openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix openclaw update: completion cache refresh fails because onboard gets duplicate --openai-api-key registration [2 comments, 2 participants]

Bug

openclaw update fails at the final completion-cache refresh step with:

Completion cache update failed ([openclaw] Failed to start CLI: Error: Cannot add option '--openai-api-key <key>' to command 'onboard' due to conflicting flag '--openai-api-key'

What I checked

• openclaw --help still works, so this does not look like a general CLI boot failure
• the failure appears specific to the onboard command path during completion refresh
• a quick search through the obvious packaged entry points did not show simple top-level hardcoded matches for either:
  • openai-api-key
  • onboard

That makes a dynamic/generated option-registration path more likely than a single duplicated inline .option('--openai-api-key ...') in a top-level file.

Expected

• openclaw update completes cleanly
• completion cache refresh succeeds
• onboard option registration is idempotent

Actual

• CLI startup fails during completion refresh
• Commander throws because onboard receives duplicate registration of --openai-api-key
• update looks stuck/broken to the user

Likely root cause

Probably one of:

1. onboard has a static OpenAI flag and a provider/auth injector adds it again
2. onboarding/provider option builders run twice during completion-cache refresh
3. completion generation rebuilds the command tree and re-runs side-effectful registration
4. dynamically generated provider flags are not deduped before addOption()

Proposed fix

Defensive fix

Make onboarding/provider option registration idempotent:

function hasLongFlag(command: Command, longFlag: string): boolean {
  return command.options.some(opt =>
    opt.long === longFlag ||
    opt.flags.includes(longFlag)
  );
}

function addOptionOnce(command: Command, option: Option) {
  if (hasLongFlag(command, option.long)) return;
  command.addOption(option);
}

Structural fix

Centralize onboard option assembly so it only runs once per command instance, or dedupe the final option set before registration.

UX fix

If completion refresh fails, openclaw update should fail soft:

• warn
• exit cleanly
• say the update succeeded but completion refresh failed

Environment

• Platform: Windows
• Trigger: openclaw update
• Observed around: 2026.4.25