---
name: openclaw-guardian-2eff5a8f0d95
description: Deploy and manage a Guardian watchdog process for OpenClaw Gateway. Provides automated health monitoring, self-repair via `doctor --fix`, git-based workspace rollback, daily snapshots, and optional Discord alerting. Use when a user wants to harden their OpenClaw instance against crashes, config corruption, or bad workspace edits — or when setting up Guardian for the first time on a new server/container.
---

# OpenClaw Guardian

Guardian is a standalone bash watchdog that keeps OpenClaw Gateway alive 24/7.

**Repair ladder:**
1. Detect Gateway down (every 30s)
2. Run `openclaw doctor --fix` (up to 3 attempts)
3. If still down → `git reset --hard` to last stable commit, restart Gateway
4. If all fails → cooldown 300s, resume monitoring
5. Daily automatic git snapshot of workspace

## Setup Steps

### 1. Initialize git (required for rollback)

```bash
cd ~/.openclaw/workspace
git config --global user.email "guardian@example.com"
git config --global user.name "Guardian"
git init && git add -A && git commit -m "initial"
```

Skip if repo already exists. Without git, doctor --fix still works; rollback is skipped.

### 2. Install guardian.sh

Copy `scripts/guardian.sh` from this skill to `~/.openclaw/guardian.sh`:

```bash
cp scripts/guardian.sh ~/.openclaw/guardian.sh
chmod +x ~/.openclaw/guardian.sh
```

### 3. Start Guardian

**Container / no systemd (nohup):**
```bash
nohup ~/.openclaw/guardian.sh >> /tmp/openclaw-guardian.log 2>&1 &
```

**Linux VPS with systemd:** See `references/setup.md` → Pattern B.

### 4. Auto-start on container restart

Add to `~/.openclaw/start-gateway.sh` (before the final `exec` line):
```bash
pkill -f "guardian.sh" 2>/dev/null || true
nohup /home/ubuntu/.openclaw/guardian.sh >> /tmp/openclaw-guardian.log 2>&1 &
```

### 5. Optional: Discord alerts

```bash
export DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL="https://discord.com/api/webhooks/..."
```

Or add to `start-gateway.sh` as a persistent export.

## Verify

```bash
pgrep -a -f "guardian.sh"          # confirm process running
tail -f /tmp/openclaw-guardian.log  # watch live logs
```

## Configuration

All settings via environment variables. Defaults work out of the box.
See `references/setup.md` for full variable reference, systemd config, and architecture diagram.

## Notes

- Guardian coexists with `gw-watchdog.sh` — run both for layered resilience
- Rollback targets the 2nd-newest non-auto commit (skips daily-backup, rollback, auto-backup commits)
- Log path: `/tmp/openclaw-guardian.log`


---
Source attribution: modbender
Original project: https://github.com/modbender/skill-library-mcp/blob/d9c8fe903b5b4e82237dbe8d0df8567783022e18/data/openclaw-guardian-ultra/SKILL.md
License: MIT
License information: https://opensource.org/license/mit
Original upstream instructions; downloaded from Dave AI.

## Upstream license notice

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2025 skill-library-mcp contributors

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.



# Dave AI resource metadata

Creator / publisher: modbender
Original project: https://github.com/modbender/skill-library-mcp/blob/d9c8fe903b5b4e82237dbe8d0df8567783022e18/data/openclaw-guardian-ultra/SKILL.md
Attribution basis: Source repository record

Fields of work: Development & Engineering, Product Management
Roles: Backend Developer, DevOps / SRE, Technical Product Manager
Specialties: DevOps
Tools: Discord, Git
Country applicability: Country not specified
Classification basis: Source catalog labels
Instruction SHA-256: 2ca323fbf660f8a0b37b08da8d0734c12c689b92f94c2227f67498be8fc95bfd