Out-of-Memory on ErrorVault — Developer Error Code Dictionary

Fix clw-api-oom: OpenClaw API Out of Memory Error

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 15:08:04 +0800

1. Symptoms

The clw-api-oom error manifests when the OpenClaw API service exhausts available memory resources during operation. This memory exhaustion produces several distinct observable symptoms that help identify the root cause and distinguish it from other runtime failures.

Primary Indicators:

API requests begin returning HTTP 503 Service Unavailable responses with extended latency
Process termination events in system logs showing exit code 137 (128 + SIGKILL signal)
Progressive degradation in API response times as memory pressure increases
Container or process restart cycles triggered by the orchestrator’s health checks
Memory usage metrics showing consumption approaching or exceeding configured limits

Shell Output Examples:

Fix clw-llm-oom: OpenClaw LLM Context Overflow Error

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 07:56:04 +0800

1. Symptoms

The clw-llm-oom error manifests when OpenClaw attempts to process large volumes of CloudWatch log data through its LLM integration pipeline. When this error occurs, users typically observe the following indicators:

Shell Output:

[ERROR] OpenClaw LLM processing failed: clw-llm-oom
[ERROR] Context window exhausted. The log batch exceeds the model's maximum token limit.
[ERROR] Attempted to process 47,832 tokens against a 8,192 token context window.

Behavioral Symptoms:

The CLI command terminates immediately after initiating LLM analysis
Processing jobs fail consistently regardless of retry attempts
The error appears even when processing logs that previously succeeded
Memory usage on the host system spikes before the error occurs
The error message includes token count statistics showing the excess

Additional Console Messages:

Fix clw-memory-failure: OpenClaw Memory Allocation Error

Sat, 25 Jul 2026 05:32:04 +0800

1. Symptoms

The clw-memory-failure error manifests when the OpenClaw runtime encounters critical memory-related issues during execution. This error typically surfaces during operations that require substantial memory allocation, including large-scale data processing, complex project compilations, or extended runtime sessions with multiple concurrent operations.

When this error occurs, the OpenClaw CLI (clw) produces distinctive output that immediately signals the nature of the failure:

[FATAL] clw-memory-failure: Failed to allocate 1073741824 bytes
[ERROR] Memory allocation failed: Cannot allocate memory
[STACK]   at allocate_buffer (memory.c:142)
[STACK]   at process_large_dataset (processor.clw:89)
[STACK]   at main (main.clw:234)
[INFO] Available system memory: 524288000 bytes
[INFO] Requested allocation: 1073741824 bytes
[INFO] Peak memory usage: 2147483648 bytes

Users frequently report accompanying symptoms including unresponsive CLI behavior, sudden process termination without graceful cleanup, corrupted output files when writing to disk after memory exhaustion, and degraded system performance affecting other running applications. In containerized environments, the error often appears alongside container restart policies or OOM killer notifications from the orchestrator.

Fix clw-sandbox-oom: OpenClaw Sandbox Out of Memory Error

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 07:56:04 +0800

1. Symptoms

The clw-sandbox-oom error occurs when the OpenClaw sandbox environment exhausts its allocated memory quota during code execution. This error manifests through several distinguishable indicators that help developers identify the root cause quickly.

When the memory limit is breached, the sandbox container’s kernel-level Out-of-Memory killer terminates the running process. The CLI typically outputs an error message resembling the following:

Error: clw-sandbox-oom
Sandbox execution failed: process terminated due to memory exhaustion
Memory limit: 256MB
Peak usage: 312MB
Sandbox ID: sbx_a7f3k2m9

Developers may observe the process exiting with signal code 137 (128 + 9, where 9 is SIGKILL), which is a definitive indicator that the container’s OOM killer was invoked. In interactive sessions, the sandbox may become unresponsive before crashing, or execution may halt abruptly without producing expected output. Webhook-based integrations often receive a JSON payload containing the error code, memory statistics, and a timestamp of the termination event.

Fix clw-fs-oom: OpenClaw Filesystem Out of Memory Error

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 03:08:04 +0800

1. Symptoms

The clw-fs-oom error manifests when the OpenClaw workload agent cannot allocate sufficient memory to complete filesystem operations within a running container or pod. This error typically surfaces during intensive I/O operations such as log rotation, volume mounting, or bulk file transfers.

Indicators include:

The OpenClaw agent logging repeated clw-fs-oom messages to stdout or the centralized logging system
Container health checks failing unexpectedly during file-heavy operations
Application pods entering a CrashLoopBackOff state with exit code 137 (SIGKILL due to OOM)
The error appearing in the OpenClaw dashboard under workload events with the specific error code CLW-FS-OOM
Degraded performance when accessing mounted volumes or performing sequential write operations
Memory usage graphs showing a sudden spike followed by a drop to zero (process termination)

Typical shell output:

Fix clw-gpu-oom: GPU Out-of-Memory Error in OpenClaw

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:44:04 +0800

1. Symptoms

The clw-gpu-oom error manifests when the GPU memory allocator within OpenClaw exhausts available VRAM during computation or model loading. This error typically surfaces during intensive operations such as training large neural networks, running inference on complex models, or processing high-resolution datasets that exceed the available GPU memory budget.

When this error occurs, you will observe console output similar to the following:

[OpenClaw] ERROR: clw-gpu-oom - GPU memory allocation failed
[OpenClaw] DETAILS: Requested 2147483648 bytes, available: 536870912 bytes
[OpenClaw] CONTEXT: Model 'ResNet152' loading at stage 'weights_initialization'
[OpenClaw] CUDA ERROR: out of memory

The error code clw-gpu-oom is accompanied by diagnostic information showing the exact memory request size, the remaining available memory at the time of failure, and the specific OpenClaw operation that triggered the exhaustion. In interactive sessions, you may notice the training loop freezing before the error is printed, particularly when the GPU is continuously allocating memory without proper cleanup. Applications may become unresponsive or terminate abruptly when this error is encountered, especially if error handling is not properly implemented in your codebase.

Fix clw-router-oom: Router Process Memory Exhausted

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 19:56:04 +0800

1. Symptoms

The clw-router-oom error manifests when the OpenClaw router process exhausts its allocated memory budget. This error is critical and typically causes the router to terminate or enter a degraded state.

Observable Symptoms

When this error occurs, you will observe the following symptoms in your system:

Process Termination or Crash:

[OpenClaw Router] FATAL: clw-router-oom: Router heap exhausted
[OpenClaw Router]   Request count: 15,847
[OpenClaw Router]   Memory used: 2048 MB / 2048 MB
[OpenClaw Router]   Duration: 00:23:45
[OpenClaw Router]   Exiting with code 137 (SIGKILL)

Degraded Performance Leading to OOM: