openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix Bug: QMD memory initialization fails after update - missing 'chokidar' in plugin-runtime-deps [1 comments, 2 participants]

Bug Report

Description

After updating to OpenClaw 2026.4.25 (openclaw-2026.4.25-babd02a671ff), QMD memory startup fails for all agents with the following warning on every gateway start:

qmd memory startup initialization failed for agent "<agent-name>": Cannot find package 'chokidar' imported from /Users/<user>/.openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps/openclaw-2026.4.25-babd02a671ff/dist/manager-C6O7HXGc.js
Did you mean to import "chokidar/index.js"?

qmd memory unavailable; falling back to builtin: Cannot find package 'chokidar' imported from /Users/<user>/.openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps/openclaw-2026.4.25-babd02a671ff/dist/qmd-manager-FuXCtSYP.js
Did you mean to import "chokidar/index.js"?

Root Cause

The plugin-runtime-deps/openclaw-2026.4.25-babd02a671ff/ directory contains a node_modules/ folder, but chokidar is not included in it. The QMD manager bundles (manager-C6O7HXGc.js, qmd-manager-FuXCtSYP.js) have an external import for chokidar that cannot be resolved at runtime.

This regression was not present before this update — previous versions resolved chokidar correctly.

Impact

• All agents fail QMD memory initialization on startup
• Falls back to built-in memory subsystem (reduced capability)
• Affects all agents simultaneously (not agent-specific)

Steps to Reproduce

1. Update OpenClaw to 2026.4.25
2. Restart gateway
3. Observe WARN logs: qmd memory startup initialization failed for every configured agent

Environment

• OpenClaw version: 2026.4.25 (openclaw-2026.4.25-babd02a671ff)
• Node.js: v22.22.0
• OS: macOS Darwin 25.4.0 (arm64)

Workaround

Manually install chokidar into the plugin-runtime-deps directory:

cd ~/.openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps/openclaw-2026.4.25-babd02a671ff
npm install chokidar
openclaw gateway restart

Expected Behavior

chokidar should be bundled or listed as a dependency in the plugin-runtime-deps runtime directory so QMD memory initializes successfully without manual intervention.

Suggested Fix

Either:

1. Bundle chokidar into the QMD manager bundle at build time, or
2. Add chokidar to the package.json dependencies of the plugin-runtime-deps runtime directory and ensure it is installed during the update process