How an update runs

Channel switching, update validation, the restart handoff, and the Git checkout flow. Part of the openclaw update reference.

What it does

Switching channels explicitly (--channel ...) also keeps the install method aligned:

• dev -> ensures a git checkout (default ~/openclaw, or $OPENCLAW_HOME/openclaw when OPENCLAW_HOME is set; override with OPENCLAW_GIT_DIR), updates it, and installs the global CLI from that checkout.
• stable -> installs from npm using latest.
• extended-stable -> resolves the public npm extended-stable selector, verifies the exact selected package, and installs that exact version. It does not fall back to another selector and is rejected for Git checkouts.
• beta -> prefers npm dist-tag beta, falling back to latest when beta is missing or older than the current stable release.

Fresh clones are validated before publication. If the destination or staging folder is replaced during validation, the update stops without changing the replacement. Choose an empty OPENCLAW_GIT_DIR and retry.

Validation and activation

If the resolved registry package version equals the installed version without changing the selected channel or installation method, or the Git target SHA equals HEAD, plugin convergence still runs; if plugins and runtime artifacts remain unchanged, the run finishes skipped with reason already-current. Runtime maintenance can therefore succeed without changing the Git revision. A same-version explicit --channel or installation-method change finishes successfully. Changed plugins restart a running managed Gateway unless --no-restart is set; retained exact pins produce the same advisories as a core update without requiring a restart.

Linux updates also refresh outdated OpenClaw-managed systemd policy when the core is already current or --no-restart is set. This policy-only refresh confirms daemon-reload without stopping the Gateway and preserves operator drop-ins. Native-definition reconciliation on launchd, Scheduled Tasks, and systemd keeps custom policy values with an advisory while refreshing recognized old defaults. For example, TimeoutStartSec=45 stays unchanged while the old installer value TimeoutStopSec=30 becomes 330. Existing identity and command checks still apply. Maintenance stops also read the resident Gateway’s recorded shutdown budget. Published 2026.9.5 residents keep their startup budget even after daemon-reload; their first stop therefore uses the short/unknown-budget path. The Gateway’s lifecycle owner fences admission and reports drain progress until idle or the existing update step deadline (30 minutes by default, 45 for automatic updates). At that deadline, remaining turns can be interrupted with a warning in update history; reported write custody refuses the stop and names its owner phase. Residents without the optional writeCustody observation cannot distinguish backup or migration custody from ordinary root/cron work. At the deadline, they stop with a warning naming those counts; missing custody information never blocks the update. The next Gateway starts with the refreshed service policy. An operator drop-in that still shortens the native timeout is preserved and reported.

Maintenance drain uses the service’s local credentials, including an existing paired operator identity when no shared token or password is configured. It does not create an identity or request new pairing. Older installed updaters that omit this identity can report device identity required and wait until their existing drain deadline before stopping with a warning. A newer candidate cannot change that already-running updater; subsequent updates use the corrected local control client after installation.

Explicit package artifacts, such as tarball paths and URLs, compare known build IDs before a same-version no-op. Matching known identity leaves the package unchanged; different or missing identity continues through normal update validation and installation because a matching version alone does not establish artifact equality. Registry requests retain their version-based same-version no-op. Installation-method switches and fresh-profile initialization still retain and validate the new version even when its build identity matches.

Updates continue with recorded warnings when disposable validation-copy cleanup, retired derived-cache cleanup, or Git upstream tracking setup fails. Resolve the reported cause, then run the warning’s exact cleanup command or openclaw doctor --fix. Invalid ownership, unsafe state migrations, and a Gateway that cannot boot or pass readiness still block completion. See Status and history to inspect recorded warnings.

Linux service checks treat an implicit systemd unit name and its explicit installed name as the same selection, including names with or without the .service suffix. The updater still rechecks service ownership before stopping the Gateway.

Unavailable service inspection produces a recorded managed-service warning, including the manual restart action. A stale, uninspectable service record cannot select the update’s package root, Node executable, or state directory. Staging, validation, installation, and Doctor finalization continue in the invoking installation. Doctor leaves unverified service records unchanged and reports an advisory; state coordinators and database leases still protect active writers.

The baseline package fingerprint is best effort. If its bounded scan times out, the update records a warning and continues with the retained package copy. Rollback then verifies the restored directory identity, package version, and affected launchers, and records that full fingerprint verification was unavailable. A baseline scan timeout alone does not fail the update or rollback; detected changes to the retained copy still refuse restoration. Once a complete baseline fingerprint is available, recovery checks must match it. These checks use the caller’s per-step allowance without a separate thirty-second scan cap. If a retained or restored package changes, the failure names the exact package path to inspect before retrying recovery. Sibling .openclaw.update-stage-* directories are outside that package fingerprint; do not remove stages that another updater may still be using.

Interrupting a fresh local update before activation records a failed, interrupted history entry while its installation owner is still held. An interrupted update is not a successful update or a verified rollback. Unresolved effects remain visible in the update report. Unsupported pending checkpoint records block further mutable update work and remain unchanged.

After the target Doctor migrates shared state, the installed target runtime owns database validation, service finalization, and update-history writes, including rollback outcomes. The parent updater retains its live installation and requester checks without reopening migrated state through its older schema. A successful migration proceeds to finalization; it still prohibits code-only rollback.

For versions that support checks before installation, the old Gateway keeps serving through staging and validating. The updater uses the new version to run health checks (doctor --lint --json --severity-min error), config validation, and read-only plugin resolution and compatibility planning. It also tests migrations and boots a test Gateway with copied configuration and verified SQLite snapshots in an isolated temporary state directory. The copied database registry points to the copied agent databases. Installed plugin payloads and their dependencies are also copied; the copied install records point to those copies, and their OpenClaw host links target the staged installation. Literal imports, require() calls, and literal dynamic imports to shared source modules include those modules and their package metadata in the private copy. Unrelated repository files remain outside the snapshot.

When a published updater omitted shared modules from an external plugin copy, the new version’s Doctor can complete the private copy before loading plugin repair hooks. Recovery requires the original path retained by that updater and matching source/manifest bytes; it never replaces existing private files or changes the serving plugin. Complete snapshots do not require the original source to remain available. Some older managed-state or cross-volume projections do not retain a recoverable original path, which Doctor reports in the update diagnostics.

