openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix 2026.4.29 update/rollback leaves mismatched plugin runtime deps and gateway/channel failures [1 comments, 2 participants]

Summary

After attempting the 2026.4.29 OpenClaw update on macOS, the gateway entered a failed/degraded state and rollback to 2026.4.26 left the plugin runtime dependency tree inconsistent. Channel startup then failed because the active 2026.4.26 plugin runtime deps tree was missing packages required by bundled gateway/plugin code, notably json5.

Environment

• OS: macOS 26.4.1 arm64
• Node: 25.8.1
• OpenClaw package after rollback: 2026.4.26 (be8c246)
• Update target: 2026.4.29
• Gateway: LaunchAgent ai.openclaw.gateway, loopback 127.0.0.1:18789

Timeline / observed behavior

1. Ran the 2026.4.29 update workflow.
2. Update logs show repeated cycles of:
   • stopping managed gateway service before package update
   • openclaw doctor completing
   • attempting gateway restart
   • gateway health/version check failing
   • gateway port reported free during failure window
3. Gateway/launchd later showed:
   • LaunchAgent loaded/running on rollback version 2026.4.26
   • previous termination signal: Killed: 9
4. Stability bundles captured during the failed 4.29 window:
   • gateway.startup_failed
   • unhandled_rejection with ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND
5. After rollback to 2026.4.26, Telegram channel and browser plugin startup failed repeatedly with:

Cannot find package 'json5' imported from /Users/chrisdavidson/.openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps/openclaw-2026.4.26-da6bdffc3d96/dist/redact-Cv5sPU4g.js
Did you mean to import "json5/lib/index.js"?

Affected logs included:

[plugins] plugin service failed (browser-control, plugin=browser, root=/opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/extensions/browser): Cannot find package 'json5' imported from /Users/chrisdavidson/.openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps/openclaw-2026.4.26-da6bdffc3d96/dist/redact-Cv5sPU4g.js
[telegram] [default] channel exited: Cannot find package 'json5' imported from /Users/chrisdavidson/.openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps/openclaw-2026.4.26-da6bdffc3d96/dist/redact-Cv5sPU4g.js

Dependency state found

/opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/openclaw/package.json for 2026.4.26 includes:

{
  "json5": "^2.2.3",
  "osc-progress": "^0.3.0"
}

But the active runtime deps tree did not contain those packages:

/Users/chrisdavidson/.openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps/openclaw-2026.4.26-da6bdffc3d96
json5 missing
osc-progress missing

There was also a leftover 4.29 runtime deps tree:

/Users/chrisdavidson/.openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps/openclaw-2026.4.29-da6bdffc3d96

That tree had a different/incomplete dependency shape from the 4.26 runtime deps tree.

Expected behavior

• Update should not leave the gateway down or repeatedly killed/restarted.
• If an update fails and rolls back, the active version's plugin runtime deps should be regenerated or validated before gateway/channel startup.
• Channel/plugin startup should not continue using a stale/mismatched runtime deps tree.
• Missing runtime deps should be reported as an update/rollback integrity failure, not as downstream channel failures.

Actual behavior

• 4.29 update failed gateway health/version checks.
• Gateway was killed during the update/restart flow.
• Rollback left 2026.4.26 active, but runtime deps were missing packages required by active bundled plugin code.
• Telegram and browser plugin repeatedly failed with ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND for json5.

Local mitigation applied

• Quarantined leftover 4.29 runtime/update artifacts.
• Added a local no-auto-update guard before any future OpenClaw update workflow can touch the production gateway.
• Repaired the 2026.4.26 plugin runtime deps tree by installing missing packages into: /Users/chrisdavidson/.openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps/openclaw-2026.4.26-da6bdffc3d96

Suggested fixes

1. During update/rollback, bind plugin runtime deps strictly to the active OpenClaw version and verify required deps before restarting gateway.
2. If rollback occurs, delete/regenerate the active version's plugin runtime deps tree or run an integrity check against the active package manifest.
3. Avoid restarting channel/plugin workers until dependency validation passes.
4. Include dependency mismatch details in openclaw status --deep or the update failure output.
5. Consider clearing stale versioned node compile caches during failed update rollback.

Notes

This was observed on a production LaunchAgent install. The system recovered only after quarantining 4.29 leftovers and manually repairing the 4.26 plugin runtime deps.