openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw:main Docker tag is not auto-rebuilt on commits to git main; stale by weeks [1 comments, 2 participants]

Bug type

CI/release infrastructure — Docker :main tag stale relative to git main branch

Summary

The ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw:main Docker tag is not being rebuilt on every commit to the main git branch. As a result, when maintainers in issue threads tell users to "test on current main," users who pull :main get a stale image that doesn't include recent fixes.

Concrete data point

In #73532 the issue was closed today (2026-05-01 11:48 UTC) with:

Closing as fixed on current main. … 29ed5266bf keeping runtime-deps repair out of gateway/runtime plugin hot paths.

Commit 29ed5266 is timestamped 2026-05-01 09:26 BST. After the close, I pulled ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw:main to verify:

$ sudo docker pull ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw:main
Status: Image is up to date for ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw:main

$ sudo docker images ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw --format "{{.Tag}} {{.CreatedAt}}"
2026.4.29   2026-04-30 20:45:26 +0000 UTC
latest      2026-04-30 20:45:26 +0000 UTC
main        2026-03-26 15:47:52 +0000 UTC

The :main image was built 2026-03-26 — over five weeks ago, and ~36 days before 29ed5266 landed. It does not contain the fix the issue close cites.

The :latest and :2026.4.29 tags are dated 2026-04-30 20:45:26 — they correspond to the v2026.4.29 release, also pre-dating 29ed5266.

So no published image currently contains the chat-completions hot-loop fix from 29ed5266. The next opportunity is v2026.4.30 (or a beta), whenever that's tagged.

Expected behavior

Either:

• :main is auto-built on every push to git main (CI hook), so "test on current main" works without users building locally, or
• Maintainer guidance in issue threads points to the most recent release tag that contains the fix, not "main."

Steps to reproduce

# After 29ed5266bf was merged to main:
docker pull ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw:main
docker images ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw:main --format "{{.CreatedAt}}"
# → 2026-03-26 15:47:52 +0000 UTC  (image predates the fix by ~5 weeks)

Confirmed via docker manifest inspect ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw:main from a separate host: registry digest matches the local pull's manifest digest, so the registry hasn't been pushed any new :main since the March 26 build.

Impact

When users hit a bug, get told "fixed on main, please retest," and pull :main, they actually re-test the bug because the published image is stale. The path forward (build from source ourselves) is reasonable but worth documenting upstream so users don't burn cycles assuming :main matches git main.