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Common Tasks

Frequently used console commands for managing your agent.

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These are the tasks you will reach for most often when working in the console.

Check Agent Status

See if the agent process is running:

ps aux | grep node

A healthy agent shows one or more Node.js processes. If nothing appears, the agent may need to be restarted from the dashboard.

View Auth Profiles

Confirm which providers and keys are configured:

cat /home/node/.openclaw/agents/main/agent/auth-profiles.json | head -20

Look for entries like anthropic:default or openai:default. Each entry maps a provider and profile name to an API key.

Edit Configuration

Make changes to the agent config directly:

vi /home/node/.openclaw/openclaw.json

The config file uses JSON5 format (comments and trailing commas are allowed). Changes are hot-reloaded, so the agent picks them up without a full restart.

Check Disk Usage

Each agent has a persistent volume. Monitor how much space is used:

df -h /home/node/.openclaw/
du -sh /home/node/.openclaw/*

View Installed Skills

List what skills your agent has available:

ls /home/node/.openclaw/skills/

Skills are tools and capabilities that extend what your agent can do.

Diagnose Issues

Run the built-in diagnostic tool to identify and auto-repair common problems:

openclaw doctor --fix

This checks configuration files, API key validity, channel connections, and runtime health. The --fix flag attempts to repair any issues it finds automatically.

Check Channel Status

See which messaging channels are connected and their current state:

openclaw channels list

This shows all configured channels (WhatsApp, Signal, iMessage, email) and whether each one is active, disconnected, or errored.

Install Skills from ClawHub

Add new capabilities to your agent from the ClawHub skills registry:

npx clawhub install <skill-name>

For more on finding and installing skills, see Installing Skills.

Restart the Agent Process

If the agent is behaving unexpectedly, you can restart it from the console:

kill -SIGUSR1 $(pgrep -f openclaw)

This sends a reload signal to the OpenClaw process. For a harder restart, use the Stop and Start controls on the dashboard instead. That scales the entire container down and back up, giving you a clean slate.