Bug Report: memory-core narrative session cleanup fails due to missing operator.admin scope

Environment

• OpenClaw Version: 2026.4.23 (a979721)
• Node.js: v22.22.2
• OS: Linux 6.8.0-110-generic (x64)
• Plugin: memory-core (bundled with OpenClaw)

Bug Description

The memory-core plugin's dreaming deep phase calls subagent.deleteSession() to clean up temporary narrative sessions, but this operation fails with a "missing scope: operator.admin" error because the internal cron runtime does not have operator.admin permissions.

Error Log

memory-core: narrative session cleanup failed for deep phase: Error: Unknown memory embedding provider: disabled
memory-core: narrative session cleanup failed for rem phase: missing scope: operator.admin
memory-core: narrative session cleanup failed for light phase: missing scope: operator.admin

Impact

• Session files are renamed to *.deleted.* but cannot be actually deleted
• Over time, this causes accumulation of orphaned session files
• Observed: 1341 session files (264MB) with 465 .deleted.* residual files before manual cleanup

Root Cause Analysis

1. memory-core uses api.runtime.subagent.deleteSession() to clean up narrative session files created during the dreaming process
2. This call is wrapped via withPluginRuntimePluginIdScope() in loader-DeOtDUYt.js
3. However, the internal cron/runtime context does not have operator.admin scope
4. The Gateway shows admin-capable status, but the internal subagent runtime does not inherit this capability

Code Path

• Entry point: dreaming-D8xdMBta.js:1061 and dreaming-narrative-CbBD6j4D.js:595
• subagent.deleteSession({ sessionKey }) → requires operator.admin
• The deleteSession method goes through loader-DeOtDUYt.js:1343 which uses withPluginRuntimePluginIdScope

Current Workaround

A cleanup script removes .deleted.* files older than 30 days, scheduled via cron:

0 5 * * * $HOME/.openclaw/scripts/cleanup-deleted-sessions.sh

Expected Behavior

The memory-core dreaming cleanup should either:

1. Have operator.admin scope granted to the internal runtime for delete operations, OR
2. Handle missing scope gracefully without logging warnings

Additional Context

• Gateway auth mode: token
• Gateway bind: lan (0.0.0.0)
• OpenClaw is running as a systemd user service
• Active agents: main (heartbeat enabled), stock, invoice, genimg, attendance, finance, dev

Tags

bug, memory-core, operator.admin, scope, session-cleanup