openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix Bug: `openclaw plugins install` silently upgrades ACP and breaks existing ACP setup

Description

When running openclaw plugins install <plugin>, the command silently upgrades the installed @agentclientprotocol/claude-agent-acp package from the previously working version (v0.21.0 under @zed-industries) to v0.32.0 (under @agentclientprotocol), and rewrites the internal ACP wrapper (~/.openclaw/acpx/claude-agent-acp-wrapper.mjs) to point to the new package.

This breaks the ACP spawn functionality completely — sessions_spawn(runtime="acp") returns Internal error with no useful diagnostics.

Environment

• OS: Android 10 (Termux native, arm64)
• OpenClaw: 2026.5.7
• Node.js: v22.22.0

Reproduction Steps

1. Have a working ACP setup with @zed-industries/claude-agent-acp v0.21.0
2. Run openclaw plugins install @tencent-weixin/openclaw-weixin
3. After install completes, the ACP wrapper at ~/.openclaw/acpx/claude-agent-acp-wrapper.mjs is rewritten:
   • Before: installedBinPath = ".../@zed-industries/claude-agent-acp/dist/index.js"
   • After: installedBinPath = ".../@agentclientprotocol/claude-agent-acp/dist/index.js"
4. @agentclientprotocol/claude-agent-acp v0.32.0 is installed as a new dependency
5. sessions_spawn(runtime="acp", agentId="claude") now returns Internal error
6. No ACP-related errors appear in gateway logs (the spawn fails silently before reaching the launch phase)

Root Cause

openclaw plugins install appears to run a full npm install that picks up the latest @agentclientprotocol/claude-agent-acp as a dependency, and the post-install hook regenerates the ACP wrapper to point to the newer package — without checking whether the older version was working or whether the upgrade is compatible.

In our case, v0.32.0 is incompatible with our environment (Termux on Android 10 with glibc shim + LD_PRELOAD stub for kcmp syscall), while v0.21.0 was working perfectly.

Expected Behavior

• openclaw plugins install should NOT upgrade existing ACP packages unless explicitly requested
• If ACP is upgraded, the wrapper should be regenerated with version compatibility checks
• At minimum, ACP spawn failures should produce useful error messages in gateway logs

Workaround

Manually edit ~/.openclaw/acpx/claude-agent-acp-wrapper.mjs to point installedBinPath back to the old @zed-industries/claude-agent-acp v0.21.0 path, then restart the gateway.

Impact

Any user who installs a plugin after having set up ACP will have their ACP silently broken with no indication of what went wrong.