openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix Control UI avatar broken after upgrade from v4.14 to v4.21 [1 participants]

Bug Description

My agent avatar stopped displaying in the Control UI after upgrading OpenClaw from v4.14 to v4.21.

• Before (v4.14): Avatar displayed correctly in Control UI
• After (v4.21): Avatar no longer shows (appears blank/default)

Setup

IDENTITY.md (workspace root ):

File location:

• Valid PNG:
• Confirmed readable: file header starts with (PNG magic)

What I've Checked

1. ✅ file format unchanged from when it worked
2. ✅ exists in workspace root and is a valid image
3. ✅ Same path worked in v4.14
4. ❓ According to docs, path format should be — but this was NOT required in v4.14

Docs Reference

From :

For avatars, use a workspace-relative path like .

However, the current file works at root and worked before the upgrade, suggesting a regression in how the Control UI resolves avatar paths.

Possible Causes (from code inspection)

Per :

• Avatar route: requires auth token
• CSP allows same-origin relative paths like
• Remote URLs are stripped

Potential regression areas:

1. Path resolution changed — v4.21 may now require subdirectory while v4.14 resolved root-level files
2. Avatar route auth — token forwarding behavior may have changed
3. CSP enforcement — may have become stricter about root-level paths

Environment

• OS: Windows 11 + WSL2 (Ubuntu)
• Browser: Chrome via MCP
• Gateway auth: token-based (shared-secret)
• Access: Control UI via

Request

Please clarify:

1. Is (root level) still supported, or must it be ?
2. If the subdirectory is now required, this is a breaking change that should be documented.
3. If this is a bug, the root-level path resolution should be restored.

Reporter: @QQSHI13 Regression: v4.14 → v4.21