ClawKit Doctor 3.0: Language Selection, Recovery Loop, and Slash Commands

The gap v2 left open

v2 got better at finding problems. It added token alignment checks, stale lock detection, port probing. But the output was still one-directional: here's what's wrong, good luck.

The real frustration isn't finding the error — it's not knowing if you actually fixed it. You run the suggested command, something happens, you're not sure if it worked, you run Doctor again, same result, now you're not sure if the fix applied or if there's still a problem. The y/n loop in 3.0 is specifically for that moment. Doctor holds the thread until the incident is closed or until you decide to escalate.

Why language selection is the first thing you see

A meaningful portion of OpenClaw users are Chinese-speaking — GitHub issues, Discord threads, you can see it. Having to remember --lang zh every time is friction that compounds. Making language the first explicit choice means it's set once, and everything after that — error messages, menu options, fallback steps — is in the right language.

Japanese support is there because the OpenClaw community has a visible JP presence too. It's not a feature for the sake of features — it came from watching where the issues were filed.

An honest note on the slash commands

The slash palette is the one part I'm genuinely unsure about. It's useful once you know it exists: typing /paste at the menu is faster than navigating through numbered options. But nobody discovers it by accident. You'd only know to try it if you read these docs.

I kept it because the navigation improvement for power users is real, and it doesn't get in the way for everyone else. But I wouldn't call it a flagship feature. If you never use it, you're not missing the point of the tool.

How to use it

Default launch — language picker, then menu:

If you already have the error text, skip the menu entirely:

The --full flag continues into environment checks after the paste diagnosis — useful when you suspect the error is a symptom of something deeper:

ClawKit Doctor vs the official one

They check different things. The official Doctor is good at verifying your install is healthy — binary checks, environment variables, platform prerequisites. That's its job and it does it well.

ClawKit Doctor is focused on recovery. When something breaks at 2am and you need a fast path to "working again," it maps your error to a specific fix page, walks you through the steps, and confirms the outcome. You can run both without them conflicting.

Check your version