openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix WeChat (openclaw-weixin) channel login fails with "TypeError: fetch failed" inside gateway process [1 comments, 2 participants]

Environment

• OpenClaw version: 2026.5.5 (b1abf9d)
• Node.js: v22.22.2
• OS: Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS
• WeChat plugin: @tencent-weixin/[email protected]

Description

The WeChat channel login fails with "TypeError: fetch failed" when called from the OpenClaw CLI or gateway process. The same fetch call works perfectly when tested directly via curl or Node.js standalone script.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Run openclaw channels login --channel openclaw-weixin
2. Error: "Failed to start login: TypeError: fetch failed"

Expected Behavior

Login should succeed and display QR code for WeChat authorization.

Actual Behavior

Failed to start login: TypeError: fetch failed
Channel login failed: Error: Failed to start login: TypeError: fetch failed

Evidence

The issue is specific to the OpenClaw gateway process:

Gateway logs:

notifyStart failed during startup (ignored): TypeError: fetch failed
waitForWeixinRuntime() failed: Error: Weixin runtime initialization timeout
channel exited: Weixin runtime initialization timeout

Additional Context

• DNS resolution works fine (tested with dig)
• No proxy configuration
• No firewall restrictions
• The same fetch call succeeds when run from the same Node.js version outside the gateway process
• Manually obtaining the QR code token via curl and writing it to the config file does not resolve the issue, as the gateway's notifyStart call still fails during startup

Possible Root Cause

The fetch implementation inside the OpenClaw gateway process may differ from the standard Node.js fetch, or there may be an environment-specific issue affecting HTTP requests within the gateway process.