openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix docs/config: plugins.allow allowlist silently blocks all stock channel plugins (Discord, Signal, etc.) when set [1 comments, 2 participants]

Summary

Setting plugins.allow in openclaw.json to a non-empty array silently blocks all stock/bundled channel plugins — including Discord, Signal, and others — unless they are explicitly listed. There is no warning during openclaw doctor or at gateway startup to indicate that channels have been dropped.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Add a custom workspace plugin and enable it via plugins.allow:

   "plugins": {
     "allow": ["my-custom-plugin"],
     "entries": { ... }
   }

2. Run openclaw doctor — exits 0, Errors: 0
3. Restart gateway
4. Result: Discord (and all other stock channel plugins) silently stop working. No error in logs, no doctor warning.

Expected Behavior

plugins.allow should either:

• Auto-include stock/bundled channel plugins, OR
• Warn explicitly during openclaw doctor that named stock plugins will be blocked, OR
• Document clearly that plugins.allow is a strict allowlist that overrides all defaults

Actual Behavior

Gateway starts without errors. Discord bot goes offline. No indication why until manually inspecting which plugins are actually loaded vs. configured.

Impact

This caused a ~40 minute outage in production before the root cause was identified. openclaw doctor gave a clean bill of health throughout.

Workaround

Keep plugins.allow absent from config entirely unless you intend a full security lockdown and explicitly list every plugin you need. Do not rely on openclaw doctor to catch this.

Environment

• OpenClaw version: 2026.3.24 (confirmed still present on 2026.3.28)
• Platform: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, systemd service
• Channel: Discord