[macOS][Sandbox] nemoclaw destroy aborts when the OpenShell gateway is down — no auto-recover, no --force bypass

[hulynn]

Description

On macOS (Colima docker driver, nemoclaw v0.0.68 / openshell 0.0.44), nemoclaw <name> destroy aborts fatally and cannot delete the sandbox when the OpenShell gateway is not listening on 127.0.0.1:8080.

Verbose (RUST_LOG=debug) output proves every call — each provider detach and the final delete — connects to 127.0.0.1:8080 (the gateway), not to the messaging-bridge / devtunnel endpoints. When the gateway process is not running, all of them get Connection refused (os error 61). The per-provider detaches are logged as non-fatal Warnings, but the final delete call's transport error is fatal and aborts the whole destroy (Failed to destroy sandbox).

Unlike nemoclaw <name> status / doctor, which auto-start the gateway, destroy assumes the gateway is already up and does not start/recover it. Neither --force nor --yes bypasses the failure — per nemoclaw sandbox destroy --help, both only "Skip the confirmation prompt." So when the gateway is down there is no supported way to delete a sandbox.

Originally hit after shutting down a devtunnel (and Colima), which led to the assumption the messaging bridges were the unreachable target — the verbose trace disproves that: the target is always the gateway at 127.0.0.1:8080.

Workaround that worked: bring the gateway up first (run nemoclaw <name> status once Docker is running — it starts the gateway; or openshell gateway start --name nemoclaw), confirm 127.0.0.1:8080 is LISTENing, then nemoclaw <name> destroy --force succeeds and cleans up the image.

Related (already fixed, do not cover this case): NVB#6100026 (destroy noisy provider warnings — fixed the noise, not the fatal abort), NVB#6044867 (destroy did not stop telegram bridge — opposite direction).

Environment

Device:        MacBook (Apple Silicon, arm64)
OS:            macOS 26.5.1 (Darwin 25.5.0, arm64)
Architecture:  arm64
Node.js:       v23.10.0
npm:           11.3.0
Docker:        27.4.0 client / 29.2.1 server (Colima docker driver)
OpenShell CLI: 0.0.44 (docker driver)
NemoClaw:      v0.0.68
OpenClaw:      v2026.5.27

Steps to Reproduce

1. On macOS with Colima as the Docker backend, have an existing sandbox.
2. Ensure the OpenShell gateway is not running on 127.0.0.1:8080 (e.g. it crashed, or Docker/Colima was stopped and the gateway process exited — bringing Docker back up does not auto-restart the gateway).
3. Run nemoclaw <name> destroy (or with --force).

Expected Result

Deleting a sandbox should never be permanently blocked by a down gateway. Either:

• destroy ensures/recovers the gateway (as status/doctor already do) before teardown; or
• destroy treats gateway/detach failures as best-effort and still completes local teardown + registry removal; or
• --force actually bypasses the transport failure and force-removes the sandbox / drops the local registry entry.

Actual Result

• Every provider detach and the final delete connect to 127.0.0.1:8080; with the gateway down all return Connection refused (os error 61).
• Per-provider detaches are non-fatal Warnings; the final delete transport error is fatal → Failed to destroy sandbox 'lynnteams'.
• --force / --yes only skip the confirmation prompt; they do not bypass the transport failure.

Logs

Verbose repro (RUST_LOG=debug) — note the connection target on every line is the gateway, not a bridge:

Deleting sandbox 'lynnteams'...
Warning: failed to detach provider 'lynnteams-telegram-bridge' before sandbox delete: DEBUG hyper_util::client::legacy::connect::http: connecting to 127.0.0.1:8080
Error:   × transport error ├─▶ tcp connect error ╰─▶ Connection refused (os error 61)
... (identical for discord / wechat / slack / slack-app / teams / brave-search bridges) ...
DEBUG hyper_util::client::legacy::connect::http: connecting to 127.0.0.1:8080
Error:   × transport error ╰─▶ Connection refused (os error 61)
Failed to destroy sandbox 'lynnteams'.

After bringing the gateway up (confirmed 127.0.0.1:8080 LISTEN), nemoclaw lynnteams destroy --force succeeded:

Deleting sandbox 'lynnteams'...
Untagged: openshell/sandbox-from:1782470980
Deleted: sha256:... (image layers removed)
Removed Docker image openshell/sandbox-from:1782470980
✓ Sandbox 'lynnteams' destroyed

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NVB#6395783

[wscurran]

✨
Related open PRs:

• #6050 fix(sandbox): let destroy --force clean up when the OpenShell gateway is down (#6046)