openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix Bug: macOS zsh update handoff script crashes on `status=$?` — gateway never restarts after web UI Update Now

Summary

When clicking Update Now in the web Control UI on macOS, the generated handoff wrapper script (openclaw-beta-update-handoff.sh) has #!/bin/zsh set -u and contains status=$? to capture the openclaw update exit code. In zsh, status is a readonly builtin variable, so the assignment crashes with read-only variable: status. The script terminates before completing the post-update gateway health check and clean exit.

The npm package update itself succeeds — the crash only prevents the restart and post-update diagnostics.

Version

2026.5.31-beta.1 (ebba638), macOS (Homebrew global install, launchd-managed)

Root Cause

The handoff script template uses status as a local variable name. Zsh reserves status as readonly (equivalent to $?). With set -u, the assignment fails.

Minimal Reproduction

#!/bin/zsh
set -u
echo "before"
status=$?
echo "after (never reached)"
# Output: read-only variable: status

The Failing Script (condensed)

#!/bin/zsh
set -u
# ...
openclaw update --channel beta --yes --json --timeout 1800
status=$?          # ← zsh: read-only variable: status
echo "[$(date)] update exited status=$status"
# ... never reached
exit "$status"

Fix

Rename status → ret (or any non-reserved name):

ret=$?
echo "[$(date)] update exited status=$ret"
exit "$ret"

Impact

Gateway stays dead after web UI updates on macOS until the launchd KeepAlive eventually fires (with backoff). Users must manually launchctl kickstart or run openclaw gateway start after every "Update Now" action.

Where to Look

The zsh wrapper does not appear to be in the bundled dist (the dist's macOS restart template correctly uses #!/bin/sh). It appears to be generated separately — likely by the update.run gateway RPC method or the managed service handoff path.