openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix fix: qmd vector search silently falls back to FTS on first query after gateway restart [1 participants]

Problem

After every gateway restart, the first memory_search call silently degrades to FTS-only mode instead of using the qmd vector search path. Subsequent calls work correctly.

Symptom:

{
  "provider": "none",
  "fallback": {
    "from": "qmd",
    "reason": "Unexpected token 'm', \"[mcporter] \"... is not valid JSON"
  },
  "mode": "fts-only"
}

Root Cause

In runQmdSearchViaMcporter(), ensureMcporterDaemonStarted() calls runMcporter(["daemon", "start"]) on the first invocation after restart. The mcporter daemon start command writes startup logs (e.g. [mcporter] Starting server... or Daemon already running (pid xxx).) to stdout instead of stderr. These lines are captured into result.stdout alongside the actual JSON query result, causing JSON.parse(result.stdout) to throw on the malformed concatenated input.

The bug only fires on the first call per gateway lifecycle because state.daemonStart is null after restart. Once the Promise resolves, subsequent calls skip the daemon start step and stdout is clean.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Start or restart the OpenClaw gateway
2. Immediately call memory_search (before any prior successful qmd query)
3. Observe provider: "none" and fallback.reason containing "[mcporter]"

Proposed Fix

File: src/.../qmd-manager.ts (compiled: dist/qmd-manager-*.js)
Location: runQmdSearchViaMcporter(), just before JSON.parse(result.stdout)

- const parsedUnknown = JSON.parse(result.stdout);
+ const cleanStdout = result.stdout
+   .split("\n")
+   .filter((line) => !line.trim().startsWith("[mcporter]"))
+   .join("\n")
+   .trim();
+ const parsedUnknown = JSON.parse(cleanStdout);

Better Long-Term Fix

The defensive patch above works, but the root cause should be addressed upstream:

• Option A (recommended): Have mcporter daemon start write all log output to stderr, keeping stdout reserved for structured JSON output only
• Option B: Pass discardStdout: true (or equivalent) when calling runMcporter(["daemon", "start"]), since only the exit code matters for that sub-command
• Option C: Ensure ensureMcporterDaemonStarted() and the subsequent call are fully independent invocations with separate stdout captures

Environment

• OpenClaw 2026.4.1
• mcporter 0.8.1
• qmd 2.0.1
• OS: Linux x64 (CPU-only build)