Tailing Gateway logs with openclaw logs

I find it exhausting to track down logs when things go wrong. Switching contexts and hunting for files usually slows down my development process and makes debugging feel like a chore.

The openclaw logs command fixes this by letting you tail your Gateway file logs directly from your terminal. It works over RPC, so you can see what is happening even when you are in remote mode.

What You’ll Need

• An active OpenClaw gateway.
• The openclaw CLI.

Quick Start

You can start viewing your logs immediately with a single command. Here are the four ways I recommend using it:

1. View recent logs: Run the basic command to see the latest entries.

   openclaw logs

2. Follow logs in real-time: Use the follow flag to stream new log entries as they happen.

   openclaw logs --follow

3. Increase the history: If you need to see more than the default number of lines, set a specific limit.

   openclaw logs --limit 500

4. Get JSON output: Use the JSON flag if you need to pipe the logs into another tool for analysis.

   openclaw logs --json

Troubleshooting

If you do not see any output, ensure your RPC connection to the gateway is active. Since this command tails file logs over RPC, a stable connection is required to fetch the data. If the logs are not appearing as expected, you can check your general setup in the Logging overview.

If you need more help with specific configurations, try the AI Setup Assistant.

What’s Next

• Logging