Path aliases that resolve to a running package’s bundled plugin use the staged bundled plugin with the same ID when available, preserving bundled trust. External path installs keep their existing classification. The live plugin files and host links stay unchanged. Channels, cron, automatic updates, background task maintenance, and other side services are suppressed in this canary. Copied task records remain available for startup validation without recovery or pruning. The canary also defers session catalog hydration, worker recovery, and startup maintenance until activation, recording a warning. Required configuration, database ownership, schema, and migration checks still run before readiness; plugin runtime loading remains part of validation. The serving Gateway prepares its session catalogs and maintenance normally after activation.

Update build and validation processes resolve source-linked plugin SDKs from the staged installation root, even when the serving source launcher passed its own checkout root. This keeps staged assets and validation independent of the old checkout.

Doctor warnings do not block update checks or readiness after plugin updates. The updater retains them in the run report shown by openclaw update status, including when an intentional open channel policy requires no configuration change. Required config, state-safety, and readiness failures still refuse the update. After the package is installed, a failed post-plugin Doctor process is a recorded warning when it has no explicit writer or migration refusal. The updater still validates the final config and readiness, then starts the Gateway. A child whose termination cannot be confirmed remains blocking because it may still write state.

Doctor’s disposable database migration and repair connections use a 64 MiB SQLite page-cache allowance to reduce repeated reads while rebuilding large stores. The allowance ends when each connection closes; serving connections keep their existing cache policy. Transcript conversion also reuses parsed JSON while preparing navigation metadata, preserving the original transcript bytes. These candidate-side improvements apply when an older updater invokes the new Doctor; they do not change that updater’s deadlines, integrity checks, or rollback rules.

In the private migration rehearsal, Doctor lint defers optional core inspections until after activation. This includes per-agent model and tool-schema diagnostics; lint does not prepare their runtime metadata when those checks are deferred. Each omitted inspection records a warning with its check ID and a command to run after the update. Required migration, configuration, plugin, and Gateway readiness checks still run. Standalone Doctor lint and explicitly selected --only checks keep their normal scope. The candidate recognizes the private-copy markers already set by the published 2026.9.4 updater, so this reduces work on that first hop too.

These checks do not run an agent turn or require a usable model-auth route. OAuth-only installations and installations without provider credentials can update. Auth diagnostics are advisory; optional inference repair runs through triage only after a failed update has settled. It uses the normal runtime credential resolver, including shared profiles and OAuth refresh.

The new version answers the updater’s native service capability probe before loading configuration or initializing debug capture. Probing capability does not open or migrate shared state, so the old Gateway can keep serving while its database schema is older than the new version’s. The installed updater runs first; this repair takes effect when the version it probes contains the fix.

The invoking updater supplies the capability probe’s per-step time budget. The probe does not impose a separate startup deadline.

Snapshot preparation budgets time for the SQLite database and journal bytes, including copying and verification passes, with a five-minute startup floor. It uses the larger of that allowance and the configured per-step timeout. The deadline extends while private files continue changing. A stalled snapshot reports its size and applied budget. Snapshot time does not consume the separate runtime validation budget. Each validation process receives a fresh allowance that scales with measured database and plugin bytes. An explicit per-step timeout replaces that derived allowance. Automatic and chat updates leave that runtime allowance derived from state. Their request and recovery watchdogs do not become update validation deadlines. Startup and readiness responses share their own allowance, including reading the response body.

During a copied update rehearsal, candidate Doctor publishes its lint report before disposing plugin inspections. Its private state stays owned until disposal finishes or the owned inspector process tree is confirmed stopped. The disposal allowance follows measured check time and the remaining published-driver window; an overrun records a warning with its duration. This also lets the 2026.9.4 driver, which requires a zero process exit, finish when only disposal is slow. Supervisor-initiated disposal termination preserves completed checks on Windows as well as macOS and Linux. Caller cancellation and independent failed exits remain failures.

When a candidate Doctor completes its checks but its process or output pipes remain open past the allowance, the updater records an exit-phase warning and continues with the completed result. Lint completion requires that child’s complete JSON report; a preceding repair’s Doctor complete. line cannot prove lint success. Error findings still refuse validation. A child without a completion result reports candidate-checks-timeout, the check phase, and elapsed time.

These deadlines belong to the invoking updater. The published 2026.9.3 and 2026.9.4 updaters cap their complete rehearsal at five minutes, including the snapshot, and their later schema inspection at thirty seconds, even with --timeout 900. Installing a newer candidate cannot enlarge those parent-process deadlines on that first update. Subsequent updates use the newer updater’s allowances described above. Hosts whose checks cannot finish within the 2026.9.4 rehearsal’s five-minute window still need the manual upgrade recovery path.

Before copying, the updater measures the shared and agent SQLite database families and the installed plugin payloads and dependency trees that the update checks need. Admission includes space for temporary copies and the new version’s Doctor backup. Active plugin payloads remain in the snapshot so configuration and startup validation can load them; unreferenced plugin generations are not copied.

The updater selects the first usable destination with enough measured free space:

1. An explicit TMPDIR, when set.
2. A private directory under <state-dir>.update-captures/, beside the selected state directory on its filesystem.
3. The system temporary directory.

The update report records the measured SQLite and plugin sizes, the total required space, the checked destinations and their available space, and the selected location and reason. If none fits, snapshot preparation refuses before copying with snapshot-capacity-insufficient and explains how to free space or set TMPDIR. A path that cannot be allocated is recorded and skipped; if all fitting paths are unusable, snapshot-location-unavailable names their path or permission errors. Capacity checks do not reserve space against concurrent writes. The copy worker uses the inventoried plugin plan. If an install record, plugin owner, or database registration changes before its copy, preparation refuses that unmeasured state so the next update can inventory it again. These copies remain disposable validation state; rollback does not restore them. If even the initial SQLite inspection copy cannot fit, the refusal reports that required lower bound and marks plugin size as not yet inspected.

