[Bug]: ask_user never renders in Windows Companion chat — tool hangs in Running, session stuck

Summary

In the Windows Companion native chat, ask_user never produces an interactive question UI. The tool enters Running, the question text is only visible if the operator manually expands the running tool log, and the session remains stuck on "Assistant is thinking..." because the tool call is waiting for user input that cannot be supplied through the normal chat UI.

This was originally reported as openclaw/openclaw#141702 and closed only because the issue belongs to the Windows Companion/Hub repository rather than the core OpenClaw repository.

Environment

• Gateway: OpenClaw 2026.9.2 (3928bad) running in WSL2
• Gateway OS: Linux 6.6.87.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2 x64
• Node: v24.20.0
• Gateway install: npm global
• Windows Companion executable: %LOCALAPPDATA%\OpenClawTray\OpenClaw.Tray.WinUI.exe
• Companion ProductVersion: 2026.7.1-4+c7c6fb06be036de512d824986a6eee6eca14abdb
• Companion FileVersion: 2026.7.2.0
• Host OS: Windows 11
• Model during reproduction: meta/muse-spark-1.3

Steps to reproduce

1. Run the OpenClaw Gateway in WSL2 and connect the Windows Companion to it.
2. Open a native chat in Windows Companion.
3. Have the agent call ask_user, for example a simple Yes/No question such as Continue?.
4. Observe that the tool enters Running.
5. No interactive question UI appears in the chat.
6. Manually expanding the running tool log reveals the question payload; this is the only place the question is visible.
7. The session remains on Assistant is thinking... / blocked_tool_call until the operator aborts it or the question expires.

Reproduced 3/3 times.

Expected behavior

The Windows Companion native chat should display the pending ask_user question with an answer UI (and ideally Skip/cancel/recovery controls), allowing the user to respond and letting the agent turn continue.

Actual behavior

• ask_user stays in Running.
• No question UI is rendered.
• The question is visible only inside the expanded running-tool log.
• The session remains stuck on Assistant is thinking... because the tool call is waiting for input.
• The operator must abort or wait for timeout.

Gateway evidence

Representative logs from repeated reproductions:

2026-09-07T16:35:28.952-07:00 info gateway/ws ⇄ res ✓ question.waitAnswer 928524ms conn=32a5a9dd…092b id=2:722ca0c4-c…69e7
2026-09-07T17:23:28.727-07:00 error diagnostic lane task error: lane=main durationMs=494210 error="This operation was aborted"
2026-09-07T17:23:28.739-07:00 info gateway/ws ⇄ res ✓ question.waitAnswer 462085ms conn=fa5cb882…f5f3 id=2:846121a9-b…ccd8
2026-09-07T17:23:28.766-07:00 info gateway/ws ⇄ res ✗ question.resolve 1ms errorCode=INVALID_REQUEST errorMessage=question 'ask_7e56b7178198ee9fb23e9975807fd685' is already cancelled conn=749caf27…bb7d id=2:b73416bd-c…0f5f
2026-09-07T17:17:50.382-07:00 warn diagnostic stalled session: sessionId=4b427bd6-… sessionKey=agent:main:main state=processing age=122s queueDepth=0 reason=blocked_tool_call classification=blocked_tool_call activeWorkKind=tool_call lastProgress=tool:ask_user:started ... activeTool=ask_user ... recovery=none

The stalled-session diagnostic repeats roughly every 30 seconds while blocked.

Companion evidence

The Companion tray log at:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\OpenClawTray\openclaw-tray.log

(and .old) contained zero occurrences of question during the reproductions. The log showed events such as agent, session.tool, and session.message, but no visible error explaining the missing question UI.

Impact

High workflow impact on Windows Companion native chat: any agent workflow that invokes ask_user can become blocked even though the user was never shown the question.

Workaround

Avoid ask_user on this surface and ask clarification questions as ordinary assistant text instead.

Related core issue

• openclaw/openclaw#141702 — same report, closed as not_planned because the maintainer identified this as a Windows Companion/Hub issue and directed it to this repository.

No secrets, access tokens, or credentials are included in this report.

Reproduce the issue by connecting the Windows Companion executable to a WSL2 Gateway and invoking ask_user in native chat. Start with the Companion tray log at %LOCALAPPDATA%\OpenClawTray\openclaw-tray.log and trace the native chat's question and session.tool events. Done means a pending question UI appears, the user can answer or cancel it, and the agent session continues.