Summary

• Problem: @homebridge/ciao fires assert.fail() inside MDNSServer.handleUpdatedNetworkInterfaces when a network interface's IPv4 address transitions between defined↔undefined (WiFi drop, VPN toggle, sleep/wake).
• Why it matters: The assertion becomes an unhandled promise rejection that falls through to process.exit(1), crashing the gateway.
• What changed: Extended ignoreCiaoCancellationRejection in src/infra/bonjour-ciao.ts to also match ciao's IPv4 address-change assertions, logging them as non-fatal warnings instead of letting them crash the process.
• What did NOT change (scope boundary): No changes to the @homebridge/ciao dependency itself or other unhandled rejection logic.

Change Type (select all)

• Bug fix
• Feature
• Refactor
• Docs
• Security hardening
• Chore/infra

Scope (select all touched areas)

• Gateway / orchestration
• Skills / tool execution
• Auth / tokens
• Memory / storage
• Integrations
• API / contracts
• UI / DX
• CI/CD / infra

Linked Issue/PR

• Related: @homebridge/ciao upstream bug in MDNSServer.handleUpdatedNetworkInterfaces

User-visible / Behavior Changes

Gateway no longer crashes when network interfaces change (WiFi disconnect/reconnect, VPN toggle, sleep/wake). A warning is logged instead.

Security Impact (required)

• New permissions/capabilities? No
• Secrets/tokens handling changed? No
• New/changed network calls? No
• Command/tool execution surface changed? No
• Data access scope changed? No

Repro + Verification

Environment

• OS: macOS
• Runtime/container: Node 22+
• Model/provider: N/A
• Integration/channel (if any): mDNS/Bonjour discovery
• Relevant config (redacted): N/A

Steps

1. Start OpenClaw gateway with Bonjour advertising enabled
2. Toggle WiFi off or disconnect VPN while gateway is running
3. Observe gateway behavior

Expected

• Gateway logs a warning and continues running

Actual (before fix)

• Gateway crashes with AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: Reached illegal state! IPV4 address change from defined to undefined!

Evidence

• Failing test/log before + passing after
• Trace/log snippets

Error trace before fix:

[openclaw] Unhandled promise rejection: AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: Reached illegal state! IPV4 address change from defined to undefined!
    at MDNSServer.handleUpdatedNetworkInterfaces (.../@homebridge/ciao/src/MDNSServer.ts:695:18)
    at NetworkManager.checkForNewInterfaces (.../@homebridge/ciao/src/NetworkManager.ts:345:12)

New tests added in src/infra/bonjour-ciao.test.ts covering both assertion variants and unrelated error passthrough.

Human Verification (required)

• Verified scenarios: All 11 bonjour tests pass (4 new + 7 existing)
• Edge cases checked: Both IPv4 assertion variants (defined→undefined, undefined→defined), unrelated errors still propagate
• What you did not verify: Live reproduction on hardware network toggle (error observed in production logs)

Compatibility / Migration

• Backward compatible? Yes
• Config/env changes? No
• Migration needed? No

Failure Recovery (if this breaks)

• How to disable/revert this change quickly: Revert the single commit on src/infra/bonjour-ciao.ts
• Files/config to restore: src/infra/bonjour-ciao.ts
• Known bad symptoms reviewers should watch for: Gateway crashing on network changes (regression to current behavior)

Risks and Mitigations

• Risk: Suppressing a ciao assertion that indicates a real bug could mask mDNS state corruption
  • Mitigation: The assertion is logged as a warning (logWarn), and the bonjour watchdog (60s interval) will attempt re-advertisement if the service falls out of announced state