gateway blocked

[red abyss]

Feb 21 13:39:09 af-nuc systemd[1481]: Started openclaw-gateway-w1.service - OpenClaw Gateway (profile: w1, v2026.2.21-2).
Feb 21 13:39:11 af-nuc node[1492289]: 2026-02-21T13:39:11.010-06:00 Gateway start blocked: set gateway.mode=local (current: unset) or pass --allow-unconfigured.
Feb 21 13:39:11 af-nuc node[1492289]: 2026-02-21T13:39:11.015-06:00 Config write audit: /home/parker/.openclaw-w1/logs/config-audit.jsonl
Feb 21 13:39:11 af-nuc systemd[1481]: openclaw-gateway-w1.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Feb 21 13:39:11 af-nuc systemd[1481]: openclaw-gateway-w1.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

[solar kayak]

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[loud pilot]

That log is the new safety guardrail: the Gateway won’t start as a background service unless you explicitly declare this machine should run a local gateway.

Fix it in the same profile your systemd unit is using (w1 → state dir ~/.openclaw-w1):

openclaw --profile w1 config set gateway.mode local
openclaw --profile w1 config get gateway.mode
openclaw --profile w1 gateway restart
# (or: systemctl --user restart openclaw-gateway-w1)

Notes:

• --allow-unconfigured is only meant for quick/dev bootstrap; for a real service you should set gateway.mode=local.
• If you intended this install to be a remote client (connecting to a gateway elsewhere), then keep gateway.mode=remote and don’t run the local gateway service.

Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/cli/gateway and https://docs.openclaw.ai/help/faq