Bug type

Behavior bug — plugin capability regression in 2026.5.2

Summary

After upgrading to OpenClaw 2026.5.2, the diagnostics-otel plugin fails at startup with internal diagnostics capability unavailable. All OpenTelemetry export (traces, metrics, logs) stops working — no data reaches the collector (e.g. SigNoz).

Root cause analysis

The bug is in the plugin service context factory (dist/services-CTQW_M_S.js):

const grantsInternalDiagnostics =
  params.service?.origin === "bundled" &&
  params.service.pluginId === params.service.service.id &&
  (params.service.service.id === "diagnostics-otel" ||
   params.service.service.id === "diagnostics-prometheus");

Only plugins with origin === "bundled" (i.e. loaded from dist/extensions/) can receive the internalDiagnostics capability (emit + onEvent).

However, in 2026.5.2, diagnostics-otel is no longer a bundled extension — it does not exist in dist/extensions/. It must be installed externally via openclaw plugins install @openclaw/diagnostics-otel, which registers it with origin: "global".

Plugin metadata confirms this:

Since origin is "global" (not "bundled"), grantsInternalDiagnostics evaluates to false, the internalDiagnostics object is never injected into the plugin's context, and the plugin's service initialization fails:

// @openclaw/diagnostics-otel/src/service.ts:2173
const subscribe = ctx.internalDiagnostics?.onEvent;
if (!subscribe) {
  ctx.logger.error("diagnostics-otel: internal diagnostics capability unavailable");
  return;  // <-- plugin exits here, no telemetry is ever exported
}

Steps to reproduce

1. Install OpenClaw 2026.5.2 (stable channel)
2. openclaw plugins install @openclaw/diagnostics-otel
3. Enable the plugin: openclaw plugins enable diagnostics-otel
4. Configure diagnostics.otel with a valid collector endpoint
5. openclaw gateway restart
6. Check logs: openclaw logs | grep diagnostics-otel

Expected behavior

diagnostics-otel should receive the internalDiagnostics capability regardless of origin, since it is an officially published @openclaw plugin. The capability gate should match on plugin ID, not on load origin.

Actual behavior

error plugins diagnostics-otel: internal diagnostics capability unavailable

No traces, metrics, or logs are exported to the configured OTLP collector.

Environment

Suggested fix

The grantsInternalDiagnostics gate should also accept origin === "global" (or any origin) for plugin IDs "diagnostics-otel" and "diagnostics-prometheus", since these are trusted @openclaw packages that are no longer bundled in dist/extensions/.

Alternatively, re-bundle diagnostics-otel back into dist/extensions/ so it loads with origin === "bundled".

Impact

Complete loss of OpenTelemetry observability for users upgrading to 2026.5.2. No workaround available without patching the source.