openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: npm executable - Failed to install bundled plugin runtime deps [1 comments, 2 participants]

Bug type

Regression (worked before, now fails)

Beta release blocker

No

Summary

Attempted upgrade from 2026.4.27 -> 2026.4.29 fails to install node_modules due to an error of:

Running doctor checks (1.11s) Failed to install bundled plugin runtime deps: Error: Unable to resolve a safe npm executable Error: Unable to resolve a safe npm executable

Steps to reproduce

Ubuntu, openclaw update, uninstall and clean install with npm install -g openclaw@latest

Expected behavior

Clean install with Openclaw gateway started.

Actual behavior

Updated to 2026.4.29 fails with

Running doctor checks (1.11s) Failed to install bundled plugin runtime deps: Error: Unable to resolve a safe npm executable Error: Unable to resolve a safe npm executable

When attempting to start with: openclaw gateway restart :

咽 OpenClaw 2026.4.29 (a448042) — WhatsApp automation without the "please accept our new privacy policy".

Restarted systemd service: openclaw-gateway.service Gateway restart failed after 17s: service stayed stopped and port 18789 stayed free. Service runtime: status=stopped, state=activating, lastExit=1 Gateway port 18789 status: free. Gateway restart failed after 17s: service stayed stopped and health checks never came up. Tip: openclaw gateway status --deep Tip: openclaw doctor

openclaw doctor finds the missing plugins

Installing bundled plugin runtime deps (40 specs): @agentclientprotocol/[email protected], @agentclientprotocol/[email protected], @clack/prompts@^1.2.0, @clawdbot/[email protected], @google/genai@^1.50.1, @lydell/[email protected], @mariozechner/[email protected], @mariozechner/[email protected], @modelcontextprotocol/[email protected], @whiskeysockets/[email protected], @zed-industries/[email protected], [email protected], ajv@^8.20.0, chokidar@^5.0.0, commander@^14.0.3, croner@^10.0.1, dotenv@^17.4.2, [email protected], [email protected], global-agent@^4.1.3, [email protected], https-proxy-agent@^9.0.0, jimp@^1.6.1, jiti@^2.6.1, json5@^2.2.3, jszip@^3.10.1, [email protected], [email protected], openai@^6.34.0, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], tslog@^4.10.2, [email protected], [email protected], web-push@^3.6.7, ws@^8.20.0, yaml@^2.8.3, zod@^4.3.6 Failed to install bundled plugin runtime deps: Error: Unable to resolve a safe npm executable ◇ Error: Unable to resolve a safe npm executable

--fix fails with the same error.

openclaw gateway :

14:04:21 [secrets] [SECRETS_RELOADER_DEGRADED] Error: Unable to resolve a safe npm executable 14:04:21 [gateway] wrote stability bundle: /home/m/.openclaw/logs/stability/openclaw-stability-2026-05-01T21-04-21-353Z-1724142-gateway.startup_failed.json Gateway failed to start: Error: Startup failed: required secrets are unavailable. Error: Unable to resolve a safe npm executable

Seems it cannot find the NMP path during install and

which npm returns: /usr/bin/npm and in .bash

export PATH=~/.npm-global/bin:$PATH
. "/home/m/.local/bin/env" export PATH=$PATH:$(npm get prefix)/bin

OpenClaw version

2006.4.29

Operating system

Ubuntu 24.04

Install method

openclaw update

Model

Intel--Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-int4-AutoRound

Provider / routing chain

vLLM/

Additional provider/model setup details

NVIDIA DGX Spark

Logs, screenshots, and evidence

{"0":"gateway client error: Error: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:18789","_meta":{"runtime":"node","runtimeVersion":"24.13.1","hostname":"unknown","name":"openclaw","date":"2026-05-01T21:01:45.018Z","logLevelId":2,"logLevelName":"DEBUG","path":{"fullFilePath":"file:///home/morphious/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/logger-C4--4RY8.js:70:14","fileName":"logger-C4--4RY8.js","fileNameWithLine":"logger-C4--4RY8.js:70","fileColumn":"14","fileLine":"70","filePath":".npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/logger-C4--4RY8.js","filePathWithLine":".npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/logger-C4--4RY8.js:70","method":"logDebug"}},"time":"2026-05-01T14:01:45.019-07:00","hostname":"spark-dg","message":"gateway client error: Error: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:18789"}

Impact and severity

Seververity: Critical - as openclaw gateway will not start.

Had to rollback to previous working version: npm install -g [email protected]

Additional information

In version 2026.4.24 there were similar issues with path and plugin-runtime-deps resolved in 2026.4.27 https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/issues/72200 This seems to be a similar issue that has been reintroduced with new error messages :-(

Sorry I am not a programer and cannot provide a fix.