openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix `subagent-registry.runtime.js` still missing from `dist/` in 2026.4.12 npm package — file genuinely absent (follow-up to closed #71418) [1 comments, 2 participants]

Symptom

On a fresh gateway boot of openclaw 2026.4.12, the following warning fires 18 times:

[warn] subagent cleanup finalize failed (<uuid>): Error [ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND]: 
  Cannot find module '/data/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/subagent-registry.runtime.js'
  imported from /data/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/subagent-registry-CflSFWBm.js

This is the same symptom reported in closed issues #71418, #67044, #66527, #66313, #66096. All five were closed-as-fixed, the most recent being #71418 closed on 2026-04-25.

I am opening this as a new issue rather than commenting because #71418 is locked.

Direct file-existence verification

The error message is not a phantom — the file is genuinely missing from the published 2026.4.12 npm package's dist/ directory:

$ ls /data/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/subagent-registry.runtime.js
ls: cannot access '...subagent-registry.runtime.js': No such file or directory

$ ls /data/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/subagent-registry-*.js
/data/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/subagent-registry-CflSFWBm.js
/data/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/subagent-registry-read-DpozRxeB.js
/data/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/subagent-registry-state-BdkWjAs7.js
/data/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/subagent-registry-steer-runtime-DlsbxWM7.js

The four sibling chunks (...-CflSFWBm, ...-read-..., ...-state-..., ...-steer-runtime-...) are present, but the subagent-registry.runtime.js referenced by the import in subagent-registry-CflSFWBm.js is not.

Version

$ openclaw --version
OpenClaw 2026.4.12 (1c0672b)

$ cat /data/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw/package.json | grep '"version"'
  "version": "2026.4.12",

Repro

1. Install openclaw from npm: npm install -g [email protected] (or use any container that bundles 2026.4.12).
2. Start the gateway: openclaw gateway.
3. Watch the gateway log for the warning above. With ~18 stale subagent UUIDs needing cleanup, the warning fires 18 times within ~1s of gateway boot.

Possible causes (for maintainer to disambiguate)

• The fix that landed against #71418 was in a sibling chunk file, not in the missing .runtime.js — so the import target was never restored.
• The published 2026.4.12 npm package was assembled before the fix landed, and the fix is in a later version.
• The build system regressed and stopped emitting .runtime.js again after #71418's closure.

Why it matters

• Log noise: 18 ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND warnings per gateway boot is non-trivial noise.
• Trust signal: the warning text says subagent cleanup finalize failed, which sounds load-bearing even if the cleanup itself is benign. Operators who see this assume something is broken.
• Closure history is misleading: the issue has been closed five times. Anyone searching for this error trail trusts the closures.

Severity

Low operational impact (cleanup is for stale subagent UUIDs, not active runs), but high signal-to-noise damage: the warning makes openclaw look broken on first boot to anyone evaluating it.

Tested-against

openclaw 2026.4.12 (commit 1c0672b) installed via npm install -g openclaw to /data/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw/. Repros 2026-05-02 on a fresh openclaw gateway invocation.

Suggested resolution

Either:

1. Confirm the fix is in a later release and update the linked closed issues to say "fix landed in 2026.4.13" (or whichever).
2. If 2026.4.12 was supposed to contain the fix, reopen — the file is verifiably absent.