Snapshot placement belongs to the updater already running. The published 2026.9.3 and 2026.9.4 updaters prepare their snapshot before the new version’s code runs, so updating to this fix cannot change that first hop. If their system temporary filesystem is too small, select another filesystem with sufficient space:

TMPDIR=/var/tmp openclaw update --yes

Subsequent updates use the new updater’s measured destination selection.

Live snapshots use SQLite read transactions and private backups while writers continue. Artifact-preserving planning and Doctor checks retain byte-neutral copies that leave source SHM unchanged. WAL copies capture a bounded prefix within one verified WAL generation, so appended commits do not require a quiet database. Incomplete WAL families and crash journals are recovered privately without creating missing source sidecars. Inspection budgets include database and journal sizes, cold startup, and repeated IO passes for every discovered store. Metadata checks remain cancellable. Copy progress renews the watchdog, and larger caller allowances are preserved. Workers stop before their private staging is removed; cleanup failures preserve the original error. If compatibility cannot be verified, rollback is refused. Inspection failures report the database or known scope, inspection phase, elapsed time, and the next action. Check access to the named path, concurrent writers, and storage performance before retrying. Older candidate workers that cannot report their current database identify the known scope instead.

If the initial config inspection encounters SQLite lock contention or a changing snapshot source, the updater repeats that read once. A successful read records a warning and lets target selection continue. Corruption and other inspection errors remain failures. A pre-staging failure retains its original diagnostic and next action in update history once fresh database admission succeeds; unresolved recovery ownership still prevents terminal publication.

This inspection behavior belongs to the invoking updater. A published 2026.9.4 updater can still fail before staging the candidate. In that case, use the installation’s manual update method, then run openclaw update repair from the updated installation.

Before stopping the previous Gateway, the updater waits for affirmative readiness. Its observation window uses the canary’s measured startup time with headroom for slow hardware, or the explicit per-step timeout. A transient readiness miss does not discard the previous generation’s rollback eligibility. Native service and Gateway boot identities must still match through the final observation.

The test Gateway binds a free loopback port and must report /startupz as started, then /readyz as ready within the runtime validation allowance. Plugin-resolution errors attributed to a named plugin are recorded without rejecting the update. An invalid plugin inventory, an unattributed registry error, or failure to meet the required core startup or readiness checks still fails validation. Failure records the phase, elapsed time, and bounded diagnostics. The updater attempts process-tree termination and temporary-state cleanup. If bounded teardown does not confirm both termination-request completion and child closure, it records a maintenance warning separately from the validation result. Readiness, child closure, and temporary-copy cleanup do not prove that every descendant stopped. Temporary-copy cleanup remains best effort. This reporting belongs to the invoking updater; the new version cannot change an older updater’s teardown behavior. The startup check proves the new version’s core startup on copied state; live channel and provider behavior are checked after activation. Targets that predate migration continuation record runtime validation as unavailable and use the current updater’s existing finalization path. A present continuation entry with an invalid schema contract still refuses activation. The database-schema preflight still refuses incompatible downgrades. These older targets do not support automatic schema-neutral rollback; see Downgrade finalization.

Blocking validation failures discard the staged update without stopping the serving Gateway. The updater does not run inference or repair the disposable validation copy. After a failed update has settled and released its ownership, eligible failures can enter post-failure triage. Triage preserves the original failed outcome; a repaired installation does not turn that update into success. See Unattended repair.

Published 2026.9.4 updaters can still request an inference-repair worker from the candidate. The candidate preserves that wire protocol and returns repair unavailable without loading inference or changing operator state. The installed updater still owns that first hop and its failure reporting.

Only activating stops the managed service. Its offline work includes the package or checkout swap, required doctor --fix migrations, and state compatibility inspection, followed by service start in restarting. Update verification does not use model inference. In verifying, the updater checks that the managed service is running and owns its port, requires the normal 12-probe health settle and a Gateway hello handshake matching the expected version and Git build identity, checks channel readiness, and requires HTTP 200 from /readyz. Plugin activation or load failures remain named warnings when these core checks pass; they do not turn a successful core update into an error.

Managed updates from 2026.9.3 can finish migration through the new runtime while the original updater retains installation ownership. The new runtime checks the captured update identity against its live parent before finalizing either a Git or npm installation. This continuation does not change the recovery limits below.

The new version can be running while verification fails. Recovery guidance uses the latest observed service state and names the running version when known; an earlier activation stop does not mean the service remains stopped.

Respawn and update verification use the same progress-aware readiness wait as Gateway restart. Startup that continues making progress can use the existing five-minute startup lease. If that lease ends while the same Gateway is still progressing, verification finishes with a warning and reason still-starting. The process stays running, recovery backups remain available, and the updater does not restart it again, roll it back, or instruct you to keep it stopped. Direct updater verification reports skipped because readiness is unverified. For a foreground RPC handoff, the replacement Gateway retains final verification: the run stays pending and its continuation is preserved until startup verification settles. A version that has not yet been observed is unknown; a version mismatch requires an observed serving version that disagrees with the installed target.

When the readiness allowance expires for the same running PID or boot generation while the restart owner reports waiting for a listener, startup migration, or healthy settling, the updater records the elapsed wait and startup phase as a warning. It leaves the process starting, keeps readiness unconfirmed, and retains recovery backups. The run ends skipped with reason gateway-readiness-unverified, recording an intentional unverified outcome rather than success or an indefinite pending run. Observed PID or boot-generation changes remain failures and enter recovery. Check openclaw gateway status --deep before retiring those backups. A timeout alone does not authorize a recovery restart or rollback; a refused rollback also leaves the candidate untouched. A running status alone, a failed probe on an established listener, or an HTTP /readyz failure does not establish startup progress. Those unhealthy-service observations and concrete version, build, channel, or stopped-service failures remain failures with their own diagnostics. Doctor reports a qualifying startup timeout explicitly as gateway-readiness-unverified, including after migrated finalization, and tells the operator that readiness remains unconfirmed.

