OpenClaw fails to start: Port already in use
Symptom When executing the openclaw start or openclaw serve command, the program fails immediately and outputs the following error message: Error: listen EADDRINUSE :::3000 at Server.setupListenHandler [as _listeningListener] (node:net:1465:14) at ListenAndServe (node:net:1398:7) at ListenAndServe (net:http:1801:9) ... This indicates that the port OpenClaw is trying to bind to (default 3000) is already occupied by another process. Root Cause Analysis Port Conflict: Another service on the local computer (such as a Node.js app, Apache, Nginx, or another OpenClaw instance) is already using port 3000. Zombie Process: A previous OpenClaw process might not have terminated properly and is still holding the port. Configuration Error: The user might have set an already occupied port in the configuration file. Solution Method 1: Find and terminate the process occupying the port macOS / Linux: ...