i want to setup openclaw with ollama | Friends of the Crustacean 🦞🤝 | Page 1

obsidian pilot Apr 22, 2026, 9:32 AM

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i did ollama launch openclaw then i choose the model then i get this error
error: gateway did not start on localhost:18789

main mauveBOT Apr 22, 2026, 9:32 AM

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remote sparrowBOT Apr 22, 2026, 9:32 AM

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final pumiceBOT Apr 22, 2026, 9:34 AM

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That usually means the gateway never came up on port 18789, not that the model picker itself failed.

First, can you paste this:

openclaw --version
openclaw status
openclaw gateway status
openclaw doctor
openclaw logs --follow

The common causes from the docs are:

port 18789 is already in use (EADDRINUSE)
gateway config is missing local mode (gateway.mode=local)
the daemon crashed / service config does not match CLI config

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Also, for Ollama, the recommended setup path is:

openclaw onboard

Then choose Ollama there, instead of relying on ollama launch openclaw.

Docs:

If you paste the output of those 4 commands, I can tell you exactly which one it is.

obsidian pilot Apr 22, 2026, 9:41 AM

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│ OS │ macos 15.3.1 (arm64) · node 22.22.2 │
│ Dashboard │ http://127.0.0.1:18789/ │
│ Tailscale │ off │
│ Channel │ stable (default) │
│ Update │ pnpm · up to date · npm latest 2026.4.21 │
│ Gateway │ local · ws://127.0.0.1:18789 (local loopback) · unreachable (connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:18789) │
│ Gateway service │ LaunchAgent installed · loaded · stopped (state spawn scheduled) │
│ Node service │ LaunchAgent not installed │
│ Agents │ 1 · no bootstrap files · sessions 0 · default main active unknown │
│ Memory │ 0 files · 0 chunks · dirty · sources memory · plugin memory-core · vector ready · fts ready · cache │
│ │ on (0) │
│ Plugin compatibility │ none
│ Probes │ skipped (use --deep)
│ Events │ none
│ Tasks │ none │
│ Heartbeat │ 30m (main)
│ Sessions │ 0 active · default gpt-5.4 (200k ctx) · ~/.openclaw/agents/main/sessions/sessions.json

final pumiceBOT Apr 22, 2026, 9:43 AM

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Nice, this narrows it down a lot.

Your Node version looks fine. The key part is:

Gateway ... unreachable (ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:18789)
Gateway service ... stopped (state spawn scheduled)

So the model picker is probably not the real problem. The macOS LaunchAgent is failing before the gateway binds to port 18789.

Please paste these next:

openclaw gateway status
openclaw gateway status --deep
openclaw doctor
tail -n 80 ~/.openclaw/logs/gateway.err.log

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tail -n 80 ~/.openclaw/logs/gateway.log

openclaw gateway status is the most important one, because it should show things like:

Last gateway error
Listening
Config (cli) vs Config (service)

If Config (cli) and Config (service) are different, the docs say to run:

openclaw gateway install --force
openclaw gateway restart

#i want to setup openclaw with ollama