This warning handling belongs to the updater already running. The published 2026.9.3 and 2026.9.4 parents cannot distinguish pending readiness from verified success when completing a migrated update, so candidate-only updates cannot change their backup-retirement and Windows autostart decisions. The published 2026.9.4 runtime also retains its own ten-second respawn health wait when it verifies a child it started. Installing a new version cannot change that already-running wait. The shared respawn readiness wait applies when the new runtime owns the respawn, including subsequent upgrades driven by it; candidate-side restart verification uses the new owner when the old updater hands that work to the installed runtime.

Plugin packages download and sync against the installed target before the managed Gateway restarts. The service remains stopped through channel/config writes, plugin convergence, and any required full Doctor migrations. Downloads therefore count toward downtime. Unchanged plugins use read-only validation and readiness checks without another full Doctor pass. Service ownership is revalidated after convergence, and final runtime verification checks the resulting snapshot.

When Doctor cannot acquire maintenance before repair writes begin, finalization restores any service it stopped and exits successfully with a recorded warning. This includes lock contention from unknown or non-serving processes. Doctor and plugin convergence remain pending; resolve the named refusal and run openclaw update repair again. Deferred finalization does not acknowledge earlier interrupted updates or mark pending migrations complete. A live or unverified Gateway, active migration writes, unreadable state, incomplete migrations, and unsettled cleanup still fail rather than releasing their recovery obligations.

This behavior lives in the installed finalizer, so published updaters can use it when they invoke the new version’s update finalize. Older parents may omit the warning from their own summary; the finalizer prints it and records it in update history.

Recovery limits

Automatic rollback restores a retained package only when the current schema and configuration are compatible with the previous release. This update path does not capture or replay a full-state checkpoint and cannot reverse database migrations. Private snapshots used for validation are disposable and are not a recovery backup. Before a significant update, create an independent verified backup.

Unknown or changed schema/configuration does not authorize a restore. When compatibility cannot be established, the updater refuses rollback, preserves state and retained package material, and reports the failed operation. Restoring an older package alone is not proof that the service can safely start.

Existing pending records that require checkpoint replay are unsupported by this update path. openclaw update reports them before ordinary mutable update work; it does not replay, rewrite, retire, or clear their retained state. update finalize does not bypass that refusal. Preserve the records and any named recovery artifacts for recovery with a compatible implementation or a verified backup. A later invocation must not label an unresolved interrupted run successful.

Compatibility-checked package rollback

The previous package tree remains available until activation or package restoration is verified. If activation fails before a working package is confirmed and rollback cannot be verified, finalization retains the backup and reports its location. Keep that backup and repair the installation before restarting, including for older targets without migration continuation. Automatic rollback requires that retained package, its pre-update verification, unchanged config content since the activation Doctor pass, and unchanged pre-existing shared and affected per-agent SQLite user_version values. A database first created during activation or verification is schema-neutral only at the schema version supported by the new installation for that database kind; a missing pre-existing database or a new database at a foreign version blocks rollback. Newly created databases must also be readable by the previous package; unknown or incompatible support refuses rollback with rollback-state-unverified. The updater restores the previous generation and verifies it running before finishing rolled-back, preserving the failing check as its reason. See Automatic rollback for the restoration and package-manager guards. The new version’s own Doctor migrations in the main config file do not block rollback, including on a fresh install’s first update. Separate $include files must retain their pre-activation configuration content. Doctor must have consumed the captured pre-update config, and the current file must match its reported output. Restoration holds the normal config writer lock and rechecks the captured hash before writing. When needed, rollback replaces the main config with the exact bytes captured before Doctor and owner-only permissions (0600), including the previous writer stamp. Operator edits made after activation block restoration, including edits before Doctor reads the config or after its last write; the next action names the changed config file. A failure alone does not authorize restarting the new version.

If the config file changed after the activation Doctor pass or the databases are not schema-neutral, automatic rollback is refused with state-migrated-no-rollback. The updater preserves the failed outcome and migrated state. If rollback itself fails, it retains the package and service recovery diagnostics. Optional post-failure Triage starts only after update ownership and service compensation settle; it does not rewrite the failed update or grant new restart authority. These temporary validation snapshots are not a full-state backup; see Rollback. If schema state cannot be verified, rollback is refused with rollback-state-unverified; unknown state never counts as schema-neutral.

Restart handoff

Service-manager commands and helper acknowledgements share the activation or recovery allowance. Slow inspection or teardown does not impose a separate five- or thirty-second command cutoff. Service installation also forwards one caller budget through installation and activation; the parent owns cancellation.

When an agent runs openclaw update inside a systemd user service or macOS LaunchAgent Gateway, the CLI hands the update to the same managed-service helper before stopping the Gateway. It prints the helper log path and follow-up commands for update status and Gateway health, then exits; this acknowledges the handoff, not a completed update. The acknowledging CLI exits with code 75 (EX_TEMPFAIL) so scripts cannot mistake accepted background work for a completed update. The detached helper remains the settlement authority; use the printed status and health commands to retrieve its terminal result. The helper launches staging and validation outside the Gateway process tree while the old Gateway keeps serving. It parks the Gateway only when the orchestrator reaches activating, then completes the existing commit-or-cancel handoff. Keep stdout connected to the agent: stopping the service can terminate the surrounding exec shell (SIGTERM or exit 143), including commands chained after the update. After a handoff result, use the printed follow-up commands for the final outcome. Plain terminal updates remain synchronous, and --no-restart does not authorize stopping the agent’s Gateway.

Post-core steps follow the verified replacement package, including pnpm updates that change the target of the global package link. The helper retains the original installation identity for recovery; a child running from a different installation is still rejected.

Updates from stable 2026.9.2 and 2026.9.3 retain support for their service handoff records, which predate the recorded Linux service-manager UID. The new version still revalidates service ownership, profile, unit, and protected launcher data. When the handoff records a manager UID, a different UID blocks service mutation.

The Gateway core auto-updater requires a managed service restart path. It hands the CLI update to a detached helper before activation. A foreground Gateway keeps update hints but leaves installation and activation to the operator: stop it, run openclaw update, then launch it again.

Control-plane update.run uses the same detached CLI update owner for package-manager and Git installations, including a verified foreground Gateway. The Gateway stays available during validation. Before replacing its installed code, the updater asks that exact Gateway to drain work and close its services, databases, and listener. A foreground Gateway launches a fresh process only after the updater settles; it does not reopen its old module graph after replacement. Managed services restart through their existing service manager.

