openclaw update

Update OpenClaw and switch between stable/extended-stable/beta/dev channels.

If you installed via npm/pnpm/bun (global install, no git metadata), updates go through the package-manager flow described in Updating.

Update checks, candidate rehearsal, activation Doctor, and verification inherit the managed Gateway's Node heap controls from its effective service command and NODE_OPTIONS. Command-line heap controls take precedence. An empty service NODE_OPTIONS preserves heap controls supplied by the invoking shell while still clearing inherited preload and debugger flags. This requires the fix in the installed updater; an older updater cannot inherit it from the candidate it stages.

On Windows, update checks the Gateway Scheduled Task's principal and run level before staging or changing state. A per-user LeastPrivilege task for the current account can be updated from a non-elevated terminal, including a UAC-filtered administrator's terminal. A task for another account (including SYSTEM), a task that requires highest privileges, or a genuine Task Scheduler query denial needs an elevated terminal (Run as administrator), even if the Gateway is stopped. Unresolved or group principals defer to native permission checks. Task lookup has its own 60-second cold-start limit, and each schtasks command has a 15-second limit; a stalled operation names the check or command instead of using the update's full timeout.

Service-definition refresh recognizes Windows account aliases that resolve to the same SID. A different or unresolved account remains protected from automatic repair.

For a global npm installation, the manual recovery path is npm i -g openclaw@<target> --allow-scripts=openclaw, then openclaw doctor --fix, then openclaw gateway restart. Replace <target> with the intended release and run service repair/restart from an elevated terminal if Task Scheduler denies access. OpenClaw prints this alternative; it does not run it automatically. Per-user Startup-folder installations do not require elevation for this check. An older installed updater keeps its previous behavior until replaced; use the elevated or manual path for that first upgrade.

Installations owned by a system package manager skip OpenClaw-managed updates before npm staging or Gateway shutdown. If ownership inspection fails, the update continues with a warning; only a confirmed ownership match skips replacement. For pacman (including Arch-based distributions), update with sudo pacman -Syu or your AUR helper. For FreeBSD, use the owning pkg or Ports deployment. Then restart the Gateway through its service owner. Older updaters must receive this fix through that system package manager first; a candidate cannot repair an updater that fails before staging it.

Custom npm prefixes such as ~/.npm-global are recognized from npm's configured prefix and the installed OpenClaw launcher. A prefix configured in ~/.npmrc does not need a matching NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX environment variable. If no owner can be identified, the CLI includes the inspected package, prefix, and launcher paths and the package-manager check results in its guidance. Installation inspection also reports the root, Git metadata, node_modules layout, and service unit target (or why it was not inspected). An unrecognized root skips target preflight and gives commands to locate the owning installation.

An older updater that stops before staging cannot use this repair. For a known npm installation, supply its configured prefix explicitly for that update: NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX="$(npm prefix -g)" openclaw update.

An installation without a detected package-manager owner records a skipped update, exits successfully, and leaves the Gateway running. For Docker/container images, pull or build the new image and recreate the container with the same state/config mounts. For a standalone or extracted tarball installation, reinstall using the original method; Yarn global installations must be updated with Yarn. The CLI displays this next action. Existing profiles also record it in update history and include it in JSON as run.origin.nextAction. With --json, a fresh profile emits the guidance to stderr and does not create a state database for a skipped update. These non-outcomes do not run rollback verification or offer an update failure report.

Usage

openclaw updateopenclaw update statusopenclaw update repairopenclaw update cleanup --dry-runopenclaw update wizardopenclaw update --channel extended-stableopenclaw update --channel betaopenclaw update --channel devopenclaw update --tag betaopenclaw update --dry-runopenclaw update --no-restartopenclaw update --yesopenclaw update --accept-capabilitiesopenclaw update --jsonopenclaw --update

openclaw --update rewrites to openclaw update (useful for shells and launcher scripts).

Invalid configuration reports invalid-config before database schema inspection. An unreadable configuration file or failed configuration loading step instead reports config-read-failed, with a recognized filesystem error code when available. For supported package targets, the candidate makes that decision after private staging; see Candidate-owned admission. The local diagnostic identifies invalid fields and recommends openclaw doctor --fix, followed by correcting any remaining errors. A dry run keeps this guidance in its JSON notes without changing the configuration. Public failure reports retain the rejected schema area, such as gateway.*, while hiding operator-defined keys and rejected values. Admission still runs when the selected package version matches the installed version; the no-op decision follows validation of the selected artifact and live installation. When switching channels, Doctor can prepare a read-only projection of supported legacy fields for database checks. Each projection stays bound to its original config bytes and include files. If the managed service uses another profile, caller and service projections remain separate; inspecting the caller does not rewrite its configuration. Guided recovery recognizes the saved config failure after a later successful update and still verifies the installed runtime and Gateway readiness.

