openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix WhatsApp outbound sends fail: module-scoped listeners Map duplicated across 27 build chunks [1 comments, 2 participants]

Bug: No active WhatsApp Web listener on proactive/outbound sends (module isolation)

Summary

Outbound WhatsApp messages via the message tool (proactive sends) fail with:

Error: No active WhatsApp Web listener (account: default). Start the gateway, then link WhatsApp with: openclaw channels login --channel whatsapp --account default.

Inbound messages and auto-replies work fine. Only proactive/tool-initiated sends are broken.

Root Cause

The src/web/active-listener.ts module contains a module-scoped listeners Map:

const listeners = new Map();

During the Rollup/Vite build, this module gets duplicated into ~27 separate chunks across two bundle directories:

• dist/*.js (e.g., config-CmS8VEM4.js, auth-profiles-iXW75sRj.js, model-selection-*.js, etc.)
• dist/plugin-sdk/*.js (e.g., auth-profiles-Cm29uFmx.js, model-auth-*.js, tts-core-*.js, etc.)

Each chunk gets its own copy of const listeners = new Map().

The WhatsApp provider (loaded from plugin-sdk/web-*.js) calls setActiveWebListener() → writes to the listeners Map in its plugin-sdk/ shared module.

The message tool send path (loaded from dist/config-*.js → lazy import("./runtime-whatsapp-outbound.runtime-*.js")) calls requireActiveWebListener() → reads from the listeners Map in its dist/ shared module.

These are two different Maps. The provider registers in Map A, the send tool looks in Map B → empty → error.

Why Auto-Reply Works

Auto-replies travel through the same plugin-sdk/ bundle as the WhatsApp provider, so they use the same listeners Map instance and find the registered listener.

Reproduction

1. Start gateway with WhatsApp configured
2. Send an inbound message → auto-reply works ✅
3. Use the message tool to proactively send → fails with "No active WhatsApp Web listener" ❌
4. Use CLI openclaw message send --channel whatsapp → same error ❌

Workaround

Replace the module-scoped Map with a globalThis-shared Map in all affected chunks:

- const listeners = /* @__PURE__ */ new Map();
+ const listeners = globalThis.__oc_wa_listeners ??= new Map();

This needs to be applied to all files containing #region src/web/active-listener.ts (27 files in v2026.3.13).

One-liner to patch:

cd /usr/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist
for f in *.js plugin-sdk/*.js; do
  LINENUM=$(grep -n '#region src/web/active-listener.ts' "$f" 2>/dev/null | head -1 | cut -d: -f1)
  if [ -n "$LINENUM" ]; then
    MAPLINE=$((LINENUM + 1))
    sed -i "${MAPLINE}s|const listeners = /\* @__PURE__ \*/ new Map();|const listeners = globalThis.__oc_wa_listeners \?\?= new Map();|" "$f"
  fi
done

Proper Fix

The build system should ensure src/web/active-listener.ts is only bundled into a single shared chunk that both dist/ and plugin-sdk/ import from, so the listeners Map exists exactly once. Alternatively, the state could be moved to a runtime singleton (e.g., on globalThis or a shared service registry).

Environment

• OpenClaw: 2026.3.13 (also confirmed on 2026.3.12)
• OS: Linux 6.8.0-100-generic (x64)
• Node: v22.22.0
• Channel: WhatsApp (whatsapp-web.js)

Related

• #30177 (same error, filed 2026-02-26, still open)