2026-03-12

Tao explicitly reinforced a hard rule after gateway disruption: on Tao's machine, do not run openclaw gateway stop, and do not assume openclaw gateway restart is safe. Treat restart-style lifecycle control as disruptive and approval-required.
Durable lesson: before any gateway intervention, first run openclaw gateway status, report findings, prefer non-disruptive diagnosis, and get Tao approval for the exact lifecycle command if one is still necessary.
Trigger for this rule: attempted gateway restart led to service becoming unavailable and Tao needing to manually reinstall/restore gateway service again. This is a high-friction failure and must not be repeated.