openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix npm global install: `openclaw update` hangs after package manager step — doctor and gateway restart never run

Environment

• OS: Windows 11 Pro (win32 x64)
• Node: v24.15.0
• Install method: npm global (npm install -g openclaw)
• Update channel: stable
• Before: 2026.5.6 (c97b9f7)
• After: 2026.5.7 (eeef486)

Steps to reproduce

openclaw update

Expected behavior

Three steps execute in sequence:

1. Update package via npm
2. Run openclaw doctor --non-interactive --fix
3. Restart the gateway service

Actual behavior

Only step 1 completes. The spinner stops after:

Updating OpenClaw...
│
◇  ✓ Updating via package manager (163.03s)

No doctor step, no gateway restart. The command exits silently. Running openclaw health afterwards confirms the gateway is down.

The npm package itself is updated to 2026.5.7 — only the post-update orchestration is skipped.

Root cause analysis

Looking at the bundled dist in update-cli.js, the intended flow for npm global installs is:

1. runPackageInstallUpdate calls runGlobalPackageUpdateSteps with a postVerifyStep callback that runs openclaw doctor --non-interactive --fix
2. After runPackageInstallUpdate returns, shouldResumePostCoreUpdateInFreshProcess returns true for package-manager mode
3. continuePostCoreUpdateInFreshProcess spawns a fresh Node process (openclaw update with POST_CORE_UPDATE_ENV=1) to handle plugin updates and gateway restart

The mechanism is there, but on Windows the fresh-process resumption either:

• Fails to spawn (env isolation / path resolution)
• Spawns but exits early before reaching restart
• Is not reached because the doctor step in postVerifyStep hangs or crashes

Workaround

Manual post-update steps:

openclaw doctor --fix
openclaw gateway start