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openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix Windows browser-control fails with ERR_UNSUPPORTED_ESM_URL_SCHEME; reproduced under Node 24 and Node 22 [3 comments, 2 participants]

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openclaw/openclaw#72258•Fetched 2026-04-27 05:32:24
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jcrowder912-techjcrowder912-tech
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clawsweeper[bot]clawsweeper[bot]jcrowder912-techjcrowder912-tech
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commented ×3closed ×1

Browser-control fails or hangs on Windows even after:

  • reinstalling OpenClaw
  • testing with a clean profile
  • disabling bonjour
  • disabling gateway auth for local testing
  • switching from Node 24 to Node 22

Error Message

Primary error

Error [ERR_UNSUPPORTED_ESM_URL_SCHEME]: Only URLs with a scheme in: file, data, and node are supported by the default ESM loader. On Windows, absolute paths must be valid file:// URLs. Received protocol 'c:' These appear to be runtime dependency cache churn/noise around plugin-runtime-deps, but the Windows ESM path error is the highest-signal browser-control failure. The browser-control error still reproduced.

Root Cause

Notes

  • Bonjour can separately crash with CIAO PROBING CANCELLED, but browser-control failure reproduces independently with bonjour disabled.
  • Browser UI also showed unauthorized: too many failed authentication attempts (retry later) in an earlier state, but disabling auth in the clean test profile did not fix browser-control.
  • This suggests the auth problem is not the root cause of the browser-control failure.
RAW_BUFFERClick to expand / collapse

OpenClaw 2026.4.24 on Windows fails to start browser-control reliably.

Environment

  • OS: Windows
  • OpenClaw: 2026.4.24
  • System Node: 24.13.0
  • Reproduced with side-by-side Node: 22.22.2
  • Gateway port: 18789

Summary

Browser-control fails or hangs on Windows even after:

  • reinstalling OpenClaw
  • testing with a clean profile
  • disabling bonjour
  • disabling gateway auth for local testing
  • switching from Node 24 to Node 22

Primary error

Error [ERR_UNSUPPORTED_ESM_URL_SCHEME]: Only URLs with a scheme in: file, data, and node are supported by the default ESM loader. On Windows, absolute paths must be valid file:// URLs. Received protocol 'c:'

Observed in log as: plugin service failed (browser-control, plugin=browser, root=...): Only URLs with a scheme ... Received protocol 'c:'

Secondary errors seen during repeated clean-profile browser tests

  • Cannot find package 'osc-progress' imported from ...\dist\progress-*.js
  • Cannot find package 'json5' imported from ...\dist\io-*.js
  • Cannot find package 'jiti' imported from ...\dist\jiti-loader-cache-*.js

These appear to be runtime dependency cache churn/noise around plugin-runtime-deps, but the Windows ESM path error is the highest-signal browser-control failure.

Repro steps

  1. Install/use OpenClaw 2026.4.24 on Windows.
  2. Start gateway with browser enabled.
  3. Run openclaw browser status or connect through Control UI.
  4. Observe browser-control failure/hang and log output.

I also reproduced using a clean test profile with:

  • browser.enabled=true
  • plugins.entries.browser.enabled=true
  • plugins.entries.bonjour.enabled=false
  • gateway.auth.mode=none

The browser-control error still reproduced.

Notes

  • Bonjour can separately crash with CIAO PROBING CANCELLED, but browser-control failure reproduces independently with bonjour disabled.
  • Browser UI also showed unauthorized: too many failed authentication attempts (retry later) in an earlier state, but disabling auth in the clean test profile did not fix browser-control.
  • This suggests the auth problem is not the root cause of the browser-control failure.

Requested fix

Please normalize Windows absolute paths to valid file:// URLs before ESM import in the browser/plugin loader path.

Artifacts available

  • diagnostics zip
  • focused log excerpt
  • full runtime log

If useful, I can provide the exact diagnostics bundle generated during reproduction.

extent analysis

TL;DR

Normalizing Windows absolute paths to valid file:// URLs before ESM import in the browser/plugin loader path is likely to fix the browser-control failure issue.

Guidance

  • Verify that the issue is indeed caused by the ERR_UNSUPPORTED_ESM_URL_SCHEME error by checking the log output for the specific error message.
  • Check the plugin-runtime-deps configuration to ensure that it is correctly set up and not causing any dependency cache issues.
  • Consider temporarily disabling the browser-control plugin to see if the issue persists, which can help isolate the problem.
  • Review the diagnostics zip and focused log excerpt to gather more information about the error and potential causes.

Example

No code snippet is provided as the issue seems to be related to configuration and path handling rather than code.

Notes

The issue seems to be specific to Windows and the browser-control plugin, and the provided error message suggests a problem with absolute path handling. The requested fix suggests normalizing Windows absolute paths to valid file:// URLs, which may resolve the issue.

Recommendation

Apply the workaround of normalizing Windows absolute paths to valid file:// URLs before ESM import in the browser/plugin loader path, as this is the most likely cause of the issue and the requested fix.

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