Bug Report

Version: OpenClaw 2026.2.4 (installed from npm global)
OS: Linux 6.14.0-37-generic (x64), Node v22.22.0
Installation: npm global install

Summary

Sessions become permanently stuck with error "request ended without getting any chunks" regardless of:

• Model provider used (tested with Anthropic, OpenAI, Groq)
• Streaming/reasoning settings (fails with both on and off)
• Session type (affects specific sessions, not all)

Root Cause: Orphaned .jsonl.lock files prevent OpenClaw from accessing/modifying those session files.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Use OpenClaw gateway normally for multiple sessions
2. Some sessions eventually get stuck with the error
3. The error persists across model/provider changes
4. /new does not fix it (same error on new message)

Expected Behavior

Sessions should continue working indefinitely. Lock files should be cleaned up automatically if:

• Write completes successfully
• Process crashes (lock should be removed on restart)
• Timeout occurs (lock should be released)

Actual Behavior

Orphaned .jsonl.lock files remain indefinitely, blocking access to session data.

Diagnostic Output:

=== Lock files with ages ===
-rw-rw-r-- 1 clawdbot clawdbot 61 Feb  5 22:15 /home/clawdbot/.openclaw/agents/main/sessions/080faee2-12ff-4000-a22e-f85fef08c295-topic-1770325142.671159.jsonl.lock
-rw-rw-r-- 1 clawdbot clawdbot 62 Jan 31 11:25 /home/clawdbot/.openclaw/agents/main/sessions/15a892f6-d7ef-409c-a94e-62e7bba21247-topic-1769886921.313589.jsonl.lock
-rw-rw-r-- 1 clawdbot clawdbot 61 Jan 29 08:00 /home/clawdbot/.openclaw/agents/main/sessions/cc2d05b2-3b93-45cb-b696-9e1d8725702d-topic-1769669512.250939.jsonl.lock
-rw-rw-r-- 1 clawdbot clawdbot 62 Jan 31 11:07 /home/clawdbot/.openclaw/agents/main/sessions/de367d24-c65d-4982-a5a6-204925347bae-topic-1769886382.109249.jsonl.lock
-rw-rw-r-- 1 clawdbot clawdbot 61 Jan 28 22:45 /home/clawdbot/.openclaw/agents/main/sessions/f42ddc90-a372-4000-b174-8bb2fca690ec-topic-1769657840.697869.jsonl.lock

Lock files dating back 8 days - these should have been cleaned up automatically.

Workaround

Manual cleanup required:

# Remove specific stuck lock file
rm ~/.openclaw/agents/main/sessions/SESSION_ID.jsonl.lock

# Or bulk cleanup (locks older than 1 hour)
find ~/.openclaw/agents/*/sessions -name "*.lock" -mmin +60 -delete

After removing locks and restarting gateway, sessions work again.

Impact

• Severity: High - sessions become permanently unusable
• Workaround required: Manual file deletion + gateway restart
• Frequency: Intermittent - affects specific sessions, not all

Suggested Fix

1. Add lock cleanup on gateway startup: Remove orphaned locks (files older than X minutes) when gateway starts
2. Use proper file locking: Implement fcntl or mkdir-based locks with automatic cleanup on process exit
3. Add health check: Periodically scan for orphaned locks and log/cleanup them

Additional Context

• 138 total sessions in main agent
• 5 orphaned lock files found
• No corresponding issue found in existing tracker
• Error message "request ended without getting any chunks" may be misleading - appears to be lock contention, not streaming issue