Summary

The message tool fails with No active WhatsApp Web listener for both WhatsApp accounts, despite openclaw channels status --probe confirming both are enabled, configured, linked, running, connected.

This is a continuation/regression of #14406 — the workaround (hard restart) no longer works as of 2026.3.13.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Gateway running, WhatsApp connected (confirmed via channels status --probe)
2. Use the message tool to send a proactive WhatsApp message
3. Error: No active WhatsApp Web listener (account: default)
4. Hard restart gateway (openclaw gateway restart)
5. Confirm WhatsApp reconnected via channels status --probe → shows connected
6. Try message tool again → same error

Expected Behavior

After a hard restart, the message tool should be able to find the WhatsApp listener and send proactive messages.

Actual Behavior

The message tool consistently returns No active WhatsApp Web listener regardless of:

• Fresh gateway start
• Hard restart
• Both accounts (default and secondary website-builder)

Meanwhile, auto-reply (inbound message → bot responds) works fine, confirming the WhatsApp connection is alive.

Impact

• All proactive WhatsApp sends are broken (follow-ups, notifications, outbound campaigns)
• Agents can only respond reactively, not initiate conversations
• CRM follow-up crons fail silently
• Client-facing bots cannot send scheduled messages

Environment

• OpenClaw: 2026.3.13 (61d171a)
• Node: v22.22.0
• OS: Linux 5.15.0-171-generic (x64, Ubuntu)
• WhatsApp accounts: 2 (default + website-builder), both show connected
• Channel status output:

- WhatsApp default: enabled, configured, linked, running, connected, dm:open, allow:*
- WhatsApp website-builder: enabled, configured, linked, running, connected, dm:open, allow:*

Related Issues

• WhatsApp message tool fails with 'No active WhatsApp Web listener' while auto-reply works — duplicate listener Maps across bundled chunks #14406 — Original report of duplicate listener Maps across bundled chunks
• Announce queue delivery fails with 'No active WhatsApp Web listener' despite WhatsApp being connected #30177 — Announce queue delivery fails with same error

Notes

The root cause from #14406 (code-splitting creating duplicate Map<string, Listener> instances) seems to have not been fully resolved. The hard restart workaround mentioned in #14406 no longer repopulates the correct Map in 2026.3.13.