openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix Regression: layered OPENCLAW_PLUGIN_STAGE_DIR reinstalls full bundled runtime deps into writable root in 2026.4.29 [1 comments, 2 participants]

Summary

This looks like a regression of #72396.

OPENCLAW_PLUGIN_STAGE_DIR is configured as a layered path list:

/opt/openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps:/data/plugin-runtime-deps

Docs say OpenClaw should resolve bundled plugin runtime deps left-to-right, treat earlier roots as preinstalled/read-only layers, and install/repair only missing deps into the final writable root.

In 2026.4.29, OpenClaw still installs the full bundled runtime deps set into the rightmost writable root, even though the left root already contains the expected hashed folder and all required root deps.

Environment

• OpenClaw image: ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw:2026.4.29-amd64
• Custom image: registry.fly.io/mountapps-openclaw-fly-image:b0501-r0429-pd3-amd64
• Runtime: Fly.io machine, Linux amd64, Node 24.14.0
• State dir: /data
• Stage env:

OPENCLAW_PLUGIN_STAGE_DIR=/opt/openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps:/data/plugin-runtime-deps

What was verified

The image contains the expected hashed folder:

/opt/openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps/openclaw-2026.4.29-f53b52ad6d21

The fresh machine creates the same hashed folder under /data:

/data/plugin-runtime-deps/openclaw-2026.4.29-f53b52ad6d21

The /opt folder contains all 45 declared root deps:

declared root deps: 45
missing root deps: 0

Root dep versions were compared between /opt and /data after install:

root deps: 45
diffs: 0

So this does not look like a missing or mismatched root dependency.

Actual behavior

On a fresh 2026.4.29 machine, OpenClaw still staged and installed the full bundled runtime deps into /data:

[plugins] acpx staging bundled runtime deps (45 specs): ...
[plugins] acpx installed bundled runtime deps in 70158ms: ...

After startup:

/data/plugin-runtime-deps 795M
/opt/openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps 795M

A previous run showed the same behavior:

[plugins] acpx installed bundled runtime deps in 58994ms: ...
/data/plugin-runtime-deps 860M

Expected behavior

Because /opt/openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps/openclaw-2026.4.29-f53b52ad6d21 already contains all required root deps, OpenClaw should reuse it and avoid installing the full 45-dep set into /data.

Only deps missing from earlier roots should be installed into the final writable root.

Why this matters

This adds about 60-70 seconds to first gateway startup and writes ~795MB into the persistent data volume, even though the deps are already baked into the image.

This is especially painful for provisioned gateway flows where the expected value is a ready gateway in a few minutes.

Related

• Looks like regression of #72396
• Related multi-path lookup issue: #73815