Node mode not work

[statsmind]

Repo steps:

1. settings -> enable node mode
2. connect gateway

Result:
Status: Connected
Node Mode: Disconnected

And, on server side, no device pairing request found

[github-actions]

🤖 This is an automated response from Repo Assist.

Thanks for reporting this, @statsmind! I investigated the node mode connection flow and here's what I found.

Expected behaviour

When a device connects in node mode for the first time, the intended flow is:

1. The tray opens a WebSocket to the gateway with role: "node" and your device's Ed25519 public key
2. The gateway receives a connect.challenge event and the node responds with a signed connect message
3. If the gateway accepts the connection but the device isn't yet approved, the gateway responds with hello-ok (without a device token) — the tray should then show "🔌 Node Mode: Waiting for Approval" and display your short device ID
4. You approve with openclaw devices approve (device-id) on the server side
5. On reconnect, the gateway includes a device token in hello-ok and the tray shows "Paired & Connected"

What's likely happening

The tray showing "Node Mode: Disconnected" (rather than "Waiting for Approval") means the node's WebSocket handshake isn't completing — specifically, hello-ok is never received. Since you also see no pending device on the server side, the node's connect message isn't reaching the gateway's device registration handler at all.

Most likely causes:

Cause	How to confirm
Token/URL mismatch — the node re-uses the same operator token, which may not authorise node registrations	Check for an auth error in the log
Gateway version doesn't yet handle role: "node"	Check gateway logs for an unrecognised client role
WebSocket closed before challenge/response cycle completes	Look for "connection closed prematurely" in the tray log

How to diagnose

1. Open the tray menu → View Log and look for lines tagged [NODE], especially anything after "Sent node registration with device ID" — an error response from the gateway will appear there
2. If you see "Node registration failed: … (code: …)", share the error code — that will pinpoint the issue

Related

• PR fix: stabilize tray pairing and reconnect behavior #80 (fix: stabilize tray pairing and reconnect behavior) addresses several pairing and reconnect edge cases and is pending merge — it may help once landed
• Labelled bug + needs investigation pending log output

Generated by Repo Assist · ◷

To install this agentic workflow, run

gh aw add githubnext/agentics/workflows/repo-assist.md@cbb46ab386962aa371045839fc9998ee4e97ca64

[github-actions]

---

Note

The pull request was not created — a fallback review issue was created instead due to protected file changes: #116

🤖 This is an automated response from Repo Assist.

After investigating the code, I found two root causes that together explain the "Status: Connected, Node Mode: Disconnected" symptom:

1. Stale status after mode switch — when saving Settings and switching from operator mode to node mode, the old gateway client was disposed but not nulled out, and _currentStatus was not reset. If the operator was previously "Connected", the tray would keep showing "Status: Connected" while the new node connection was establishing — causing the exact "Connected / Node Mode: Disconnected" split you saw.

2. _isPendingApproval not cleared on reconnect — when the node connection drops and reconnects, _isPendingApproval wasn't being reset alongside _isConnected, so the pairing state could show stale values during the reconnect window.

I've submitted PR #115 with a fix for both issues:

• OnSettingsSaved now unsubscribes events, nulls the old gateway client, and resets _currentStatus to Disconnected immediately before starting the new connection
• OnDisconnected / OnError in WindowsNodeClient now also reset _isPendingApproval

If you still see "no device pairing request on the server side" after this fix, that would point to a separate issue with the WebSocket handshake not completing — the tray log (View Log → look for [NODE] lines) would show whether the challenge/connect cycle ran at all.

Generated by Repo Assist · ◷

To install this agentic workflow, run

gh aw add githubnext/agentics/workflows/repo-assist.md@cbb46ab386962aa371045839fc9998ee4e97ca64