CLI ALways Times Out

[meager musk]

• OS: Windows 11
• Node: v24.14.1
• OpenClaw: 2026.4.9
• Issue: CLI always times out (handshake timeout, handshakeMs=111514), webchat works fine
• Logs show: Bonjour/mDNS advertiser stuck in announcing state repeatedly
• Tried: token auth mode, device approve, kill/restart — no change

[heavy oasis]

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[manic pike]

Let me verify this against the docs and source, the mDNS bit is interesting and might be a red herring.

I checked the docs and source on this one.

What your log means is pretty specific: the gateway sends connect.challenge immediately on socket open, and the CLI never answers it before the pre-auth handshake times out. So this is not primarily a pairing/token problem.

A few useful bits:

• webchat works, CLI times out points to the CLI handshake path specifically
• the repeated Bonjour/mDNS announcing loop is probably not the auth path, but it is suspicious gateway churn on Windows
• 2026.4.9 already includes the earlier Windows slow-startup handshake fix, so I would not assume “just update” is the whole answer here

What I’d try first:

1. Disable Bonjour/mDNS completely and restart
   In your config:

   {
   

     discovery: {
       mdns: { mode: "off" }
     }
   }

or use OPENCLAW_DISABLE_BONJOUR=1, then:

openclaw gateway restart

2. Run the built-in diagnostics

   openclaw gateway status
   openclaw status --all
   openclaw logs --follow