Logging

For a user-facing overview (CLI + Control UI + config), see /logging.

OpenClaw has two log "surfaces":

Console output (what you see in the terminal / Debug UI).
File logs (JSON lines) written by the gateway logger.

At startup, the Gateway logs the resolved default agent model together with the mode defaults that affect new sessions, for example:

text

agent model: openai-codex/gpt-5.5 (thinking=medium, fast=on)

thinking comes from the default agent, model params, or global agent default; when it is unset, the startup summary shows medium. fast comes from the default agent or model fastMode params.

File-based logger

Default rolling log file is under /tmp/openclaw/ (one file per day): openclaw-YYYY-MM-DD.log
- Date uses the gateway host's local timezone.
Active log files rotate at logging.maxFileBytes (default: 100 MB), keeping up to five numbered archives and continuing to write a fresh active file.
The log file path and level can be configured via ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json:
- logging.file
- logging.level

The file format is one JSON object per line.

Talk, realtime voice, and managed-room code paths use the shared file logger for bounded lifecycle records. These records are intended for operational debugging and OTLP log export; transcript text, audio payloads, turn ids, call ids, and provider item ids are not copied into the log record.

The Control UI Logs tab tails this file via the gateway (logs.tail). CLI can do the same:

bash

openclaw logs --follow

Verbose vs. log levels

File logs are controlled exclusively by logging.level.
--verbose only affects console verbosity (and WS log style); it does not raise the file log level.
To capture verbose-only details in file logs, set logging.level to debug or trace.
Trace logging also includes diagnostic timing summaries for selected hot paths, such as plugin tool factory preparation. See /tools/plugin#slow-plugin-tool-setup.

Console capture

The CLI captures console.log/info/warn/error/debug/trace and writes them to file logs, while still printing to stdout/stderr.

You can tune console verbosity independently via:

logging.consoleLevel (default info)
logging.consoleStyle (pretty | compact | json)

Redaction

OpenClaw can mask sensitive tokens before log or transcript output leaves the process. This logging redaction policy is applied at console, file-log, OTLP log-record, and session transcript text sinks, so matching secret values are masked before JSONL lines or messages are written to disk.

logging.redactSensitive: off | tools (default: tools)
logging.redactPatterns: array of regex strings (overrides defaults)
- Use raw regex strings (auto gi), or /pattern/flags if you need custom flags.
- Matches are masked by keeping the first 6 + last 4 chars (length >= 18), otherwise ***.
- Defaults cover common key assignments, CLI flags, JSON fields, bearer headers, PEM blocks, popular token prefixes, and payment credential field names such as card number, CVC/CVV, shared payment token, and payment credential.

Some safety boundaries always redact regardless of logging.redactSensitive. That includes Control UI tool-call events, sessions_history tool output, diagnostics support exports, provider error observations, exec approval command display, and Gateway WebSocket protocol logs. These surfaces may still use logging.redactPatterns as additional patterns, but redactSensitive: "off" does not make them emit raw secrets.

Gateway WebSocket logs

The gateway prints WebSocket protocol logs in two modes:

Normal mode (no --verbose): only "interesting" RPC results are printed:
- errors (ok=false)
- slow calls (default threshold: >= 50ms)
- parse errors
Verbose mode (--verbose): prints all WS request/response traffic.

WS log style

openclaw gateway supports a per-gateway style switch:

--ws-log auto (default): normal mode is optimized; verbose mode uses compact output
--ws-log compact: compact output (paired request/response) when verbose
--ws-log full: full per-frame output when verbose
--compact: alias for --ws-log compact

Examples:

bash

# optimized (only errors/slow)
openclaw gateway

# show all WS traffic (paired)
openclaw gateway --verbose --ws-log compact

# show all WS traffic (full meta)
openclaw gateway --verbose --ws-log full

Console formatting (subsystem logging)

The console formatter is TTY-aware and prints consistent, prefixed lines. Subsystem loggers keep output grouped and scannable.

Behavior:

Subsystem prefixes on every line (e.g. [gateway], [canvas], [tailscale])
Subsystem colors (stable per subsystem) plus level coloring
Color when output is a TTY or the environment looks like a rich terminal (TERM/COLORTERM/TERM_PROGRAM), respects NO_COLOR
Shortened subsystem prefixes: drops leading gateway/ + channels/, keeps last 2 segments (e.g. whatsapp/outbound)
Sub-loggers by subsystem (auto prefix + structured field { subsystem })
logRaw() for QR/UX output (no prefix, no formatting)
Console styles (e.g. pretty | compact | json)
Console log level separate from file log level (file keeps full detail when logging.level is set to debug/trace)
WhatsApp message bodies are logged at debug (use --verbose to see them)

This keeps existing file logs stable while making interactive output scannable.

Gateway logging