openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix Installer hangs at [3/3] Finalizing setup when running npm prefix -g or openclaw daemon status --json [1 participants]

When installing OpenClaw with:

curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash --verbose

the installer can hang indefinitely at:

[3/3] Finalizing setup
resolve_openclaw_bin || true
type -P openclaw 2>/dev/null || true
npm_global_bin_dir || true
npm prefix -g 2>/dev/null || true
"$claw" daemon status --json 2>/dev/null || true

It looks like the finalizing step runs several best-effort probes, but some of them may block for a long time or never return in certain environments.

In my case, the install appeared stuck even though the CLI was likely already installed.

Expected behavior The installer should always finish, even if post-install verification probes fail or hang.

Actual behavior The installer remains stuck at [3/3] Finalizing setup and never exits.

Why this is a problem These commands appear to be non-essential and are already wrapped with || true, so failures are tolerated, but hangs are not. This makes the installer look broken even when installation may actually be complete.

Suggested fix Add short timeouts to the post-install probes in the finalizing stage, especially:

npm prefix -g
"$claw" daemon status --json

For example:

• timeout npm prefix -g after a few seconds
• timeout openclaw daemon status --json after a few seconds
• print a warning if a probe times out
• do not block install success on these checks

Suggested outcome The installer should:

• complete successfully if OpenClaw is installed
• warn if a probe timed out
• never hang indefinitely during finalization

Environment

• macOS
• install command:

curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash --verbose