Signal: signal-cli not found / daemon won't start

Symptoms

• Signal channel fails to start.
• Logs indicate signal-cli is missing, not executable, or the daemon never becomes ready.

Cause

OpenClaw’s Signal integration depends on signal-cli (and a working Java runtime). If signal-cli is not installed, not on PATH, or is slow to start, the gateway cannot connect to the Signal daemon.

Use /channels/signal for the higher-level lane design: number ownership, daemon posture, and what should stay in pairing versus groups.

Fix

1) Install signal-cli (and Java) on the gateway host

Install signal-cli using your OS package manager or the official distribution for your platform, and ensure Java is available.

2) Point OpenClaw at the correct cli path

Set channels.signal.cliPath if signal-cli isn’t on PATH:

{
  channels: {
    signal: {
      cliPath: "/full/path/to/signal-cli",
    },
  },
}

Restart the gateway.

3) If startup is slow, increase timeout or use an external daemon

Option A: increase channels.signal.startupTimeoutMs.

Option B (recommended on slow machines): run the daemon yourself and set channels.signal.httpUrl, disabling autostart:

{
  channels: {
    signal: {
      httpUrl: "http://127.0.0.1:8080",
      autoStart: false,
    },
  },
}

Verify

• openclaw channels status --probe shows Signal healthy.
• Sending a DM to the Signal bot number triggers a reply.

If startup succeeds but group delivery still fails, continue with /troubleshooting/solutions/signal-group-id-lowercased-group-not-found.