openclaw-lighthouse

OpenAI Codex account switch (Plus → Pro) + onboard reset: Telegram stops replying

Summary

After switching openai-codex auth from a ChatGPT Plus account to a ChatGPT Pro account, OpenClaw stopped replying in Telegram.

The reported flow included a full onboarding reset (Config + creds + sessions) and a gateway token mismatch warning before service restart.

This note tracks the symptom cluster and likely failure points.

Environment

• OpenClaw version: 2026.2.17
• Channel impacted: Telegram
• Runtime user in report: root
• Onboarding mode: QuickStart
• Onboarding config handling: Reset
• Reset scope: Config + creds + sessions

Reproduction

1. Run onboarding with OpenAI Codex auth choice:
   • openclaw onboard --auth-choice openai-codex
2. Select reset path:
   • Config handling: Reset
   • Reset scope: Config + creds + sessions
3. Restart gateway:
   • openclaw gateway restart
4. Observe warning:
   • Config token differs from service token ... run openclaw gateway install --force to sync the token
5. Run install + restart:
   • openclaw gateway install --force
   • openclaw gateway restart
6. Telegram no longer receives replies.

Expected vs actual

• Expected:
  • After auth switch and restart, Telegram continues normal reply flow.
• Actual:
  • Telegram stops receiving replies.
  • Intermediate warning indicates token desync between config and service.

Findings

1. Full onboarding reset can replace config/credentials/session state in one step.
2. The token mismatch warning strongly suggests a temporary gateway auth desync until service reinstall.
3. Even after reinstall/restart, Telegram may still be silent if one of these changed during reset:
   • provider/channel startup state
   • DM pairing / allowlist state
   • auth profile selection for model/provider
4. Root cause is not yet confirmed from this report alone.

Mitigation / Workaround

Use this verification sequence after auth/account migration:

1. openclaw --version
2. openclaw status --all
3. openclaw gateway status
4. openclaw channels status --probe
5. openclaw pairing list telegram
6. openclaw logs --follow

If token mismatch warning appears:

• run openclaw gateway install --force
• restart and re-check status/probe

If Telegram still does not reply:

• verify pairing/allowlist again
• verify model/provider auth profile availability
• capture fresh logs and open an upstream issue

Risk / Impact

• Message reliability: Telegram appears online but no functional replies.
• Ops confusion: successful restart output may hide channel-level failure.
• Migration risk: account/auth tier changes can silently break runtime routing/auth state.

Related Issues/PRs

• No upstream issue linked in this note yet.

Next actions

• Reproduce on clean host with same migration path (Plus → Pro + reset).
• Capture gateway/channel logs during first restart after reset.
• Open upstream issue with full environment + logs if reproducible.

References

• Onboarding (CLI)
• Gateway CLI
• Channel Troubleshooting
• Troubleshooting