openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: v2026.3.11 update fails on live git install at /usr/lib/node_modules/openclaw, but succeeds in clean checkout [2 comments, 1 participants]

Summary

Updating OpenClaw from 2026.3.8 to v2026.3.11 failed on my live Linux git install at /usr/lib/node_modules/openclaw, even though the same tag built successfully in a clean throwaway checkout on the same machine.

So this looks less like a bad release tag and more like an update/install-path edge case.

Environment

• OpenClaw before update: 2026.3.8
• Target version: v2026.3.11
• OS: Linux 6.8.0-101-generic x64
• Node: 22.22.0
• Install path: /usr/lib/node_modules/openclaw
• Install style: git checkout + pnpm build/update flow

What I did

On the live install:

1. Checked update status and saw 2026.3.11 available.
2. First update attempt was skipped because the repo looked dirty due to a stray file:
   • ?? openclaw-2026.3.8.tgz
3. Removed that file and retried.
4. Updater fetched and checked out v2026.3.11.
5. pnpm install succeeded.
6. pnpm build failed.

After that, I tried the same tag in a clean throwaway worktree on the same machine:

1. git worktree add --detach /tmp/openclaw-audit v2026.3.11
2. pnpm install
3. pnpm ui:build
4. pnpm build

That build completed successfully.

Actual behavior on live install

On the live install path, I hit two kinds of failures.

First, with the normal updater/build path I saw A2UI/lit TS2742 errors like:

vendor/a2ui/renderers/lit/src/0.8/ui/datetime-input.ts(171,3): error TS2742: The inferred type of 'render' cannot be named without a reference to 'openclaw/node_modules/lit'. This is likely not portable. A type annotation is necessary.
vendor/a2ui/renderers/lit/src/0.8/ui/directives/markdown.ts(49,3): error TS2742: The inferred type of 'update' cannot be named without a reference to 'openclaw/node_modules/lit/directive.js'. This is likely not portable. A type annotation is necessary.
...
A2UI bundling failed. Re-run with: pnpm canvas:a2ui:bundle
ELIFECYCLE Command failed with exit code 1.

Then, after retrying with the source-style sequence (pnpm install && pnpm ui:build && pnpm build) directly in /usr/lib/node_modules/openclaw, the build still failed, but now with TS5055 overwrite errors first, followed by the same A2UI/lit TS2742 errors:

error TS5055: Cannot write file '/usr/lib/node_modules/openclaw/vendor/a2ui/renderers/lit/dist/src/0.8/core.d.ts' because it would overwrite input file.
error TS5055: Cannot write file '/usr/lib/node_modules/openclaw/vendor/a2ui/renderers/lit/dist/src/0.8/data/guards.d.ts' because it would overwrite input file.
...
vendor/a2ui/renderers/lit/src/0.8/ui/audio.ts(31,10): error TS2742: The inferred type of 'styles' cannot be named without a reference to 'openclaw/node_modules/lit'. This is likely not portable. A type annotation is necessary.
...
A2UI bundling failed. Re-run with: pnpm canvas:a2ui:bundle
If this persists, verify pnpm deps and try again.

While the files were briefly on v2026.3.11, I also saw a runtime/plugin mismatch symptom:

[plugins] telegram failed to load from /usr/lib/node_modules/openclaw/extensions/telegram/index.ts:
TypeError: (0 , _compat.createScopedDmSecurityResolver) is not a function

Expected behavior

Updating a git install at /usr/lib/node_modules/openclaw to v2026.3.11 should succeed, or the updater should detect/clean the state that causes this path-specific build failure.

What I did to recover

I rolled the live install back to 2026.3.8, ran pnpm install, and the system is working again.

Why I think this is useful

This does not reproduce in a clean throwaway checkout on the same host, which suggests the issue is specifically tied to:

• updating an existing git install in place
• the /usr/lib/node_modules/openclaw install location
• stale/generated A2UI artifacts or other path-sensitive build state

Happy to gather more data if there’s a preferred cleanup/debug path for git installs.