CLI terminal opens every 15 seconds on windows with gateway active (Solved) | Friends of the Crustacean 🦞🤝 | Page 1

autumn spire Apr 25, 2026, 5:03 AM

#

I recently installed openclaw, and I have the gateway setup as far as I can tell. However, every 15 seconds on repeat a CLI window (Unsure whether cmd or powershell) will open and close rapidly. I would like to stop this behavior from occuring. I saw a github post where a user stated this or something similar was occuring due to windowshide was not set to true.

I am on windows 11, My openclaw is connected to LM studio locally, and I am running qwen 3.6 27B as the model on an RTX 4090, with 32gb of ram.

Is this enough info or should I provide more?

fresh jasperBOT Apr 25, 2026, 5:03 AM

#

To help others find answers, you can mark your question as solved via Right click solution message -> Apps -> ✅ Mark Solution

autumn spire Apr 25, 2026, 5:05 AM

#

This github post appears relevant. https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/issues/70197
It states: On Windows, the OpenClaw gateway spawns a visible cmd.exe window every ~15 seconds. The flash is brief (no visible text), but continuous and distracting. Traced definitively to @homebridge/ciao@1.3.6 (a direct dependency of openclaw) calling child_process.exec("arp -a | findstr /C:"---"") via its NetworkManager.getWindowsNetworkInterfaces() path. exec() on Windows wraps commands in cmd.exe without windowsHide, which makes every call flash a console window.

This is the same class of bug as the stale-closed issue #25856 ("cmd.exe window flashes every ~30s from ARP network scanning"), which was auto-closed by the stale bot without a code fix. Reopening per that issue's closing instructions ("open a new issue with fresh repro steps on the latest release"). The cadence has roughly doubled (30s → 15s) since #25856 was filed.

This user also states that there is a local workaround: Users can patch the 4 exec() calls in node_modules/@homebridge/ciao/lib/NetworkManager.js to pass { windowsHide: true } as a second argument. Survives until the next npm install.

#

My openclaw version is: OpenClaw 2026.4.23 (a979721)

autumn spire Apr 25, 2026, 5:35 AM

#

I was able to resolve it on my specific version my modifying the network manager. It wasn't rocket science to change this locally, but I can't seem to copy files into the help section. So i'll do the manual way by specifying my changes line by line.
As a note, this will only persist until one's next update, but you should be able to just see every exec line that's not linux or mac and add the windows hide bit.

Line 475 should read child_process_1.default.exec("arp -a -n -l", { windowsHide: true }, (error, stdout) => {,
Line 566 should read child_process_1.default.exec("arp -a -n", { windowsHide: true }, (error, stdout) => {,
596 should read child_process_1.default.exec("arp -a -n", { windowsHide: true }, (error, stdout) => {,
645 should read child_process_1.default.exec("networksetup -getairportnetwork " + name, { windowsHide: true }, (error, stdout) => {
I very likely added it to more than was necessary, but the pop ups were driving me insane so I went nuclear on it.

#CLI terminal opens every 15 seconds on windows with gateway active (Solved)