openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix Runtime fails to resolve json5 package entrypoint in plugin runtime deps [1 comments, 2 participants]

Summary

OpenClaw's generated plugin runtime imports json5 as a bare package import, but the runtime/module resolution path appears to look for node_modules/json5/index.js. [email protected] does not ship a top-level index.js; its CommonJS entrypoint is lib/index.js, declared via package.json as "main": "lib/index.js".

This causes agents/channels to fail before replying after gateway startup.

Error

Agent failed before reply: Cannot find package '/Users/agentkomers/.openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps/openclaw-2026.4.29-da6bdffc3d96/node_modules/json5/index.js' imported from /Users/agentkomers/.openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps/openclaw-2026.4.29-da6bdffc3d96/dist/parse-json-compat-g9wpnFYm.js
Did you mean to import "json5/lib/index.js"?.
Logs: openclaw logs --follow

A later gateway log showed the same resolution issue from another generated runtime file:

[telegram] [default] channel exited: Cannot find package 'json5' imported from /Users/agentkomers/.openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps/openclaw-2026.4.29-da6bdffc3d96/dist/redact-vz8FmIJK.js
Did you mean to import "json5/lib/index.js"?

Environment / observed paths

OpenClaw runtime cache: openclaw-2026.4.29-da6bdffc3d96
json5 version: 2.2.3
json5 package main: lib/index.js

Files observed importing bare json5 included:

dist/parse-json-compat-g9wpnFYm.js
dist/redact-vz8FmIJK.js
dist/config-cli-CJmqioRD.js
dist/io-DaEsZ_NY.js
dist/state-migrations-CbUcO0eO.js

Expected behavior

The plugin runtime should resolve json5 using normal package resolution, honoring json5/package.json's main field, or generated runtime files should import the real shipped entrypoint explicitly.

Actual behavior

The runtime attempts to import/resolve json5/index.js, which is not present in [email protected], causing the agent/channel to fail before replying.

Workaround

Either of these local cache patches unblocked the runtime:

// node_modules/json5/index.js
module.exports = require("./lib/index.js");

or rewriting generated imports from:

import JSON5 from "json5";

to:

import JSON5 from "json5/lib/index.js";

After rewriting the generated runtime imports and adding the shim, direct Node imports of the failing modules succeeded.

Possible fix

Either:

1. Adjust OpenClaw's runtime/package resolver to honor package entrypoints (main/exports) for bare package imports, or
2. Generate imports for json5 as json5/lib/index.js where these runtime files are bundled.