wraith spade
Setup:
- OpenClaw 2026.4.25 (also confirmed on 2026.2.15 through 2026.5.x)
- Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Node v22.22.2, npm global install
- Single process (openclaw-gateway)
Problem:
When an agent turn calls exec("openclaw agents list") (or any internal command), the child process deadlocks. Root cause: the CLI binary IS the same binary as the gateway. Child spawns → tries to RPC back to parent gateway → parent is waiting for child → circular deadlock → SIGKILL after 1800s.
This is NOT the Windows loopback issue (#64072 fixed Windows via 127.0.0.1 binding). This is a separate Linux architectural issue - the same binary trying to talk to itself.
Workaround: Avoid all openclaw CLI commands in agent scripts. Edit config directly.
Related: GitHub issue #18470 (opened Feb 2026, marked "stale" - same bug, no maintainer response).
Has anyone else hit this on Linux? Any known fix or env var that bypasses gateway RPC for CLI?