OpenClaw Rating API Edge – Detailed Troubleshooting Guide

Error 1: Missing Environment Variables

The template expects several ENV keys (e.g., DB_HOST, API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY). If any are omitted, the container exits with a status 1 and logs a generic “configuration error”.

Error 2: Docker Container Startup Failures

Mis‑aligned base images, missing build arguments, or insufficient memory limits cause the Docker engine to kill the container during the docker compose up phase. Typical messages include “failed to start daemon” or “OOMKilled”.

Error 3: CORS Misconfiguration

When the API is accessed from a front‑end hosted on a different domain (e.g., a Moltbook widget), browsers block the request if the Access‑Control‑Allow‑Origin header is missing or set to * in production. The result is a 403 “CORS policy” error in the console.

Error 4: Database Connection Timeouts

Network latency, wrong port numbers, or missing TLS certificates cause the API to repeatedly retry connections, eventually timing out and returning a 504 “Gateway Timeout”.

3.1 Proper Environment‑Variable Management

Store secrets in a dedicated vault (e.g., OpenAI ChatGPT integration can fetch them at runtime). Use Docker secrets or Kubernetes ConfigMap to inject them securely.

Example Docker Compose snippet:

services:
  api:
    image: ubos/openclaw-api:latest
    secrets:
      - db_password
    environment:
      - DB_HOST=db
      - DB_USER=app_user
      - DB_PASSWORD_FILE=/run/secrets/db_password

3.2 Container Health‑Checks and Restart Policies

Define a Docker health‑check that pings /readyz. Combine it with a restart: on-failure policy to let the orchestrator recover automatically.

healthcheck:
  test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost:8080/readyz"]
  interval: 30s
  timeout: 5s
  retries: 3

restart: on-failure

3.3 Secure CORS Settings

Instead of a wildcard, whitelist only the domains that need access (e.g., your Moltbook app). In app/config/cors.js:

module.exports = {
  origin: [
    "https://app.moltbook.io",
    "https://dashboard.yourcompany.com"
  ],
  methods: ["GET", "POST", "PUT", "DELETE"],
  credentials: true
};

This prevents malicious sites from abusing your API while keeping legitimate traffic functional.

3.4 Connection Pooling and Retry Logic

Use a connection pool library (e.g., pg-pool for PostgreSQL) and implement exponential back‑off for transient failures.

const { Pool } = require('pg');
const pool = new Pool({
  max: 20,
  idleTimeoutMillis: 30000,
  connectionTimeoutMillis: 2000
});

async function queryWithRetry(sql, params) {
  for (let attempt = 1; attempt  setTimeout(r, 2 ** attempt * 100));
    }
  }
}

This reduces the likelihood of timeouts during brief network spikes.