openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: 2026.4.23 -> 2026.4.26 update leaves gateway on 2026.4.23 and aborts config/plugin reload [1 comments, 2 participants]

Bug type

Regression / update failure

Summary

Updating from 2026.4.23 to 2026.4.26 reports Update Result: OK, but restart aborts because the running gateway/service still appears to be on 2026.4.23. That creates plugin/config version skew: plugins that require OpenClaw >=2026.4.25 are rejected by the still-running 2026.4.23 host. Afterward, openclaw status from the updated CLI shows OpenClaw 2026.4.26, but Gateway / Gateway self still report app 2026.4.23, channels are empty, and memory is unavailable due missing runtime deps (chokidar).

This looks related to closed version-skew reports like #73348 / #73131 and the open runtime-deps issue #74199, but I did not find an open issue covering the combined 2026.4.23 -> 2026.4.26 update path where the updater succeeds, restart aborts, and the gateway remains on the old app version.

Steps to reproduce

1. Start on openclaw 2026.4.23 on Ubuntu 24.04 / Node 24.
2. Have config entries for plugins such as feishu and/or whatsapp.
3. Run:

openclaw update

1. Observe update reports success, then restart aborts.
2. Run:

openclaw status

Expected behavior

After a successful update:

• CLI and gateway/service should run the same OpenClaw version (2026.4.26).
• Restart should not abort due to plugins requiring a version newer than the running gateway.
• Channels should remain loaded.
• Runtime deps required by memory/plugin runtime should be present.

Actual behavior

openclaw update reports:

Update Result: OK
  Root: /home/openclaw/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw
  Before: 2026.4.23
  After: 2026.4.26

Updating plugins...
No plugin updates needed.
Completion cache update failed: Error: spawnSync /usr/bin/node ETIMEDOUT

Restarting service...
Gateway aborted: config is invalid.
plugins.entries.feishu: plugin feishu: plugin requires OpenClaw >=2026.4.25, but this host is 2026.4.23; skipping load
plugins.entries.whatsapp: plugin whatsapp: plugin requires OpenClaw >=2026.4.25, but this host is 2026.4.23; skipping load
Fix the config and retry, or run "openclaw doctor" to repair.

Then openclaw status reports CLI/package version 2026.4.26, but the gateway is still the old app version:

OpenClaw 2026.4.26
...
Gateway      ... app 2026.4.23 linux 6.8.0-110-generic
Gateway self ... app 2026.4.23 linux 6.8.0-110-generic
Channels     empty
Memory       enabled (plugin memory-core) · unavailable

Memory/runtime-deps error shown before the status table:

[memory] qmd memory unavailable; falling back to builtin: Cannot find package 'chokidar' imported from /home/openclaw/.openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps/openclaw-2026.4.26-*/dist/qmd-manager-*.js
Did you mean to import "chokidar/index.js"?

OpenClaw version

Before: 2026.4.23
After package update / CLI: 2026.4.26
Gateway after failed restart/status: still 2026.4.23

Operating system

Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS, Linux 6.8.0-110-generic x86_64

Install method

Global Node/npm-style install under /home/openclaw/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw; openclaw update status reported install type pnpm before the attempted update.

Node version

Node 24.x (24.14.1 before restored snapshot; status during failed update showed 24.15.0).

Impact and severity

High. The updater says the package update succeeded, but the service/gateway ends up in a broken mixed-version state. Channels disappear, memory becomes unavailable, and the host required snapshot restore/rollback to recover safely.

Additional context

I intentionally avoided including full config/env output. The observed plugin examples were feishu and whatsapp; the issue is the version-skew behavior, not those plugins specifically.