Problem

openclaw agents list --json consistently takes ~7-9s on a fast host and ~11s in a container on 2026.4.23, while peer commands like cron list --all --json, skills list --json, and sessions ... --json stay sub-second on the same install. Programmatic JSON consumers (dashboards, monitoring scripts, IDE plugins) feel this acutely because they poll.

The cost is the bundled-extension import waterfall at CLI bootstrap (~60+ extension index.js modules in dist/extensions/ get pulled in to back per-agent provider/binding info).

Repro (host CLI, openclaw 2026.4.23, paired)

$ time openclaw cron list --all --json >/dev/null   # 1.0s
$ time openclaw skills list --json >/dev/null       # 0.9s
$ time openclaw sessions --all-agents --json >/dev/null  # 1.0s
$ time openclaw agents list --json >/dev/null       # 8.6s   ← outlier
$ time openclaw channels list --json >/dev/null     # 0.9s   ← same shape, fast

The channels list comparison is the key: same surface (list a config-defined collection as JSON), much faster.

Diagnosis

The CLI startup decides whether to load plugins via per-command policy in src/cli/command-catalog.ts:

{ commandPath: ['agents'],          policy: { loadPlugins: 'always' } },
{ commandPath: ['agents', 'list'],  route: { id: 'agents-list' } },        // ← inherits 'always'
{ commandPath: ['channels'],        policy: { loadPlugins: 'always' } },
{ commandPath: ['channels', 'list'], policy: { loadPlugins: 'never' },
  route: { id: 'channels-list' } },                                        // ← explicit 'never'

agents list has a route override but no policy override, so resolveCliCommandPathPolicy (in src/cli/command-path-policy.ts) keeps the parent's loadPlugins: 'always' from the agents entry. channels list has the explicit override and stays fast.

The runtime already supports a text-only mode in shouldLoadPluginsForCommandPath (src/cli/command-startup-policy.ts):

return loadPlugins === 'always' || (loadPlugins === 'text-only' && !params.jsonOutputMode);

But agents list doesn't opt into it.

There's also an in-command path: agentsListCommand in src/commands/agents.commands.list.ts calls buildProviderStatusIndex(cfg) unconditionally, and that triggers on-demand plugin loads even when opts.json is true.

Empirical patch

I locally added policy: { loadPlugins: 'text-only' } to the ['agents', 'list'] catalog entry (file: dist/command-execution-startup-BgJnfxRd.js in the published bundle, mapped from src/cli/command-catalog.ts):

Half the cost gone from a one-line change. The remaining ~5s is the on-demand load inside buildProviderStatusIndex.

Proposed fix

Two-line change:

1. src/cli/command-catalog.ts — opt agents list into text-only:

   {
     commandPath: ['agents', 'list'],
     policy: { loadPlugins: 'text-only' },
     route: { id: 'agents-list' },
   }

2. src/commands/agents.commands.list.ts — skip provider enrichment when emitting JSON (and/or behind --bindings only):

   const providerStatus = opts.json ? null : await buildProviderStatusIndex(cfg);
   // …skip per-summary provider/route enrichment when providerStatus is null

JSON consumers lose the providers and routes fields (which require provider plugins to compute). For consumers that need them, they can pass --bindings to opt back in. Human text output is unchanged.

Impact

• Programmatic callers that poll agents list --json go from ~10s/call to sub-second
• For agent-dash (the consumer that surfaced this), our /api/dashboard cold path drops from 27s → ~2s and we can drop a 5-min cache TTL workaround we shipped to dodge this
• Human agents list is unaffected
• No schema break for callers that consume id, name, model, bindings, isDefault, identity*, workspace, agentDir — all derived from cfg without plugin load

Related

#67040 (broader plugin-discovery cache work) and #71690 (gateway-side cold-start) cover the bigger architectural picture; this issue is a small, surgical fix for the agents list JSON path that ships independently of those.