• Quick usage
• Shell shortcuts
• Manual fallback (no helper functions)
• Notes

Keep OpenClaw TUI running in a persistent tmux session, so reconnection is instant and safe.

# start or attach TUI session
watson

# attach only (if already running)
watson_a

# kill the session
watson_k

Add these shortcuts to ~/.bash_aliases:

# Personal shortcuts

openclaw() {
  PATH="$HOME/.local/share/openclaw-node/current/bin:$PATH" /usr/bin/openclaw "$@"
}

# Start/attach OpenClaw TUI in tmux session "watson"
watson() {
  tmux new-session -A -s watson 'PATH="$HOME/.local/share/openclaw-node/current/bin:$PATH" /usr/bin/openclaw tui --session agent:main:main --deliver'
}

# Attach to existing watson session only
watson_a() {
  tmux attach -t watson
}

# Kill watson session
watson_k() {
  tmux kill-session -t watson 2>/dev/null || true
}

~/.bashrc already sources ~/.bash_aliases, so open a new shell (or run source ~/.bash_aliases) to use the commands.

# direct
PATH="$HOME/.local/share/openclaw-node/current/bin:$PATH" /usr/bin/openclaw tui --session agent:main:main --deliver

# with tmux directly
tmux new-session -A -s watson 'PATH="$HOME/.local/share/openclaw-node/current/bin:$PATH" /usr/bin/openclaw tui --session agent:main:main --deliver'

Installed via npm global. Do not replace the package while the Gateway or TUI is running: both processes hold OpenClaw state and may keep loading modules from the replaced installation.

systemctl --user start openclaw-maintenance-update.service
journalctl --user -u openclaw-maintenance-update.service -n 200 --no-pager

The openclaw-maintenance-update.timer checks daily at 04:15 UTC. It does nothing when the installed version is current. For a real update it stops watson and the Gateway, verifies and backs up SQLite/config/session state, installs an exact package version, runs aligns the configured official WhatsApp channel plugin to that exact version, runs openclaw doctor --fix --non-interactive --yes, validates the config and databases, and requires the new Gateway version and RPC probe before recreating the TUI. SQLite is never checked concurrently with a running Gateway; the two integrity passes happen while all writers are stopped, before and after doctor. The local-model llama-cpp plugin is deliberately outside this maintenance job. Any failure leaves the Gateway stopped for inspection.

Check current vs latest:

openclaw --version
npm show openclaw version

• If Gateway is down, start it first: openclaw gateway start
• Detach from tmux without stopping TUI: Ctrl+b then d

The gateway and the TUI session have separate lifecycles. A running gateway does not prove that the persistent tmux session exists.

Check both before changing the gateway configuration:

openclaw gateway status
tmux ls

If the gateway is healthy but the tmux session is absent, recreate only the TUI session:

tmux new-session -d -s watson 'PATH="$HOME/.local/share/openclaw-node/current/bin:$PATH" /usr/bin/openclaw tui --session agent:main:main --deliver'
tmux ls

The agent-scoped session key is required on multi-agent installations. A bare --session main is ambiguous and the TUI exits immediately.