Bug type

Behavior bug

Summary

When the macOS LaunchAgent environment sets TMPDIR to ~/.openclaw/tmp (as OpenClaw does to solve SQLite temp file issues), openclaw backup create produces an archive containing two identical copies of manifest.json.

Root cause

backup-create.ts line 351 uses os.tmpdir() to create the temp directory:

const tempDir = await fs.mkdtemp(path.join(os.tmpdir(), "openclaw-backup-"));

When os.tmpdir() returns ~/.openclaw/tmp, tar recursively packs the entire ~/.openclaw payload, including the temp dir containing manifest.json. Since manifest.json is also passed explicitly to tar as the first archive entry, the result is two identical manifest.json entries in the final archive.

Steps to reproduce

1. Start OpenClaw gateway via macOS LaunchAgent (the launchd plist sets TMPDIR=~/.openclaw/tmp by design)
2. Run openclaw backup create
3. Check the archive: tar -tvf <backup> | grep manifest shows two entries with identical content

Actual impact

• Backup functionality works and backup verify passes
• The archive contains one extra manifest.json entry of identical content
• Violates the design principle that temp files should never be inside the payload being archived

Suggested fix

backup-create.ts should call the already-existing resolvePreferredOpenClawTmpDir() utility (from tmp-openclaw-dir.ts) instead of using os.tmpdir() directly:

// Current (buggy)
const tempDir = await fs.mkdtemp(path.join(os.tmpdir(), "openclaw-backup-"));

// Suggested fix
import { resolvePreferredOpenClawTmpDir } from "../infra/tmp-openclaw-dir.js";
const tempDir = await fs.mkdtemp(path.join(resolvePreferredOpenClawTmpDir(), "openclaw-backup-"));

Note: resolvePreferredOpenClawTmpDir() is already used across multiple OpenClaw modules (e.g. helpers, monitor, status.gather, restart) and returns a safe tmp path outside the payload.

Environment

• OpenClaw: 2026.4.26
• OS: macOS (via LaunchAgent)
• Install: npm global