Summary

Updating OpenClaw through versions 2026.4.9 → 4.10 → 4.11 silently destroyed critical configuration: the entire channels.discord block and the agents.list array were wiped from openclaw.json. All four automatic backup files (.bak through .bak.3) were also missing this data, leaving no local recovery path. Additionally, gateway.mode became a required field at some point during the update chain but was never set by the update process or by openclaw onboard --mode local, blocking gateway startup entirely until manually set.

None of these issues are documented in the changelogs for 2026.4.10 or 2026.4.11.

Environment

• OS: macOS 26.3.1 (arm64, Mac mini)
• Node: 25.9.0
• OpenClaw version: 2026.4.11 (769908e)
• Install method: pnpm (Homebrew Node)
• Gateway mode: local (loopback, 127.0.0.1:18789)
• Update path: 2026.4.9 → 2026.4.10 → 2026.4.11

What broke

1. channels.discord completely removed from config

After the update chain, openclaw config get channels.discord returns Config path not found: channels.discord. The openclaw status Channels table is completely empty. Discord slash commands return "The application did not respond." The Discord bot, server, and bot token all still exist on Discord's side — this is purely a config-side wipe.

Expected: Update should preserve existing channel configuration, or at minimum the backup files should contain the pre-update state.

Actual: Channel config gone. All four .bak files are also missing the channels.discord block, meaning the backup rotation happened after the wipe — so the backups captured the already-broken state instead of the pre-update state.

2. agents.list array completely removed from config

The agents.list array (which declared multiple agents with their workspaces, model assignments, identities, and routing bindings) was entirely wiped. openclaw agents list now only returns main (the implicit default). Three other agents — big-brain, cerebro, dr-feelgood — still exist as directory trees under ~/.openclaw/agents/ with intact session history, auth profiles, and model provider catalogs, but OpenClaw no longer knows they exist as configured agents.

openclaw status still enumerates all four agents in the heartbeat line (scanning directories on disk), but they have no agents.list[] entries, so:

• No per-agent model assignment → they fall back to whatever provider is first in their local models.json (in this case gemma4:31b-cloud via Ollama instead of the intended claude-cli/claude-opus-4-6)
• No routing bindings → no channel traffic reaches them
• No identity config → names/avatars/themes lost

The current openclaw.json only contains agents.defaults (with model catalog entries like claude-cli/claude-opus-4-6), but no agents.list at all.

3. gateway.mode became required but was never set

After the update, the gateway refused to start. The fix was:

openclaw config set gateway.mode local

Neither the update process nor openclaw onboard --mode local set this field. openclaw doctor did not flag it as missing either — it ran clean after the field was manually added, but the missing field was the actual blocker.

4. Gateway entrypoint stale after update

The gateway service was pointing at a stale entrypoint (entry.js instead of index.js). Fixed with:

openclaw gateway install --force

This should have been handled by the update process.

Backup files are useless for recovery

All four backup files show the progression of the post-wipe config being touched by different update steps. None contain the pre-update channels.discord or agents.list data:

This means the backup rotation ran after the config was already wiped, so the pre-update state was never preserved. The backup mechanism is supposed to protect against exactly this scenario but failed to do so.

What openclaw doctor and openclaw onboard missed

• openclaw doctor runs clean with zero errors even though Discord is completely unconfigured and three agents are orphaned on disk.
• openclaw onboard did not set gateway.mode despite being run with --mode local.
• Neither tool detected or warned about the orphaned agent directories under ~/.openclaw/agents/ that have no corresponding agents.list[] entries.

Recovery steps required

Full manual rebuild was necessary:

1. openclaw config set gateway.mode local — unblock gateway startup
2. openclaw gateway install --force — fix stale entrypoint
3. Re-register channels.discord from scratch (token, enabled, guild allowlist, user allowlist) — no values recoverable from backups
4. Re-create agents.list[] entries for big-brain, cerebro, dr-feelgood with correct model assignments (claude-cli/claude-opus-4-6), workspace paths, and routing bindings — no values recoverable from backups
5. Copy auth-profiles.json into agent dirs that lost theirs (e.g., cerebro and dr-feelgood had empty profiles)
6. Restart gateway and re-verify with openclaw channels status --probe

Suggestions

1. Backup before destructive config writes: The backup rotation should snapshot openclaw.json before the update touches it, not after. Consider writing a timestamped backup (e.g., openclaw.json.pre-update-2026.4.10) before any config migration runs.
2. Validate config preservation: After an update's config migration, diff the old and new configs and warn (or abort) if critical top-level keys like channels.* or agents.list were removed.
3. Doctor should detect orphaned agents: If ~/.openclaw/agents/<id>/ directories exist but have no agents.list[] entry, doctor should flag this as a warning with a suggested fix.
4. Doctor should detect missing channel config: If a channel directory or session history exists but channels.<channel> is absent from config, flag it.
5. gateway.mode migration: If gateway.mode became required in 4.10 or 4.11, the update migration should set it based on the existing config (e.g., infer local from gateway.bind being loopback).
6. Document breaking changes: If config schema changes require manual intervention, document them in the changelog with explicit migration steps.

Related config state

{
  "gateway": {
    "auth": {
      "mode": "token",
      "token": "<redacted>"
    },
    "mode": "local"
  },
  "wizard": {
    "lastRunAt": "2026-04-12T00:19:24.558Z",
    "lastRunVersion": "2026.4.9",
    "lastRunCommand": "doctor",
    "lastRunMode": "local"
  },
  "meta": {
    "lastTouchedVersion": "2026.4.11",
    "lastTouchedAt": "2026-04-12T01:40:46.598Z"
  },
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "models": {
        "claude-cli/claude-sonnet-4-6": {},
        "claude-cli/claude-opus-4-6": {},
        "claude-cli/claude-opus-4-5": {},
        "claude-cli/claude-sonnet-4-5": {},
        "claude-cli/claude-haiku-4-5": {}
      }
    }
  },
  "auth": {
    "profiles": {
      "anthropic:claude-cli": {
        "provider": "claude-cli",
        "mode": "oauth"
      }
    }
  },
  "plugins": {
    "entries": {
      "anthropic": {
        "enabled": true
      }
    }
  }
}

~/.openclaw/agents/main/agent/        — auth-profiles.json, models.json (has codex provider with gpt-5.4)
~/.openclaw/agents/big-brain/agent/   — models.json only (ollama gemma4:31b-cloud, no claude-cli provider)
~/.openclaw/agents/cerebro/agent/     — auth-profiles.json (empty profiles {}), models.json (ollama gemma4:31b-cloud)
~/.openclaw/agents/dr-feelgood/agent/ — models.json only (ollama gemma4:31b-cloud, no claude-cli provider)