openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: Discord channel silently not initialized after upgrade to 2026.5.18 [2 comments, 2 participants]

Bug type: Regression (worked before, now fails)

Beta release blocker: No

Title: [Bug]: Discord channel silently not initialized after upgrade to 2026.5.18

Summary: After upgrading OpenClaw from 2026.4.26 to 2026.5.18 via openclaw update --yes, the Discord channel is no longer initialized by the gateway. The Discord plugin (@openclaw/discord) loads successfully and shows as enabled, and channels.discord.enabled remains true in config, but the gateway produces zero Discord connection logs after startup — no connect attempt, no error, no warning. Messages sent to the Discord bot receive no response. The last Discord gateway activity in logs is from the pre-upgrade process (2026-04-26).

Steps to reproduce:

1. Install OpenClaw 2026.4.26 with a working Discord channel (channels.discord.enabled: true, token configured, multiple accounts).
2. Run openclaw update --yes to upgrade to 2026.5.18.
3. The update succeeds. Gateway restarts. openclaw health shows gateway healthy, all agents present.
4. Run openclaw channels list --all — Discord shows installed, not configured, disabled despite config having enabled: true.
5. Send a message to the Discord bot — no response.
6. Run openclaw gateway restart — gateway starts but produces no Discord connection log entries whatsoever.
7. Re-install via npm install -g openclaw@latest + openclaw gateway restart — same result.

Expected behavior: In 2026.4.26, the gateway logged discord gateway: Gateway reconnect scheduled and Discord was fully operational after startup. The Discord channel should initialize and connect on gateway startup in 2026.5.18 as well.

Actual behavior: After upgrading to 2026.5.18, the gateway startup log shows:

[gateway] starting channels and sidecars...
[browser/server] Browser control listening on http://127.0.0.1:18791/
[plugins] embedded acpx runtime backend ready
[gateway] ready

No Discord connection attempt is logged — no connect, no error, no warning. The channels.status command returns only Gateway reachable with no channel-specific details. openclaw channels list --all incorrectly reports Discord as not configured, disabled.

Running openclaw doctor --fix migrated legacy config keys (spawnSubagentSessions/spawnAcpSessions → spawnSessions) and disabled unavailable skills, but did not resolve the Discord channel initialization issue. openclaw gateway install --force + restart also did not help.

OpenClaw version: 2026.5.18 (50a2481)

Operating system: Ubuntu (Linux 6.8.0-106-generic)

Install method: npm global

Model: local/gemini-3-flash-preview

Provider / routing chain: openclaw gateway → local provider (gemini-3-flash-preview)

Logs, screenshots, and evidence:

Gateway startup (post-upgrade, no Discord activity):

2026-05-19T03:35:22.866+00:00 [gateway] starting...
2026-05-19T03:35:26.057+00:00 [gateway] starting HTTP server...
2026-05-19T03:35:26.604+00:00 [plugins] plugins.allow is empty; discovered non-bundled plugins may auto-load: acpx
2026-05-19T03:35:26.708+00:00 [plugins] [web-channel] Plugin registered as Gateway Bridge
2026-05-19T03:35:26.831+00:00 [gateway] agent model: local/gemini-3-flash-preview (thinking=off, fast=off)
2026-05-19T03:35:26.833+00:00 [gateway] http server listening (10 plugins: acpx, browser, canvas, device-pair, file-transfer, memory-core, microsoft, phone-control, talk-voice, web-channel; 4.0s)
2026-05-19T03:35:26.859+00:00 [gateway] starting channels and sidecars...
2026-05-19T03:35:27.026+00:00 [browser/server] Browser control listening on http://127.0.0.1:18791/
2026-05-19T03:35:27.986+00:00 [plugins] embedded acpx runtime backend ready
2026-05-19T03:35:27.990+00:00 [gateway] ready
2026-05-19T03:35:27.995+00:00 [heartbeat] started

Discord plugin status (shows enabled):

@openclaw/discord | discord | openclaw | enabled | ~/.openclaw/npm/node_modules/@openclaw/discord/dist/index.js | 2026.5.18

Config validation:

$ openclaw config get channels.discord.enabled
true
$ openclaw config validate
Config valid: ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json

channels list --all output (contradicts config):

- Discord: installed, not configured, disabled

Last Discord log before upgrade (old process):

2026-05-19T03:07:40.072+00:00 [discord] discord gateway: Gateway reconnect scheduled in 0ms (reconnect-opcode, resume=true)

Impact and severity:

• Affected: All Discord channel users on 2026.5.18 with existing channels.discord config
• Severity: High — Discord channel completely non-functional after upgrade
• Frequency: 4/4 gateway restarts observed, 100% reproducible
• Consequence: All Discord-connected agents stop receiving and responding to messages

Additional information:

• Last known good version: 2026.4.26 (be8c246)
• First known bad version: 2026.5.18 (50a2481)
• openclaw doctor --fix was run after upgrade; it migrated spawnSubagentSessions/spawnAcpSessions → spawnSessions but did not flag or fix the Discord channel issue
• openclaw gateway install --force + restart did not resolve
• npm install -g openclaw@latest (clean reinstall) + restart did not resolve
• openclaw status command hangs indefinitely (timeout after 60s) — possibly related regression
• openclaw health and openclaw gateway status --deep work correctly and show gateway as healthy
• Node runtime: 24.14.1 via mise (system Node 18.19.1, service correctly uses mise-managed Node)
• No workaround found besides downgrading