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[ancient laurel]

I think I’m stuck with enabling bash commands in OpenClaw.

My setup:
• Windows Server VM
• WSL installed
• OpenClaw gateway running
• Dashboard works
• Agent can read files (ls works in normal chat)

Problem:
When I try to run !bash ls in the dashboard I always get:

⚠️ bash is disabled. Set commands.bash=true to enable.

What I already tried:
• openclaw config set commands.bash true
• openclaw config set tools.elevated.enabled true
• openclaw config set tools.elevated.allowFrom.webchat ["127.0.0.1"]
• restarted the gateway

But the message still appears.

Am I editing the wrong config file or does this need to be enabled in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json manually?

Any idea what I’m missing?

[sand marsh]

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[gray echo]

Two separate gotchas tend to cause exactly this:

1) The bash command is ! <cmd> (or /bash <cmd>), not !bash <cmd>

So in the Dashboard/WebChat, try:

• ! ls
• or /bash ls

Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools/slash-commands

2) You’re almost certainly editing a different config than the Gateway service is running with (WSL vs Windows, or profile mismatch)

Quick way to verify:

openclaw --version
openclaw config file

openclaw config get commands.bash
openclaw gateway status

In openclaw gateway status, look for “Config cli” vs “Config service”. If they differ, you’re updating one config file but the running service is reading another. Fix is typically:

openclaw gateway install --force
openclaw gateway restart

(And make sure you’re doing that in the same environment the gateway is actually running in — WSL vs native Windows.)

Docs (that exact “Config cli/service mismatch” issue): https://docs.openclaw.ai/help/faq

Also required: elevated allowlist for WebChat is not an IP