GitHub Issue Draft - Gateway Crash on Fetch Failed

Repository: clawdbot/clawdbot

Title: Gateway crash on unhandled fetch rejection (network instability)

Problem

Gateway crashes when network requests fail due to unhandled promise rejection in fetch calls.

Frequency

28+ crashes in one day (2026-01-31)
First crash: 11:27 KST
Last crash: 16:26 KST
Average: ~1 crash every 15-20 minutes during active hours
Still occurring as of 2026-02-01

Environment

OS: macOS (Darwin 25.2.0 arm64)
Node.js: v25.5.0
Gateway: Clawdbot (latest npm version)

Stack Trace

Unhandled promise rejection: TypeError: fetch failed
    at node:internal/deps/undici/undici:16416:13
    at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:104:5)
    at runNextTicks (node:internal/process/task_queues:69:3)
    at processTimers (node:internal/timers:538:9)

Crash Pattern

fetch failed error logged
Gateway process terminates immediately
Watchdog detects crash and restarts
New process starts with new PID
Cycle repeats on next network failure

Impact

Gateway requires manual restart after each crash
Session interruptions
Memory search disrupted when using Gemini embeddings
Stability degradation during high usage

Temporary Workaround

Switched embedding provider to reduce rate limit pressure:

memorySearch.provider: gemini → openai
memorySearch.model: gemini-embedding-001 → text-embedding-3-small

This reduced Gemini API calls but doesn't address the underlying crash issue.

Expected Behavior

Gateway should gracefully handle fetch failures without crashing:

Wrap all fetch calls in try-catch
Retry logic with exponential backoff (3 retries recommended)
Circuit breaker pattern for repeated failures
Fallback mechanisms (e.g., skip embedding if API down)
Error logging without process termination

Root Cause (Suspected)

Appears to be a general issue with fetch error handling in gateway core, not specific to any single API:

Triggers observed:

Network timeouts
DNS resolution failures
API rate limits (429, 503)
Connection refused
Telegram media downloads (voice files, photos)
Any fetch() call that rejects

Why it crashes:

Promise rejection from undici (Node.js native fetch) not caught
No top-level error handler for fetch failures
Process exits due to unhandled rejection

Which APIs affected: Likely any external API call:

OpenAI (embeddings, completions)
Anthropic (Claude API)
Memory search providers (Gemini, OpenAI)
Telegram (media downloads: voice/photo/video)
Web fetch operations
GitHub API calls

Example error (Telegram media):

[telegram] handler failed: MediaFetchError: Failed to fetch media from 
https://api.telegram.org/file/bot.../voice/file_113.oga: TypeError: fetch failed

Additional Context

Rate limit errors should be caught and handled, not crash the process
Network instability is common in production environments
Gateway restart automation helps but doesn't solve the root issue

Suggested Fix

Wrap all fetch calls in try-catch with proper error handling
Implement retry strategy (e.g., 3 retries with exponential backoff)
Add circuit breaker for repeated API failures
Log errors to monitoring system instead of crashing
Consider graceful degradation (e.g., skip embedding if API unavailable)

Reporter: @Ramsbaby Date: 2026-02-01 Priority: High (affects daily stability)

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