openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug] Discord plugin slash commands miss 3s ack deadline (regression of #60880 for plugin-registered commands) — "Unknown interaction" [1 comments, 2 participants]

Description

On OpenClaw 2026.4.26, slash commands provided by plugins (/vc join, /voice, /codex, /claude_mem_*, etc.) consistently fail with "Unknown interaction" or "Interaction has already been acknowledged" when invoked from the Discord client.

Likely a regression of #55240 / #58602 / #60880 (all CLOSED) — those fixed core/native commands; this affects plugin-registered commands, which appear to be on a different code path that still misses the 3s ack deadline.

Environment

• OpenClaw version: 2026.4.26 (be8c246)
• OS: macOS (Mac Mini M4)
• Node: v24.13.0
• Plugins active (29 loaded): carbon framework, talk-voice, codex, claude-mem, etc.
• Discord: native + plugin commands both registered with Discord (verified via Application.commands.list)

Reproduction

1. Start OpenClaw with multiple plugins enabled (talk-voice, codex, claude-mem, etc.)
2. Wait for gateway boot to settle
3. Open Discord client → channel where the agent is bound
4. Type any plugin slash command, e.g. /vc join <voice-channel>
5. Discord shows "Unknown command: join" OR the interaction visibly hangs and then errors

Log evidence

20:23:04  ERROR  Unknown interaction
          DiscordError: Unknown interaction
            at RequestClient.executeRequest .../@buape/carbon/dist/src/classes/RequestClient.js:341:19

20:29:22  DEBUG  discord: interaction defer skipped (interaction expired) [verbose]

20:29:34  DEBUG  Registered plugin command: /codex (plugin: codex) [verbose]              ← LATE
20:29:37  DEBUG  Registered plugin command: /voice (plugin: talk-voice) [verbose]          ← LATE
20:29:38  DEBUG  Registered plugin command: /claude_mem_feed (plugin: claude-mem) [verbose] ← LATE
[...]

20:29:46  ERROR  Interaction has already been acknowledged.

The Registered plugin command: /<name> lines fire during the interaction handler's execution — i.e. the plugin's command handler is being lazily registered at the moment the user invokes it, not at gateway startup. Discord's 3-second interaction-acknowledge deadline is blown while the plugin's registration completes, and by the time the handler tries to defer()/reply(), the token has already expired.

Root-cause hypothesis (priority order)

1. Plugin commands register lazily at first interaction instead of at gateway boot. The Registered plugin command: log lines appear during the interaction handler, not during gateway startup. This eats the entire 3-second ack budget.
2. Race condition on interaction defer: by the time the handler tries interaction.deferReply(), the token has already expired → Unknown interaction.
3. Double-ack race: Two handlers respond to the same interaction → Interaction has already been acknowledged.

Verification steps for maintainers

• Search the plugin loader (@buape/carbon integration) for registerCommand / registerPluginCommand / deferReply calls — confirm whether they happen at startup or at interaction time
• Add per-interaction timing log: (received → handler invoked → response sent) — measure the 3s budget
• Check whether @buape/carbon exposes a synchronous "instant ack" path (some Discord libs do — useful for plugin-handler boots)

Suggested fix

• Move plugin command registration to gateway startup (eager, not lazy). Gate the gateway "ready" event on plugin commands being fully registered, not just imported.
• Wrap every plugin handler in an immediate interaction.deferReply() within the first 100ms before any business logic
• Add timing metrics: count interactions exceeding a 2.5s budget; alert if >0.1% rate

Why this matters

When combined with #63098 (Discord voice silent disconnect), users have no working path to manually recover voice — the recovery command (/vc join) is itself broken by this bug. Voice plugins are effectively unusable end-to-end.

Related (likely-fixed-but-regressing)

• #55240 — Discord slash commands return Done with no content, exceeds 3s deadline (closed)
• #58602 — Discord /new slash command times out, needs deferReply() (closed)
• #60880 — Discord slash subcommands timeout (Unknown interaction) after 2026.4.2 update (closed Apr 25)

These were fixed for core / commands.native: true commands. This issue covers plugin-registered commands, which appear to be on a separate code path that still misses the deadline.