Chat updates retain the requester’s original person-access grant while staging and validation run. Revoking that grant stops the pending update and leaves the Gateway serving; issuing a new grant does not revive the original request. Before parking, the Gateway must confirm that the original grant and current admin authority still permit the update. A missing, failed, or timed-out confirmation does not authorize stopping the Gateway.

After parking is authorized, the native updater owns completion or recovery of that same update, including Doctor and restart verification. Closing the original Gateway’s access-policy service during shutdown does not cancel this accepted operation. The original profile link, role, configured authority, installation ownership, and config-write checks still apply. A new update or triage request requires fresh authorization.

With OPENCLAW_NO_RESPAWN enabled, a foreground Gateway refuses update.run before starting the updater. Stop the Gateway, run openclaw update, and start it again, or relaunch it without OPENCLAW_NO_RESPAWN to allow control-plane updates.

Each requested update checks the current local installation and Git upstream before accepting its target. After a pinned Git update leaves the checkout detached, a verified update receipt preserves the upstream for that same checkout and revision. Startup status discovery does not freeze later update requests.

A foreground replacement can still be starting when the initial readiness observation ends. OpenClaw leaves that process running and reports readiness as unverified. Use openclaw gateway status --deep to check its progress. Successful updates remain pending until the replacement verifies startup.

If readiness rejects a foreground replacement, OpenClaw requests a graceful shutdown and reports shutdown as pending with the replacement PID. The old Gateway process waits for that replacement to close. If shutdown does not finish, inspect the replacement’s startup logs and active updates before stopping it manually.

Stopping a foreground Gateway during helper startup, package staging, or activation waits for owned update work to finish, then leaves the Gateway stopped. New updates and unrelated restarts cannot bypass that wait. If cleanup ownership is uncertain, the Gateway remains draining; after checking the updater, send Stop again to recheck the same work. A replacement already starting is also stopped. Pending startup verification runs on the next Gateway start. The previous package backup remains available while that verification is pending.

Stored extended-stable selections receive read-only startup and 24-hour update hints when update.checkOnStart is enabled. These checks never apply an update, start a handoff, restart the Gateway, use stable delay/jitter, or use beta polling cadence. Explicit foreground updates, bare foreground updates with stored update.channel: "extended-stable", on-demand status, and their managed Gateway handoff remain supported.

Update validation and service definitions

Before restarting a writable managed service, update finalization uses the shared service audit and native installer to repair recognized stale policy. It backs up the definition, preserves supported custom settings, and records changed keys and backup paths in update warnings. Unknown operator edits remain unchanged. Update-time Doctor reports drift and leaves this rewrite to finalization.

Candidate-owned rollback restores the verified definition backup before running the previous installer’s recovery. When an older published updater owns rollback, that release’s installer regenerates the definition with the settings it supports; the retained backup records the original bytes.

With a local managed service and restart enabled, update validation precedes the stop as described above. The updater reports Gateway: restarted and verified. only after the restarted service passes verification. Plugin-owned readiness checks run against an isolated state snapshot and do not run interactive setup, download models, or change config. Readiness owners are selected before their health APIs load, so unrelated optional Doctor checks cannot interrupt the gate. Selected checks remain mandatory, including when a required artifact is missing.

Code updates do not require permission to rewrite the native service definition. On Linux, sealed or unverified definition-write authority skips metadata refresh, even when metadata is stale. An inspectable service owned by the updated install still uses its native manager for restart and health/version verification. Activation runs the updated CLI with gateway restart --preserve-definition so its own version guards apply and automatic repair stays disabled. If the target CLI does not support that option, it rejects activation before repair. The code update stays installed, but the command exits nonzero with the activation error (on stderr in JSON mode). A service stopped for the update may remain stopped. Run openclaw gateway status --deep and ask the deployment owner to restart it through its native manager or repair stale metadata; do not retry without the preservation option unless definition repair is intended.

Shell installers

Shell installers do not establish the same service ownership proof. If their service refresh is denied, they report code installation success, leave the service untouched, and print guidance to inspect ownership and restart manually.

Linux without a service manager

On Linux without a service manager, updates proceed when native inspection proves the service is absent and the selected Gateway has no active lock or listener. The command reports that there is no Gateway to restart.

If service inspection is unavailable or installation ownership is unresolved, the update continues with a warning and leaves the recorded service unchanged. An unverified record cannot select the update’s package, Node runtime, configuration, or state directory. Restart the Gateway you launched manually after the update, and use openclaw gateway status --deep to inspect the record. Verified services still select their own installation and state directory; ownership conflicts, pending recovery, and active state writers retain their existing admission checks. Services owned by another install remain untouched.

The published 2026.8.2 CLI also refuses updates on service-less Linux installs. Use openclaw update --no-restart for that upgrade after confirming that no Gateway is running; the new CLI cannot fix the old CLI’s pre-update inspection.

Node runtime for package-manager updates

Package-manager updates normally keep using the Node binary recorded in the managed service. If that Node cannot run the target release, but the current CLI Node can and the service is proven to belong to the package being updated, a restart-enabled update uses the current Node for finalization and rewrites the service metadata to that runtime. --no-restart cannot repair service metadata, so the same runtime mismatch stops before package mutation.

macOS LaunchAgent verification

On macOS, the post-update check also verifies the LaunchAgent is loaded/running for the active profile and the configured loopback port is healthy. If the plist is installed but launchd is not supervising it, OpenClaw re-bootstraps the LaunchAgent automatically and reruns the health/version/ channel readiness checks (a fresh bootstrap loads the RunAtLoad job directly, so recovery does not immediately kickstart -k the newly spawned Gateway). When preserving a definition, native restart/bootstrap runs without file repair; a failed native activation or health check does not trigger a later plist rewrite. If the Gateway still does not become healthy, the command exits non-zero and prints the restart log path plus restart, reinstall, and package rollback instructions.

