation tools remain Enabled / present in catalog but Not Live / absent from effective tools, even though:

• OPENAI_API_KEY and GEMINI_API_KEY are present in the running Gateway process environment.
• Explicit generation defaults are configured under agents.defaults.
• Relevant bundled provider plugins (openai, google) are enabled/loaded.

This looks like a live-detection / effective-tool registry issue rather than missing credentials.

Environment

• OpenClaw: v2026.5.3 (06d46f7c)
• Install/channel: stable
• OS: Linux 6.17.0-1010-aws x64
• Node: 22.22.0
• Gateway: systemd user service
• Main model: openai-codex/gpt-5.5

openclaw status --deep shows Gateway healthy:

Gateway service: systemd installed · enabled · running
Telegram: OK
WhatsApp: OK / LINKED
Event loop: OK · p99 ~22ms

Config

Relevant sanitized config:

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": {
        "primary": "openai-codex/gpt-5.5",
        "fallbacks": ["openai-codex/gpt-5.3-codex"]
      },
      "imageGenerationModel": {
        "primary": "openai/gpt-image-2"
      },
      "videoGenerationModel": {
        "primary": "openai/sora-2"
      },
      "musicGenerationModel": {
        "primary": "google/lyria-3-clip-preview"
      }
    }
  },
  "env": {
    "shellEnv": {
      "enabled": true,
      "timeoutMs": 15000
    }
  },
  "plugins": {
    "entries": {
      "openai": { "enabled": true },
      "google": { "enabled": true }
    }
  }
}

The Gateway process environment also has the keys:

PID=$(systemctl --user show -p MainPID --value openclaw-gateway.service)
tr '\0' '\n' < /proc/$PID/environ | grep -E '^(OPENAI_API_KEY|GEMINI_API_KEY)=' | sed -E 's/=.*/=present/'

Output:

GEMINI_API_KEY=present
OPENAI_API_KEY=present

Observed behavior

tools.catalog includes generation tools

openclaw gateway call tools.catalog --json --timeout 15000

Relevant result:

{
  "id": "media",
  "tools": [
    { "id": "image" },
    { "id": "image_generate" },
    { "id": "music_generate" },
    { "id": "video_generate" },
    { "id": "tts" }
  ]
}

tools.effective does not include generation tools

openclaw gateway call tools.effective --json --params '{"sessionKey":"agent:main:main"}' --timeout 15000

Relevant result:

{
  "profile": "full",
  "found": [
    ["core", ["image"]]
  ]
}

image_generate, video_generate, and music_generate are absent.

models.authStatus only shows Codex OAuth

openclaw gateway call models.authStatus --json --timeout 15000

Relevant result:

[
  {
    "provider": "openai-codex",
    "displayName": "Codex",
    "status": "ok"
  }
]

No direct openai or google provider auth appears, despite the API keys being present in the Gateway process env.

Attempted fixes

• Confirmed systemd override contains the provider keys.
• Confirmed /proc/<gateway-pid>/environ has OPENAI_API_KEY and GEMINI_API_KEY.
• Set explicit defaults for image/video/music generation.
• Enabled env.shellEnv.
• Confirmed openai and google bundled plugins are enabled/loaded via openclaw plugins inspect.
• Ran openclaw plugins registry --refresh.
• Restarted Gateway multiple times.

Result: generation tools still Not Live / absent from effective tools.

Expected behavior

With explicit defaults and provider API keys present in the Gateway process environment:

• image_generate should be Live via openai/gpt-image-2.
• video_generate should be Live via openai/sora-2.
• music_generate should be Live via google/lyria-3-clip-preview.

Actual behavior

• tools.catalog lists the generation tools.
• tools.effective omits all three generation tools.
• Control UI shows them as Enabled but Not Live.
• models.authStatus does not surface direct openai or google auth, only openai-codex.

Notes

This was seen after upgrading to v2026.5.3. The same install previously had several Enabled-but-Not-Live tool symptoms on v2026.5.2, then rolled back; v2026.5.3 fixed other things (WhatsApp plugin/channel is now live after installing the external plugin), but generation tool liveness still seems stuck.