openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: openclaw-weixin plugin not loading in Gateway on OpenClaw 2026.5.7 (worked in 2026.4.23) [1 comments, 2 participants]

Bug type

Regression (worked before, now fails)

Summary

The openclaw-weixin channel plugin (v2.4.3) is installed, enabled, and recognized by CLI (openclaw channels list, openclaw plugins inspect --runtime), but the Gateway process never loads it. The Gateway startup log only shows stock bundled plugins. Downgrading to OpenClaw 2026.4.23 immediately fixes the issue.

Steps to reproduce

1. Install OpenClaw 2026.5.7
2. Install the weixin plugin: openclaw plugins install @tencent-weixin/openclaw-weixin
3. Enable: openclaw config set channels.openclaw-weixin.enabled true
4. Restart gateway: openclaw gateway restart
5. Check gateway startup log

Expected behavior

The Gateway loads the openclaw-weixin plugin and starts the weixin channel, allowing message send/receive via WeChat.

Actual behavior

Gateway startup log shows only 5-6 stock bundled plugins (browser, device-pair, file-transfer, memory-core, phone-control, talk-voice). The openclaw-weixin plugin is never loaded, no error or warning is logged about it.

Environment

• OpenClaw: 2026.5.7 (eeef486)
• openclaw-weixin: 2.4.3
• Node.js: v22.22.1
• OS: Linux 6.6.87.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2 (x64)
• Install method: pnpm global

Evidence

1. Plugin is installed and CLI recognizes it:

$ openclaw plugins inspect openclaw-weixin --runtime --json
{
  "status": "loaded",
  "activated": true,
  "enabled": true,
  "origin": "global",
  "channelIds": ["openclaw-weixin"],
  "source": "~/.openclaw/npm/node_modules/@tencent-weixin/openclaw-weixin/dist/index.js"
}

2. Channel list shows it as configured:

$ openclaw channels list
- openclaw-weixin default: installed, configured, enabled

3. But Gateway only loads stock plugins:

[gateway] http server listening (6 plugins: browser, device-pair, file-transfer, memory-core, phone-control, talk-voice; 2.9s)

4. Channel status is empty:

$ openclaw channels status --probe --json
{ "channelOrder": [], "channels": {} }

5. Gateway log has NO weixin-related output (no error, no loading attempt, no skip) during startup.

6. Gateway log shows fetch failures:

OpenRouter pricing fetch failed: TypeError: fetch failed
LiteLLM pricing fetch failed: TypeError: fetch failed

7. Downgrading to 2026.4.23 fixes everything:

$ pnpm add -g [email protected]

After downgrade and reinstalling the plugin, weixin channel loads and works normally:

[gateway] ready (5 plugins: acpx, browser, device-pair, phone-control, talk-voice; 3.3s)
...
gateway/channels/openclaw-weixin/13e91ceaa2c4-im-bot: inbound message received
gateway/channels/openclaw-weixin: outbound: text sent OK

What was tried (on 2026.5.7)

• openclaw plugins install @tencent-weixin/openclaw-weixin (multiple times)
• One-click install: npx @tencent-weixin/openclaw-weixin-cli install
• Manual symlink to ~/.openclaw/extensions/
• plugins.load.paths config
• openclaw plugins registry --refresh
• QR code login completed (auth saved)
• Patched undici Content-Length validation (per #78550)
• All attempts resulted in the same behavior: CLI sees the plugin, Gateway does not load it

Related issues

• #78774 - Same "Unsupported channel" error with openclaw-weixin on 2026.5.6
• #78550 - undici 8.2.0 Content-Length validation bug (fetch failures)

Additional information

The Gateway's plugins.installs.openclaw-weixin is present in installs.json with origin: "global". The Gateway process appears to skip discovery/loading of npm-installed external plugins entirely on 2026.5.7, while 2026.4.23 loads them correctly from ~/.openclaw/extensions/.