When restart is skipped or fails

If restart cannot run, the command prints Gateway: restart skipped (...) or Gateway: restart failed: ... with guidance to inspect the service and restart manually. With --no-restart, package replacement or git rebuild still runs, but the updater does not stop or restart the Gateway. A running Gateway can still exit when it detects that its installation was replaced; restart it through its service or foreground process owner afterward.

When updater-owned Doctor reaches maintenance before that foreground Gateway finishes shutting down, it waits for the same process to release state, up to the installation-check interval plus the existing restart-drain and service-stop allowances. Doctor retains the updater’s live authority and still acquires its normal maintenance locks before repairing state. If shutdown has already removed the process identity, Doctor allows only the existing ten-second cleanup reserve and refuses any newly appearing owner. A different Gateway owner, lost update authority, or unresolved contention stops maintenance with recovery guidance. Ordinary Doctor commands and older update drivers without delegated Doctor authority retain their immediate refusal.

Published 2026.9.5 Gateways do not have an installation-replacement watcher. Installing a newer candidate cannot add that behavior to the process already running. For that first foreground update, stop the Gateway through its foreground process owner and wait for it to exit, run openclaw update, then launch the Gateway again. Keep the same installation, profile, and state/config overrides. --no-restart does not authorize Doctor to stop that process or skip required state maintenance.

If the package was already replaced and Doctor failed on the live Gateway lock, wait for the updater to exit, stop the foreground Gateway through its owner, and run openclaw update repair --yes --no-restart --json from the updated installation. Verify the repair result before starting the Gateway again. Preserve the existing state and recovery backups; replacing files alone does not complete maintenance.

Control-plane response shape

When update.run runs through the Gateway control plane on a package-manager install or supervised git checkout, the handler reports handoff initiation separately from the CLI update that continues in the detached helper:

• ok: true, result.status: "skipped", result.reason: "managed-service-handoff-started", and handoff.status: "started": the Gateway created the managed-service handoff so the detached helper can run openclaw update --yes --json outside the live service process. The old Gateway stays available during validation; this response does not mean the service has stopped or the update has completed.
• ok: false, result.reason: "managed-service-handoff-unavailable", and handoff.status: "unavailable": OpenClaw could not find a supervising service boundary and durable service identity for a safe handoff (for example, systemd handoff requires the OPENCLAW_SYSTEMD_UNIT unit identity, not just ambient systemd process markers). The response includes handoff.command, the shell command to run from outside the Gateway.
• ok: false, result.reason: "managed-service-handoff-failed": the Gateway tried to create the handoff but could not spawn the detached helper.

The sentinel payload is written before the Gateway exits, and the CLI handoff updates that same restart sentinel after the managed-service restart health checks complete. During the handoff, the sentinel can carry stats.reason: "restart-health-pending" with no success continuation; the restarted Gateway polls it and fires the continuation only after the CLI has verified service health and rewritten the sentinel with the final ok result. openclaw status and openclaw status --all show an Update restart row while that sentinel is pending or failed. update.status retains the latest sentinel and also returns the durable run record. The sentinel carries stats.runId; the run record remains available after notice delivery consumes the sentinel.

Git checkout flow

Channel selection

• stable: select the latest non-beta tag.
• beta: prefer the latest -beta tag, falling back to the latest stable tag when beta is missing or older.
• dev: fetch main and rebase the staged checkout.
• extended-stable: unsupported for Git checkouts; no checkout mutation occurs.

Update steps

1. Verify clean worktree

   Requires no uncommitted changes. Local edits fail the clean check before installation or service shutdown; the checkout is preserved. Commit your changes and retry, or run openclaw triage for help.

2. Resolve the target

   Selects the channel’s tag or branch and fetches upstream as needed. If the resolved target SHA equals HEAD, finishes skipped with reason already-current before staging or stopping the service.

   Dev updates fetch only the configured tracking remote for main, or the remote identified by an explicit tracked target. Unrelated remotes remain untouched, with a scope warning in update history; their availability cannot fail the update. When no local main exists, or an explicit commit or tag needs discovery, candidate remotes may be tried. Failed optional attempts are warnings, and stale refs from failed fetches cannot select a branch. A failed fetch from the configured authority still reports fetch-failed before activation. Fetching does not rewrite Git configuration.

   Fetch behavior belongs to the updater already running. An older updater may still fail before candidate code executes. For that first hop, use Git’s process-only remote.<name>.skipFetchAll=true override for the unrelated remote, or update through the installation’s manual method; no persistent Git config change is needed.

   Shallow and partial source checkouts retain their installed refs, shallow boundaries, and object database during target inspection. Missing objects are fetched into the private inspection repository through the checkout’s configured remotes. This behavior belongs to the installed updater; an older updater that fails with Git target inspection clone failed needs its checkout’s missing objects fetched before retrying.

3. Build the update

   Stable, beta, and dev updates install dependencies and build in a temporary worktree while the old Gateway serves. Dev rebases the staged checkout first so local commits are preserved and the build validates the exact source that will be activated. On POSIX, staging uses a private directory in the checkout’s existing ignored .artifacts area. By default, the full workspace stays on the checkout filesystem, not a potentially small system temporary filesystem. An existing .artifacts redirect is honored as an operator storage choice, just like the build cache. Existing checkout, parent, and artifact directory permissions are not changed. Windows keeps its short system-drive staging path. Only dev updates walk back through earlier commits; stable and beta updates validate their selected target.

   When switching a package installation to a new Git checkout, POSIX builds use artifact storage inside the private clone transaction on the destination filesystem. Publishing the checkout leaves the build directory in place until runtime preparation and cleanup finish.

   Git object transfer reads its prepared pack directly from disk. Packs above 256 MiB record a size warning and continue when the installed Git object volume has room for the measured pack and index. A known shortfall reports snapshot-capacity-insufficient before stopping the Gateway; unknown free space remains a warning. The pack import duration is recorded with the update steps. This check is separate from state-snapshot placement and runtime build-cache exclusions.

   This repair runs in the installed updater. An older updater that refuses a pack above its fixed limit cannot acquire the repair through that same failing update; update the source installation manually using the source-checkout reference script.

