PR #77777: fix(web_search): skip redundant provider re-resolution for external Brave plugin

• Repository: openclaw/openclaw
• Author: openperf
• State: open | merged: False
• Link: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/pull/77777

Description (problem / solution / changelog)

Summary

• Problem: When tools.web.search.provider: "brave" is explicitly configured and Brave is installed as an external (non-bundled) plugin via openclaw plugins install, the runtime emits a spurious WEB_SEARCH_PROVIDER_INVALID_AUTODETECT diagnostic at startup and records providerSource as "none" instead of "configured". Downstream code that gates behavior on providerSource === "configured" therefore sees the explicitly configured provider as absent.

• Root Cause: resolveRuntimeWebProviderSurface in src/secrets/runtime-web-tools.shared.ts resolves the owning plugin for a configured provider via resolveManifestContractOwnerPluginId({origin: "bundled"}). For external plugins this lookup correctly returns undefined, so configuredBundledPluginId remains unset. A secondary resolution block then fires any time rawProvider is set and configuredBundledPluginId is still undefined — including the external-plugin case — and invokes resolveProviders a second time. That second call can race with an in-flight plugin registry load, returning an empty provider list. With an empty list the configured provider ID cannot be matched, configuredProvider becomes undefined, and the diagnostic is emitted. The secondary block was intended only for the case where a scoped-hint first pass had already missed the provider; it was not meant to fire when the first full-discovery pass had already found it.

• Fix: Guard the secondary resolution block with an additional condition: only enter it when the configured provider was not found in the first resolveProviders result. This preserves the intended recovery behavior — if the first scoped pass missed the provider, the block still widens the scope and retries — while eliminating the redundant and potentially destructive invocation for the external-plugin case where the provider is already present.

• What changed:

  • src/secrets/runtime-web-tools.shared.ts: added && !allProviders.some(provider => provider.id === params.rawProvider) to the secondary resolution block's guard in resolveRuntimeWebProviderSurface.
  • src/secrets/runtime-web-tools.test.ts: added a regression test that simulates the exact failure path — external Brave install records, resolveManifestContractOwnerPluginId returning undefined for origin: "bundled", the second discovery call returning an empty list — and asserts that selectedProvider is "brave", providerSource is "configured", no WEB_SEARCH_PROVIDER_INVALID_AUTODETECT warning is emitted, and provider discovery is invoked exactly once.
  • CHANGELOG.md: added entry under ## Unreleased.

• What did NOT change (scope boundary):

  • The runWebSearch execution path is not affected by this change and is out of scope.
  • The origin: "bundled" lookup inside the secondary block is unchanged; when the block legitimately fires (first pass missed the provider) its behavior is identical to before.
  • No changes to plugin loading, the active-registry contract, or any other web-tool surface.

Reproduction

1. Install Brave as an external plugin: openclaw plugins install @openclaw/brave-search
2. Add to your OpenClaw config:

   tools:
     web:
       search:
         provider: brave
   plugins:
     entries:
       brave:
         config:
           webSearch:
             apiKey: "sk-brave-..."

3. Start the gateway. A WEB_SEARCH_PROVIDER_INVALID_AUTODETECT warning appears in startup logs and providerSource reads as "none" despite the explicit provider configuration.

Risk / Mitigation

• Risk: Low. The new guard is purely additive — it prevents the secondary resolveProviders call only when the first pass already returned the configured provider. All code paths that depend on the secondary block (scoped-hint recovery, where the first pass misses the provider) continue to enter it because the provider is absent from the first-pass result, making the new condition false.
• Mitigation: The regression test directly exercises the failure mode by returning an empty list on the second discovery call; the test fails without the fix and passes with it. All existing tests are unmodified and continue to pass.

Change Type / Scope / Linked Issue

• Type: Bug fix
• Scope: src/secrets/runtime-web-tools.shared.ts, src/secrets/runtime-web-tools.test.ts, CHANGELOG.md
• Linked issue: Fixes #77676

Changed files

• CHANGELOG.md (modified, +1/-0)
• src/secrets/runtime-web-tools.shared.ts (modified, +5/-1)
• src/secrets/runtime-web-tools.test.ts (modified, +84/-0)