Summary

After updating to OpenClaw 2026.4.24, openclaw agent failed during CLI bootstrap with:

[plugins] acpx failed to load from /opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/extensions/acpx/index.js: Error: Cannot find module 'acpx/runtime'
Require stack:
- /opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/extensions/acpx/register.runtime-b8kSOZpz.js

This turned out not to be a missing acpx package in the staged runtime-deps root. The actual trigger was a stale local ACPX custom-path override in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json that forced ACPX to load as origin: config instead of origin: bundled, which bypassed the bundled runtime-deps staging / mirror flow.

Environment

• OpenClaw: 2026.4.24
• OS: macOS Sequoia (arm64)
• Install style: global npm / Homebrew-managed global node modules path
• ACP backend: acpx

Actual behavior

openclaw agent --agent main --session-id acpx-regression-smoketest --message 'hello'

fails before the turn starts with:

[plugins] acpx failed to load from /opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/extensions/acpx/index.js: Error: Cannot find module 'acpx/runtime'
Require stack:
- /opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/extensions/acpx/register.runtime-b8kSOZpz.js

Expected behavior

If ACPX is still bundled and its staged runtime deps are present, openclaw agent should continue to work even if older local config contains stale ACPX install metadata pointing back at the bundled dist path.

At minimum, openclaw doctor should detect this config state and warn / repair it.

Key findings

1. The staged runtime dependency actually existed

On this machine, acpx was already present at:

~/.openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps/openclaw-2026.4.24-.../node_modules/acpx

and require('acpx/runtime') succeeded from that staged root.

2. ACPX loads correctly when treated as bundled

Using the loader directly without the user config override, ACPX loaded as:

• origin: bundled
• status: loaded

and the mirrored runtime root was created successfully under the staged runtime-deps install root.

3. The failure only happened when the user config was applied

The live config still contained both of these ACPX overrides:

"plugins": {
  "installs": {
    "acpx": {
      "source": "path",
      "sourcePath": "/opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/extensions/acpx",
      "installPath": "/opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/extensions/acpx"
    }
  },
  "load": {
    "paths": [
      "/opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/extensions/acpx"
    ]
  }
}

With that config present, ACPX flipped to:

• origin: config
• status: error

and then failed on Cannot find module 'acpx/runtime' from the raw dist plugin path.

4. Minimal workaround

Removing only these stale ACPX overrides fixed the problem immediately:

• plugins.installs.acpx
• the ACPX entry in plugins.load.paths

while keeping:

• plugins.entries.acpx.enabled = true

After that:

• openclaw config validate passed
• openclaw agent --agent main --session-id acpx-regression-postfix --message 'hello' --timeout 15 --json returned status = ok
• ACPX loaded again via the bundled path

Why this looks like an upstream gap

This seems less like a pure packaging bug and more like a migration / doctor gap:

• older local ACPX custom-path metadata that points back at the bundled dist path is still accepted
• once ACPX is loaded as origin: config, the bundled runtime-deps flow is bypassed
• openclaw doctor did not surface this stale ACPX override as a repairable problem

Suggested fix

One of these would likely solve it cleanly:

1. Teach plugin loading / migration to treat config-installed ACPX paths that resolve to the bundled dist root as bundled ACPX again.
2. Teach openclaw doctor --fix to detect and remove stale ACPX custom-path overrides that simply point at the bundled dist path.
3. Emit a dedicated warning when ACPX is configured from a custom path that aliases the bundled install and would disable bundled runtime-deps staging.

Not the main issue

acpx was not on the global shell PATH on this machine, but that was not the root cause here. The failure reproduced even though the staged ACPX package existed and the actual fix was to remove the stale ACPX config override so OpenClaw would use the bundled runtime path again.

If useful, I can add exact loader repro snippets for the origin: bundled vs origin: config difference.