openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix ClawHub plugin publish times out after Preparing for valid code-plugin package; docs/client publish surface mismatch [1 participants]

Summary

Publishing a valid code-plugin package with truthful GitHub provenance consistently times out after:

- Preparing [email protected]
× Request timed out after 120s
Error: Request timed out after 120s

At this point the package, artifact, repo, and provenance have been locally validated enough that this no longer looks like a plugin-content problem. It looks like a ClawHub publish-path issue, plus a docs/client surface mismatch.

Frozen package/provenance state

Please note that the package was frozen for final testing. I am not asking for a review of package redesign, metadata redesign, or provenance correction.

Do not change:

• package name
• plugin id
• manifest fields
• repo
• commit
• ref
• version
• artifact contents
• source path

Final tested values:

• package name: umg-envoy-agent
• version: 0.1.0
• extracted folder path: C:\.openclaw\workspace\temp\clawhub-publish\umg-envoy-agent-0.1.0-public-final
• final artifact path: C:\.openclaw\workspace\artifacts\umg-envoy-agent-plugin-public-block-library
• source repo: NeoMagnetar/umg-envoy-agent
• source commit: cce3adbe854e1323a4e34f55d6d4a912191f249c
• source ref: main
• source path: .

Exact publish command

Final controlled publish attempt used direct Node invocation of the installed CLI entrypoint to bypass the Windows shim:

node "C:\Users\Magne\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\clawhub\bin\clawdhub.js" package publish "C:\.openclaw\workspace\temp\clawhub-publish\umg-envoy-agent-0.1.0-public-final" --family code-plugin --name umg-envoy-agent --version 0.1.0 --source-repo NeoMagnetar/umg-envoy-agent --source-commit cce3adbe854e1323a4e34f55d6d4a912191f249c --source-ref main --source-path .

Auth and client observations

Auth succeeded:

clawhub whoami
- Checking token
√ NeoMagnetar

Windows shim path:

• C:\Users\Magne\AppData\Roaming\npm\clawhub.cmd

Underlying JS entrypoint:

• C:\Users\Magne\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\clawhub\bin\clawdhub.js

A real node.exe process was observed during the stalled publish attempt, with an active HTTPS connection, and no hidden JS/runtime error was emitted.

Exact failure

Observed final output:

- Preparing [email protected]
× Request timed out after 120s
Error: Request timed out after 120s

After timeout, the package did not appear in ClawHub.

Package visibility check after timeout:

clawhub package inspect umg-envoy-agent
- Fetching package
× Package not found
Error: Package not found

Provenance was validated locally

These were verified before the final publish attempt:

• local repo origin URL: https://github.com/NeoMagnetar/umg-envoy-agent.git
• local HEAD: cce3adbe854e1323a4e34f55d6d4a912191f249c
• origin/main after fetch: cce3adbe854e1323a4e34f55d6d4a912191f249c
• expected source commit is contained in origin/main
• GitHub repo NeoMagnetar/umg-envoy-agent is reachable from this machine
• clawhub whoami succeeds

So the publish failure does not currently look like "bad repo truth" or "bad commit truth."

Docs/client mismatch

This appears to be a second real issue.

The local OpenClaw docs for ClawHub describe behavior that does not match the actual current client surface observed on this machine.

Observed docs path:

• C:\Users\Magne\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\openclaw\docs\tools\clawhub.md

The docs describe --dry-run in the ClawHub workflow docs.

However:

• installed global client help does not expose --dry-run
• npx clawhub@latest package publish --help also does not expose --dry-run
• attempting --dry-run fails with unknown option

Observed client help surface for clawhub package publish --help:

Usage: clawhub package publish [options] <path>

Publish a code plugin or bundle plugin from folder

Arguments:
  path                      Package folder path

Options:
  --family <family>         code-plugin|bundle-plugin
  --name <name>             Package name
  --display-name <name>     Display name
  --version <version>       Version
  --changelog <text>        Changelog text
  --tags <tags>             Comma-separated tags (default: "latest")
  --bundle-format <format>  Bundle format
  --host-targets <targets>  Comma-separated bundle host targets
  --source-repo <repo>      GitHub repo (owner/repo or URL)
  --source-commit <sha>     Git commit SHA
  --source-ref <ref>        Git ref/tag/branch
  --source-path <path>      Repo subpath (default: ".")
  -h, --help                display help for command

Observed docs snippet:

• docs/tools/clawhub.md includes:
  • --dry-run: Show what would be uploaded.

So there seems to be a mismatch between the documented publish surface and the actual current publish client surface available both globally and through npx clawhub@latest.

Environment

• OS: Windows 10.0.19045 x64
• Node: 24.14.0
• OpenClaw version: 2026.3.23-1
• Gateway reachable locally on loopback

Request

Please help determine:

1. why clawhub package publish times out after Preparing ... for a valid frozen code-plugin package with valid provenance
2. whether the 120-second timeout is client-side or server-side
3. why the documented publish surface does not match the actual current client help / behavior
4. whether there is a newer intended plugin-publish client path than the one currently exposed by both the installed global client and npx clawhub@latest

One-sentence conclusion

Publish is blocked by a 120-second ClawHub timeout after Preparing, with package/provenance already validated locally enough and with the documented publish surface not matching the actual current client behavior.