   The updater prepares the built runtime (dist, dist-runtime, and dependencies, including nested workspace outputs) on the destination filesystem and removes the temporary Git worktree registration before changing the live checkout. Cleanup failures remain visible in the update result. If an interruption leaves staging behind, artifact-area staging does not dirty the checkout or block the next update’s clean check.

   Dev can walk back up to 10 commits to find the newest buildable version. Confirmed ENOSPC storage failures stop immediately with preflight-insufficient-space; free space on the preflight staging and package-manager store filesystems before retrying. Shared package-manager stores are not deleted. Update builds skip TypeScript declaration generation by default. Set OPENCLAW_RUN_NODE_SKIP_DTS_BUILD=0 to explicitly request declarations. Set OPENCLAW_UPDATE_PREFLIGHT_LINT=1 to also run source lint during this preflight; lint runs in constrained serial mode because user update hosts are often smaller than CI runners.

   The updater already running owns staging. Artifact-area staging first shipped in 2026.8.1; updating to a commit that contains it cannot change an older published updater’s first hop, which still stages under the system temporary directory.

   Uses the repo package manager. For pnpm checkouts, the updater bootstraps pnpm on demand (via corepack first, then a temporary npm installation of the target checkout’s exact pnpm version) instead of running npm run build inside a pnpm workspace. If pnpm bootstrap still fails, the updater stops early with a package-manager-specific error instead of trying npm run build in the checkout.

4. Check the update

   Runs Doctor health checks, config and plugin planning, and the isolated migration and test Gateway checks described above. Validation failure leaves the old Gateway serving.

5. Activate and verify

   Stops the managed service, checks out the exact staged commit SHA, publishes the prepared runtime, and runs required Doctor migrations. Core dependencies and the checkout build were prepared before downtime; plugin convergence follows while the service remains stopped.

   If restoring the previous Git runtime fails, the Gateway stays stopped and the failed rollback step records the filesystem error. Pending originals remain in sibling <runtime>.openclaw-update-<id>.tmp/previous directories. Preserve those backups and repair the installation before restarting; cleanup does not delete an unrestored original.

6. Sync plugins

   Against the installed target, syncs plugins to the active channel before restarting the managed service. Dev uses bundled plugins; stable and beta use npm or ClawHub while preserving recorded source choices. A changed plugin snapshot runs fresh Doctor migrations; unchanged plugins do not run another full Doctor pass. The updater then revalidates the service owner, starts the Gateway, and verifies the final snapshot.

   Source targets that support runtime completion also check their generated plugin runtime overlay and SDK aliases before loading plugin configuration. This completes artifacts omitted by an older updater on the first update to such a target; update repair performs the same check before Doctor. Exact artifacts remain untouched, including while a Gateway is running. Replacing missing or stale artifacts requires proof that the affected runtime is offline. A Gateway serving a physically separate runtime does not block completion. If service ownership or offline status cannot be verified, completion fails with recovery guidance instead of reporting a successful update. Older targets retain their existing generation behavior. Clean-source and staged-build validation still apply.

Plugin sync details

On stable updates, a configured OpenClaw-owned official plugin with no install record is repaired from the selected core release cohort. This also applies to doctor --fix after an earlier upgrade lost a formerly bundled plugin. Post-core reconciliation attempts installation before restart; an unavailable target remains a named warning while the core update continues. Existing records keep their registry and source choices. Verified official packages use the existing capability-consent exemption.

Eligible managed release pins for npm and trusted official ClawHub installs of @openclaw/* packages resume the catalog’s default selector after a successful update. The recorded selector must be an exact OpenClaw release no newer than the installed core, and the same package must have a verified default catalog target. This includes previously recorded automatic and manual pins. An explicit selector supplied to the current plugin update command takes precedence. Pins outside that eligibility, ranges, explicit tags, and other sources keep their existing policy.

Managed npm plugins on the beta channel select the newest version by semantic version order from their beta and latest dist-tags, using the same policy as the core updater. This includes official plugins with a default/latest catalog target and managed @beta selectors. OpenClaw installs the exact inspected version while keeping the selected tag or restored catalog default for future updates.

ClawHub plugins on the beta channel try their own @beta tag. If that release is unavailable, OpenClaw falls back to the default/latest spec and reports a warning naming the requested and used targets. Integrity, compatibility, trust, install-policy, and capability-consent failures do not trigger fallback. Availability fallback warnings do not fail the core update. Pins outside the managed release-pin recovery described above, ranges, and explicit tags other than beta retain their selector. Doctor can refresh a stale official runtime plugin that is bound to the current OpenClaw release cohort. That repair stays on the recorded registry and verifies the replacement artifact. Already-current runtime plugins are kept in place; a no-op startup repair does not reinstall the package or invalidate the migration checkpoint.

When post-core convergence retains an official pin outside automatic release-pin recovery and the npm probe finds a newer release, the update prints a pin advisory and reports postUpdate.plugins.status: "warning" in JSON. The warning includes the observed installed and available versions and an explicit command to replace the pin. Keep the pin if intentional. This advisory does not establish incompatibility, change the pin, or fail an otherwise successful core update.

An unavailable npm target or unreachable registry does not fail an otherwise successful core update. When a compatible, runnable plugin is installed, plugin sync retains that installed version and its recorded selector. The summary, warning log, and run history name the plugin, requested target, resolution failure, and openclaw plugins update <id> next action. JSON keeps top-level status: "ok" with a plugin-target-unavailable advisory under postUpdate.plugins.warnings.

Before mutation, OpenClaw checks installed compatibility metadata and skips registry queries for compatible plugins. If a plugin’s declared openclaw.compat.pluginApi range or openclaw.install.minHostVersion excludes the target core and a compatible replacement cannot be resolved, it records a named notice and continues the core update. The plugin can remain unavailable until a compatible version can be installed. Configuration, ownership, schema, and core readiness checks still have to pass.

Older updaters may still refuse with plugin-target-unavailable before the new version’s code runs. Use your installation’s manual update method, then run openclaw update repair from the updated installation.

If an exact pinned npm plugin update resolves to an artifact whose integrity differs from the stored install record, openclaw update aborts that plugin artifact update instead of installing it. Reinstall or update the plugin explicitly only after verifying you trust the new artifact.

