Why does Google Chat plugin keep restarting?

The account startup path can terminate early due to invalid config or startup sequencing errors, causing the channel supervisor to restart repeatedly.

How can I confirm this exact issue?

Logs repeatedly show channel exited/restarted messages shortly after plugin start, without stable connected state.

What is the quickest mitigation?

Disable the broken Google Chat channel temporarily, validate config, then re-enable and restart once.

Fix Google Chat Plugin Infinite Restart Loop

Typical Signal

[google-chat] channel exited ... restarting

If the Google Chat plugin starts, exits immediately, and then restarts in a loop, the issue is usually channel config validity or startup ordering. Stabilize with a stop-validate-start sequence.

Field report: openclaw/openclaw#20502.

Next Step

Fix now, then reduce repeat incidents

If this issue keeps coming back, validate your setup in Doctor first, then harden your config.

Open Doctor Harden Config

Need proactive alerts? Join Monitor early access.

Jump to Fix

Step 1: stop channel Step 2: validate config Step 3: start cleanly Step 4: verify stability

Step 1: Stop before changes

Stop gateway

openclaw gateway stop
openclaw gateway status

Step 2: Validate Google Chat config

Confirm required credentials and channel fields are present, and no duplicate Google Chat channel entries exist.

Run quick config checks

# validate config structure first
node -e "JSON.parse(require('fs').readFileSync(process.env.HOME+'/.openclaw/openclaw.json','utf8')); console.log('config ok')"

# then run diagnostics
npx clawkit-doctor@latest

Step 3: Start once after cleanup

Start and tail logs

openclaw gateway start
openclaw logs --follow

Avoid repeated manual restarts while logs are still initializing. Repeated start/stop can mask the original startup error and make loops harder to diagnose.

Step 4: Verify stable state

No repeated channel exited/restarting logs for at least 2-3 minutes

Channel status stays running/connected in dashboard

Test message delivery succeeds end-to-end

Related Guides

Channel Exited Loop (Slack)

Similar restart-loop symptom pattern

Connection Errors

Network and endpoint reachability checks

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