Bug Description

After the WhatsApp plugin successfully loads (see #24931), the QR code login flow fails silently. The gateway generates and displays a QR code, but no outbound WebSocket connection to WhatsApp servers is established. Scanning the QR from your phone times out because there is no live connection on the server side to receive the authentication response.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Fresh install of OpenClaw (v2026.2.23, built from source)
2. Enable WhatsApp channel and start gateway
3. Open dashboard → Click "Link Device"
4. QR code is displayed
5. Scan QR with phone (WhatsApp → Linked Devices → Link a Device)
6. Phone shows "Linking..." then times out after ~30 seconds
7. Gateway logs show no scan event, no connection event, no error — just Cleared WhatsApp Web credentials after ~60s

Evidence

Monitored all outbound TCP connections from the gateway process while triggering the QR login flow:

01:48:47 LOG: device.pair.list  (user clicked Link Device)
01:48:55 LOG: QR received        (QR code displayed in dashboard)
01:48:55 CONN: (empty)           (ZERO outbound connections to WhatsApp)
... 90 seconds of monitoring ...
                                  (still zero outbound connections)
01:50:25 LOG: Cleared WhatsApp Web credentials  (QR expired)

Checked with ss -tnp state established '( dport = :443 or dport = :5222 )' — the gateway has zero outbound connections to WhatsApp servers at any point during the QR flow. Only the local dashboard WebSocket (127.0.0.1:18789) is present.

Expected Behavior

When the QR is generated, the Baileys library should maintain a persistent WebSocket connection to web.whatsapp.com:443. This connection receives the device-linking credentials after the phone scans the QR. Without it, the QR is a dead image.

Network Verification

The server CAN reach WhatsApp servers — this is not a network/firewall issue:

$ curl -sI https://web.whatsapp.com | head -1
HTTP/2 200

$ openssl s_client -connect web.whatsapp.com:443
CONNECTED(00000003)

$ ufw status
Status: inactive

$ nft list chain ip filter OUTPUT
chain OUTPUT { type filter hook output priority filter; policy accept; }

Environment

• OpenClaw: v2026.2.23 (built from source with npm run build)
• Node.js: v22.22.0
• OS: Ubuntu 24.04, Hetzner Cloud VPS (CX22)
• Network: Static IPv4, no firewall, all outbound traffic allowed
• WhatsApp plugin: Loads correctly after fix from Bug: WhatsApp channel fails to load - "Unrecognized key: enabled" in Zod strict schema #24931

Related

• Bug: WhatsApp channel fails to load - "Unrecognized key: enabled" in Zod strict schema #24931 — WhatsApp plugin fails to load due to missing enabled field in Zod schema (prerequisite fix)