The public contract is the routing behavior, not the internal Node hooks used to implement it. OpenClaw Gateway control-plane WebSocket clients use a narrow direct path for local loopback Gateway RPC traffic when the Gateway URL uses `localhost` or a literal loopback IP such as `127.0.0.1` or `[::1]`. That control-plane path must be able to reach loopback Gateways even when the operator proxy blocks loopback destinations. Normal runtime HTTP and WebSocket requests still use the configured proxy.

Internally, OpenClaw uses two process-level routing hooks for this feature:

- Undici dispatcher routing covers `fetch`, undici-backed clients, and transports that provide their own undici dispatcher.

- `global-agent` routing covers Node core `node:http` and `node:https` callers, including many libraries layered on `http.request`, `https.request`, `http.get`, and `https.get`. Managed proxy mode forces that global agent so explicit Node HTTP agents do not accidentally bypass the operator proxy.

Some plugins own custom transports that need explicit proxy wiring even when process-level routing exists. For example, Telegram's Bot API transport uses its own HTTP/1 undici dispatcher and therefore honors process proxy env plus the managed `OPENCLAW_PROXY_URL` fallback in that owner-specific transport path.

The proxy URL itself must use `http://`. HTTPS destinations are still supported through the proxy with HTTP `CONNECT`; this only means OpenClaw expects a plain HTTP forward-proxy listener such as `http://127.0.0.1:3128`.

While the proxy is active, OpenClaw clears `no_proxy`, `NO_PROXY`, and `GLOBAL_AGENT_NO_PROXY`. Those bypass lists are destination-based, so leaving `localhost` or `127.0.0.1` there would let high-risk SSRF targets skip the filtering proxy.

On shutdown, OpenClaw restores the previous proxy environment and resets cached process routing state.

## Related Proxy Terms

- `proxy.enabled` / `proxy.proxyUrl`: outbound forward-proxy routing for OpenClaw runtime egress. This page documents that feature.

- `gateway.auth.mode: "trusted-proxy"`: inbound identity-aware reverse-proxy authentication for Gateway access. See [Trusted proxy auth](/gateway/trusted-proxy-auth).

- `openclaw proxy`: local debug proxy and capture inspector for development and support. See [openclaw proxy](/cli/proxy).

- Channel or provider-specific proxy settings: owner-specific overrides for a particular transport. Prefer the managed network proxy when the goal is central egress control across the runtime.

## Configuration

```yaml