Bug Description

The openclaw gateway probe command displays Probe budget: 3000ms to the user, but internally applies Math.min(800, overallMs) for local loopback connections. This creates a misleading mismatch where:

1. The CLI shows a 3000ms budget
2. The actual connection timeout is 800ms
3. Healthy gateways on slightly slower systems (or under load) falsely report Reachable: no with Connect: failed - timeout

Environment

• OpenClaw version: 2026.3.13 (also affects 2026.3.11, 2026.3.12)
• OS: Linux (also observed on Windows per False negative from openclaw gateway probe on Windows #45940)
• Gateway: local loopback ws://127.0.0.1:18789
• Gateway status: actually healthy and serving requests

Symptoms

$ openclaw gateway probe
Gateway Status
Reachable: no
Probe budget: 3000ms

Targets
Local loopback ws://127.0.0.1:18789
Connect: failed - timeout

Yet the gateway is operational:

• openclaw status --deep reports gateway reachable
• Control UI connects successfully
• WebSocket health endpoint responds correctly

Root Cause

In the gateway probe implementation:

• The CLI displays overallMs (default 3000ms) as the probe budget
• But for localLoopback kind, it applies: Math.min(800, overallMs)
• This hardcoded 800ms is insufficient when:
  • The system is under load
  • WebSocket handshake takes longer than expected
  • The gateway client's internal connectChallengeTimeoutMs (4000ms) hasn't even been given time to complete

Related

• PR fix(gateway): increase local loopback probe budget to prevent false negative timeouts #45984 — increases local loopback probe budget (addresses the 800ms limit)
• PR fix(gateway): skip eager context warmup for probe #46152 — skips eager context warmup for probe (addresses unnecessary overhead)
• Issue False negative from openclaw gateway probe on Windows #45940 — Windows-specific false negative (same root cause)

Suggested Fix

1. Align displayed budget with actual budget, OR
2. Increase local loopback budget to at least 4000ms to match the client's internal timeout, OR
3. Make the budget configurable via openclaw.json

Workaround (Manual Runtime Patch)

For affected deployments, a manual patch on compiled bundles can restore functionality:

// Change from:
Math.min(800, overallMs)
// To:
Math.max(4000, Math.min(overallMs, 8000))

Files requiring patch in installed distribution:

• dist/gateway-cli-*.js (various hashed filenames)

This is a temporary workaround until the fix is released upstream.