Plugin-only availability, installation, and load failures are reported as named, actionable warnings after an otherwise successful core update. JSON keeps top-level status: "ok" and reports postUpdate.plugins.status: "warning". Follow the command in postUpdate.plugins.warnings[].guidance. For a named plugin, retry failed installs or updates with openclaw plugins update <id>; use openclaw doctor --fix for load problems. A failed plugin operation retains previous payloads and install records where possible and preserves registry choices, plugin settings, enable/disable choices, and active slots. A plugin can remain unavailable until repaired.

After installing the core and before restarting the managed Gateway, openclaw update runs mandatory post-core convergence: it repairs missing configured plugin payloads, validates each active tracked install record on disk, and statically verifies its package.json is parseable and its declared openclaw.extensions entries are loadable. When a package does not declare OpenClaw extensions, the check instead verifies any explicitly declared npm main. Missing or unloadable plugin payloads add warnings while the core update continues. An invalid config snapshot still returns postUpdate.plugins.status: "error", makes the top-level update status "error", and exits nonzero. Invalid state, ownership errors, failed required Doctor or readiness checks also remain errors. Disabled plugins are skipped unless their records are trusted official sync targets. A changed plugin snapshot attempts fresh Doctor and, when restart is requested, the Gateway restart and core runtime verification described above before the run succeeds.

Post-plugin Doctor execution failures retain their exit reason and available plugin diagnostics as warnings in the run record and openclaw update status. If another step later fails, the generated failure report includes a sanitized Warnings section. A throwing plugin config-repair hook preserves its input and reports the plugin name and repair command. The core update can succeed with these warnings; required state migrations, refused config writes, and unresolved Doctor write custody still block completion.

When the updated Gateway starts, plugin loading is verify-only: startup does not run package managers or mutate dependency trees. Package-manager update.run restarts are handed to the CLI managed-service path, so the package swap happens outside the old Gateway process and the service health checks decide whether the update can be reported as complete.

After an extended-stable core update succeeds, post-core plugin integrity and convergence target eligible official npm and trusted official ClawHub plugins at the exact installed core version. For default/latest intent, OpenClaw does not query plugin @extended-stable or fall back to npm latest; it derives the package version from the installed core. Eligible managed release pins resume the catalog default under the recovery rules above. Pins outside that eligibility, explicit non-latest tags, third-party packages, custom ClawHub registries, and other sources keep their existing intent. An explicit selector supplied for the current plugin operation takes precedence.

Package-manager installs

For package-manager installs, openclaw update resolves the target package version before invoking the package manager. npm global installs use a staged install: OpenClaw installs the new package into a temporary npm prefix, lets the staged package validate the host Node version during preinstall, and verifies the packaged dist inventory there. A packed completion guard stays outside that inventory until preinstall succeeds, so package managers that skip lifecycle scripts also stop before activation. On npm 12 and newer, the updater approves only the staged OpenClaw package’s lifecycle; transitive dependency scripts remain blocked. OpenClaw then swaps the clean package tree into the real global prefix. If verification fails, post-update doctor, plugin sync, and restart work do not run from the suspect tree.

Staging uses a unique .openclaw.update-stage-* directory inside the target global node_modules, separate from disposable npm rename leftovers. Each attempt tries to remove only its own staging prefix; leftover cleanup does not reclaim these stages. If an interrupted update leaves one behind, confirm that no updater is still using it before removing that exact directory. This separation does not make simultaneous package swaps safe.

A matching installed version skips core replacement but still converges plugins. Core updates also refresh core-command completion; full plugin-command completion rebuilds remain explicit openclaw completion --write-state runs.

pnpm and Bun on macOS/Linux stage their owning global project and launchers, preserving the manager’s manifests, locks, and sibling packages for rollback. Concurrent changes to that global project stop activation. Windows Bun updates are rejected before the service stops because its binary launchers cannot be relocated by the staged updater; use the owning Bun manager for a manual update. Switching a pnpm- or Bun-owned package install to Git with --channel dev is also rejected before activation. Staged source-checkout exposure currently requires an npm-owned package symlink; package-to-package updates remain supported through the owning manager.

When an npm package link points to a built Git checkout, rollback verifies that same checkout and build before restoring the link and launchers. Local source edits are preserved. Replacing the checkout or rebuilding it during the update prevents automatic rollback; restoring a link alone does not prove runtime safety.

Local packaged overrides

Package updates preserve local dist edits in a recovery bundle before replacing the old package. Capture happens after service drain and the old-tree move, so edits made while the new version installs are included. The report names the bundle under the selected state directory’s update-recovery/ directory. Keep it until you have checked the updated installation; removal is manual.

By default, the update installs the new package without replaying local code. To replay edits you trust during that update:

openclaw update --reapply-local-overrides

Packages that advertise a content inventory record shipped file hashes and executable status. Replay requires the new package’s corresponding baseline and actual bytes to match; upstream changes, unsafe paths, and hardlinked targets prevent replay. A conflict leaves the whole override set in the recovery bundle. Unreferenced content-hashed additions also require manual recovery. Replay runs against the private staged package before it replaces the live package. Publication and restoration refuse to overwrite a destination created concurrently. Replay does not establish that local code remains compatible with the new release.

Older packages without content inventories cannot distinguish local edits from vendor files. Their regular dist files are preserved for manual inspection, with no automatic replay, even when the flag is set. Keep enough free space for that copy; recovery bundles are not automatically pruned. Dependency trees and inventory metadata are not local override payloads. Symlinks and other unsupported entries can refuse the update, including entries in otherwise excluded dist subtrees; repair those entries before retrying. Normal package-manager permission changes, such as applying the installer’s umask, are not treated as local edits.

Preserved overrides are separate from automatic package rollback. A failed update still follows the existing ownership, configuration, schema, and retained-package checks. If late edits invalidate rollback verification, keep both the named package backup and override bundle; the report does not authorize restarting an unverified installation.

This behavior belongs to the updater already running. Back up local edits before the first upgrade from an older updater that does not include it. Git checkouts continue to use the existing clean-worktree and Git update rules.