These are the problems I see most often in the community Discord. Save this page — you will probably need it eventually.
Agent not responding
Check: is the process running? (pm2 status). Is the API key valid? (test it with curl). Is the channel connected? (check logs for connection messages). 90% of “agent not responding” issues are one of these three.
Agent responds but slowly
Check your model. Opus is 3-5x slower than Sonnet. Check your thinking mode — “always on” adds significant latency. Check if you have too many tools loaded — the agent considers all available tools on every request.
Agent gives wrong answers
Is your SOUL.md clear about what the agent should and should not do? Are you using a model appropriate for the task complexity? Is your memory full of outdated information that might confuse it?
“Module not found” errors
Run npm install in the OpenClaw directory. If that does not work, delete node_modules and package-lock.json, then npm install again. Works 95% of the time.
Memory not persisting
Check file permissions on your workspace directory. The agent needs write access to MEMORY.md and the memory/ folder. Also check that compaction is not being too aggressive — if it is summarizing everything to nothing, increase the threshold.
High API costs
Switch to adaptive thinking. Use Sonnet as default. Set rate limits. Check logs for retry loops (a common cost killer). Consider using Haiku for simple tasks like weather checks.
Still stuck? The GitHub Issues section is searchable and has solutions to most known problems.