OpenClaw Troubleshooting Checklist

1) Confirm the runtime baseline

node -v
openclaw --version
openclaw status
openclaw gateway status

If any command fails, fix runtime mismatch first before touching workflow logic.

2) Validate host health before app debugging

• Disk pressure (df -h)
• Memory pressure (free -h)
• Listener sanity (ss -tulpen)
• Recent errors in service logs

A degraded host often looks like an OpenClaw issue but is really infrastructure contention.

3) Check workflow-level failure points

• Prompt/heartbeat loop exits early without concrete action
• Attribution script runs but source data is polluted by bots/tests
• Intake endpoints reachable but no qualified clickthrough
• Cron runs scheduled tasks, but outputs are never reviewed

Fix order: runtime → host → workflow logic → conversion instrumentation.

3.5) Compare against a real baseline

Review the OpenClaw funnel case study to compare your setup against a transparent day-one instrumentation baseline.