WebChat CLI Runner: Two Linked Bugs That Erase Conversation History

Version: openclaw v2026.4.15 Component: Gateway server (server.impl) / WebChat UI Severity: High — WebChat completely unusable when agent uses any CLI provider

Summary

When an agent uses a CLI provider (e.g. google-gemini-cli), the WebChat UI erases the entire conversation after every exchange: assistant replies disappear first (Bug A), and after patching that, user messages also vanish (Bug B). All other channels (TUI, Matrix/Element) work correctly.

Root Cause — Two Bugs Combined

Bug A: CLI path never persists assistant response to session transcript

In agent-runner.runtime-*.js, the CLI branch:

• Emits stream: 'assistant' → populates server buffer
• Emits stream: 'lifecycle', phase: 'end' → triggers emitChatFinal → broadcasts to clients
• Does NOT write the assistant response to the session JSONL file

The embedded runner (pi-coding-agent) DOES persist internally, which is why all non-CLI paths work.

Bug B: WebChat client unconditionally reloads chat.history after every state: final event

In control-ui/assets/index-*.js, function nO(e, t):

if (r === 'final' && !i && jD(t)) { up(e); return; }

up(e) calls chat.history from the server and overwrites chatMessages with the result.

Combined effect (Bug A + Bug B):

• Response arrives → bp() adds it to UI → nO() calls up(e) → server returns old history (no JSONL entry for CLI response) → chatMessages overwritten → new message disappears

Bug C: User messages also missing from JSONL (revealed after fixing Bug A)

For CLI providers that are not claude-cli, augmentChatHistoryWithCliSessionImports always returns localMessages (JSONL) directly:

const cliSessionId = resolveClaudeCliBindingSessionId(params.entry);
if (!cliSessionId) return params.localMessages;  // exits here for google-gemini-cli

emitSessionTranscriptUpdate (called from emitUserTranscriptUpdate in chat.send) is a pure event emitter — its listeners only broadcast via WebSocket, they never write to disk. The JSONL write for user messages only happens inside pi-coding-agent, which is bypassed for CLI providers.

Once Bug A is fixed (JSONL now has assistant messages), up(e) reload returns assistant-only history → user messages disappear.

Reproduction

1. Configure any agent to use a CLI provider (e.g. google-gemini-cli)
2. Open WebChat
3. Send a message
4. Bug A: Reply is generated correctly (visible in logs) but never appears in WebChat
5. After fixing Bug A: Reply appears, but user's own message disappears immediately after

Fix

Both fixes are in dist/server.impl-GQ72oJBa.js.

Fix A: Save assistant transcript before broadcast in emitChatFinal

Add isCli as 9th parameter (detected via evt.data?.startedAt !== undefined — CLI lifecycle end events include startedAt; embedded runner does not):

// Change 1: signature
const emitChatFinal = (sessionKey, clientRunId, sourceRunId, seq, jobState, error, stopReason, errorKind, isCli) => {

// Change 2: inside if (jobState === "done"), before broadcast
if (isCli && text && !shouldSuppressSilent) {
    try {
        const { storePath: _sp, entry: _e } = loadSessionEntry(sessionKey);
        const _aid = resolveAgentIdFromSessionKey(sessionKey) ?? 'main';
        const _ensured = ensureSessionTranscriptFile({
            sessionId: _e?.sessionId ?? clientRunId,
            sessionFile: _e?.sessionFile,
            storePath: _sp,
            agentId: _aid
        });
        if (_ensured.ok)
            SessionManager.open(_ensured.transcriptPath).appendMessage({
                role: 'assistant',
                content: [{ type: 'text', text }],
                timestamp: Date.now(),
                stopReason: 'stop',
                usage: { input: 0, output: 0, cacheRead: 0, cacheWrite: 0, totalTokens: 0,
                         cost: { input: 0, output: 0, cacheRead: 0, cacheWrite: 0, total: 0 } }
            });
    } catch (err) {
        console.warn(`[cli-transcript] save failed: sessionKey=${sessionKey} err=${String(err)}`);
    }
}

// Change 3: both call sites in finalizeLifecycleEvent
emitChatFinal(..., evt.data?.startedAt !== undefined);

Fix B: Save user message to JSONL in createTranscriptUpdateBroadcastHandler

Insert after the sessionKey null-check:

if (update.message?.role === 'user' && update.sessionFile) {
    try {
        const { cfg: _cfg2, entry: _entry2 } = loadSessionEntry(sessionKey);
        const _aid2 = resolveSessionAgentId({ sessionKey, config: _cfg2 });
        const _ref2 = resolveSessionModelRef(_cfg2, _entry2, _aid2);
        if (isCliProvider(_ref2.provider, _cfg2))
            SessionManager.open(update.sessionFile).appendMessage(update.message);
    } catch (err) {
        console.warn(`[cli-transcript] user msg save failed: sessionKey=${sessionKey} err=${String(err)}`);
    }
}

All symbols used in both fixes are already imported/defined in server.impl-*.js.

Why the CLI discriminators are safe

Fix A — evt.data.startedAt:

• CLI lifecycle end: { phase: "end", startedAt: X, endedAt: Y } (set by isCliProvider check at call site)
• Embedded runner lifecycle end: { phase: "end", livenessState: "...", endedAt: Y } — no startedAt

Fix B — isCliProvider:

• Returns true only for configured CLI backends (e.g. google-gemini-cli, claude-cli, openai-codex)
• Returns false for embedded runner providers (openai, anthropic, etc.) → no double-write

Idempotency

• Fix A: emitChatFinal clears chatRunState.buffers on first execution; duplicate calls have text = "", so isCli && text guard prevents double-writes
• Fix B: emitSessionTranscriptUpdate fires at most once per chat.send (guarded by userTranscriptUpdatePromise)

Longer-term fix recommendation

The proper fix makes transcript persistence path symmetric across all runners:

1. Make emitSessionTranscriptUpdate also write to disk (not just broadcast), or
2. In dispatchInboundMessage.then(), the else agentRunStarted branch (CLI path) should explicitly call transcript write for both user and assistant messages, matching what the embedded runner does internally

Tested on

• CLI provider: google-gemini-cli
• Gateway version: v2026.4.15
• After both fixes: WebChat ✅, Matrix/Element ✅ (no regression), TUI ✅ (no regression)
• JSONL: alternating user + assistant entries confirmed