L7 proxy placeholder-token rewriting doesn't cover WSS payloads — Discord gateway fails with 4004

Agent Diagnostic

agent-diagnostic-output.txt

Description

Environment

• OpenShell: 0.0.26
• NemoClaw: 2026.4.2 (stack consumer, using blueprint policies/presets/discord.yaml)
• Host: DGX Spark (ARM64), Kubernetes-deployed OpenShell gateway

Summary

OpenShell's L7 proxy rewrites placeholder tokens (openshell:resolve:env:*) at egress for TLS-terminated REST traffic. For gateway.discord.gg the NemoClaw blueprint policy sets tls: skip (per #544, pass-through is required to keep long-lived WSS sessions working). Result: the placeholder flows unchanged inside the WSS IDENTIFY payload; Discord closes with opcode 4004 (auth failed); the bot never connects.

Reproduce

1. nemoclaw onboard --non-interactive with a valid DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN
2. Provider <sandbox>-discord-bridge is created and attached to the sandbox; sandbox env has DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN=openshell:resolve:env:DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN
3. OpenClaw attempts to connect to wss://gateway.discord.gg
4. Gateway closes immediately with opcode 4004 (see attached gateway.log, search for 4004)

Confirmation it's a payload-rewrite gap, not a policy/network problem

Writing the real Discord bot token directly into /sandbox/.openclaw/openclaw.json (field channels.discord.accounts.default.token), bypassing the placeholder system for this field, produces a successful IDENTIFY and the bot connects. No policy changes required; the only variable is whether the literal placeholder string or the real token arrives in the WSS IDENTIFY payload.

Proposed directions

1. Add WSS MITM + JSON-payload-aware rewriting for known channel protocols (Discord IDENTIFY op 2, d.token field), so tls: skip can be removed for gateway.discord.gg.
2. OR: expose an in-sandbox secret-resolution gRPC endpoint (e.g. reachable via OPENSHELL_ENDPOINT) that clients can call to resolve openshell:resolve:env:* explicitly. OpenClaw (and other consumers) could then resolve at config-read time instead of relying on egress rewriting.
3. OR: when a provider is attached to a sandbox and the target channel is known to use WSS, let OpenShell inject the real credential value into the child env var directly at sandbox start (documenting the security trade-off that the credential is then at-rest in the sandbox env rather than only in the provider store).

Related

• #544 — merged PR that introduced the "auto-terminate TLS unconditionally" behavior; tls: skip is the escape hatch used by the NemoClaw Discord preset
• NVIDIA/OpenShell#894 — adjacent placeholder-model limitation (SDKs that validate token format pre-network)

Attachments

• gateway.log — 344-line log from inside the sandbox (micky pod, /tmp/gateway.log). Shows the 4004 pattern before the manual workaround and the quiet "awaiting gateway readiness" (implicit READY) after.
• openshell-status.txt — openshell status
• openshell-doctor-check.txt — openshell doctor check
• openshell-doctor-logs.txt — openshell doctor logs --lines 200

openshell-issue-bundle.zip

Reproduction Steps

1. Deploy a NemoClaw stack (v2026.4.2) with OpenShell 0.0.26 on ARM64 (DGX Spark, k3s).
   Blueprint uses policies/presets/discord.yaml which pins gateway.discord.gg to tls: skip
   (per NVIDIA/OpenShell#544 — required to keep long-lived WSS sessions alive).

2. Create a Discord bot credential: nemoclaw credentials set DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN

3. Onboard the sandbox (this creates provider <sandbox>-discord-bridge and attaches it):
   nemoclaw onboard --non-interactive

4. Confirm the sandbox env contains the placeholder, not the real token:
   kubectl exec -n nemoclaw deploy/micky -- printenv DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN

   => openshell:resolve:env:DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN

5. Start OpenClaw inside the sandbox so it connects to Discord:
   kubectl exec -n nemoclaw deploy/micky -- openclaw start

6. Observe gateway.log — OpenClaw opens wss://gateway.discord.gg, sends IDENTIFY op 2
   with d.token set to the literal string "openshell:resolve:env:DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN",
   Discord closes the socket with opcode 4004 (Authentication Failed).

Expected: IDENTIFY carries the resolved bot token; gateway sends READY; bot comes online.
Actual: IDENTIFY carries the literal placeholder string; gateway closes with 4004.

Workaround (confirms payload-rewrite gap, not a policy/network problem):
Edit /sandbox/.openclaw/openclaw.json inside the pod, set
channels.discord.accounts.default.token to the real token value from
~/.nemoclaw/credentials.json. OpenClaw hot-reloads, IDENTIFY now carries the real
token, Discord sends READY, bot connects. No policy changes required.

Environment

OpenShell: 0.0.26
NemoClaw: 2026.4.2 (blueprint: policies/presets/discord.yaml)
OpenClaw: 2026.4.9
Host: NVIDIA DGX Spark (GB10 Grace Blackwell, ARM64 / aarch64)
OS: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (kernel 6.11, CUDA 13.0)
Runtime: k3s (single-node), containerd
Sandbox pod: micky (namespace: nemoclaw)
Storage: local-path PVC workspace-micky (2Gi) mounted at /sandbox
Client: Discord gateway via ws npm library (raw tls.connect, ignores HTTPS_PROXY)
Policy: gateway.discord.gg → tls: skip (L4 CONNECT pass-through)
Network: OpenShell L7 proxy at 10.200.0.1:3128 (CONNECT + TLS-MITM for REST egress)

Logs

Agent-First Checklist

• I pointed my agent at the repo and had it investigate this issue
• I loaded relevant skills (e.g., debug-openshell-cluster, debug-inference, openshell-cli)
• My agent could not resolve this — the diagnostic above explains why

Start with the policies/presets/discord.yaml entry for gateway.discord.gg and reproduce the failure with nemoclaw onboard, openclaw start, and the attached gateway.log. Trace how the L7 proxy handles tls: skip and placeholder resolution for the WSS connection. Done means the Discord IDENTIFY d.token contains the resolved credential, Discord sends READY, and the 4004 failure is gone.