The 2026.9.4 updater reports this condition as database-schema-preflight and can show mode: unknown even after resolving an npm target. Before another update or dry run replaces the latest history, run openclaw update status --json and inspect lastRun.origin.nextAction and lastRun.target for the recorded reason and target. A candidate release cannot repair an installed updater that refuses before staging it; correct the configuration before retrying.

Updaters without the admission fix first shipped in 2026.7.2-beta.5 (including 2026.6.34–2026.6.35 and the 2026.7.33–2026.7.35 extended-stable line) also refuse before staging with plugins.load.paths: plugin path not found; restore a missing custom plugin directory or remove its configured path before retrying. openclaw doctor --fix can repair recognized bundled-path aliases and preserves unrelated custom paths.

Update admission recognizes orphan task_delivery_state rows whose parent tasks are missing as repairable. When it can acquire Doctor's ownership fences, it runs the same preservation-first recovery before creating update history. Recovery and its ledger entry commit together; the entry records the row count and recovery directory. A live Gateway owner, read-only store, or failed preservation prevents repair and reports openclaw doctor --fix as the next action. Other foreign-key violations and structural damage still refuse admission. --dry-run reports the repairable condition without recovering rows or creating an update ledger entry for that refused preview.

The installed 2026.9.4 updater cannot use this recovery before updating itself. If it refuses with a database integrity error, install the corrective release manually and run openclaw doctor --fix.

Failed update and repair attempts enter recovery triage after service recovery and cleanup finish. Preflight and finalization join admitted command cleanup before handing off ownership or reporting completion. If cleanup cannot confirm that work stopped, the updater retains any acquired ownership and recovery artifacts and skips automatic service compensation and repair. Inspect openclaw update status and resolve the pending execution before retrying. Repair settles only native commands belonging to its Doctor. Another Doctor's retained command is recorded as foreign custody with its Doctor PID, without making the completed Doctor unsettled. Installation replacement remains blocked while any live command claim exists. If retaining a spawned command's custody fails, Doctor keeps its process identity and stops the command before settling its reservation. A reservation without a recorded identity still blocks recovery; repeating repair cannot prove it stopped. A verified rollback does not automatically start triage: the previous generation is running again, and the report keeps the failing check as the reason. An interactive update offers the diagnose/report menu with Exit selected by default. Declining or cancelling preserves the failed update's nonzero exit status. JSON, non-interactive, --yes, and managed-service handoff invocations do not prompt after rollback.

Update completion prints the terminal outcome and a local Markdown report path before exiting, including unexpected failures. Failed runs keep rollback-facing diagnostic JSON within the released 8 KiB limit. That file links a separate artifact containing every individually bounded Doctor finding; the Markdown report also retains the complete inventory. JSON output includes reportPath; a report-write failure prints a warning and preserves the update outcome.

When another process holds the state database writer, the update driver gives its worker-backed phase and progress writes up to two minutes to acquire the writer. This extended wait ends when the transaction starts; Gateway and other callers retain the normal five-second budget. Progress-only receipts wait at most one second, then warn and continue without claiming a saved receipt. Required writes report actionable contention if their budget expires. This fix must be present in the installed updater to protect the next update it runs.

Exit always waits for accepted state operations, pending database opens, and live worker references to settle. After settlement, retained-worker native close and thread termination have a ten-second reporting grace period. Expiry records a warning and continues waiting for actual native retirement; it does not abandon workers or force process exit. The retained runtime stays owned until retirement settles, then remains available for later cleanup. The command's recorded outcome is preserved. This protection belongs to the installed updater: installing a release with the fix enables it for the next update that release performs.

The executable CLI retains its shared-state and worker cleanup code before an update can replace those files. Older installed development builds can finish an update successfully and then exit with ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND during CLI cleanup. Check openclaw update status with the newly installed CLI to distinguish that exit failure from the recorded update outcome; the installed driver needs the fix before it performs its next update.

Newer packages retain the published 2026.10.1 updater's cleanup entrypoints, including its original pending-disposer queue, so that first upgrade can finish normally. This compatibility covers the published package, not arbitrary development-build filenames.

Updating from inside the installation keeps captured paths anchored to the invoking directory while the package is replaced. The updater keeps a valid working directory for background workers and restores the original directory when it still exists. This protection also belongs to the installed updater; a new candidate cannot change the working directory of an older driver.

When a Dashboard update fails while the Gateway handles the request, the Gateway logs a warning with the public reason and a safe error summary. Successful and intentional no-op update logs are unchanged. This only affects Gateway logging, not the installed updater, rollback, or the Dashboard RPC response.

After a final interactive update failure, Diagnose update failure and Report update failure are separate choices. Reporting first shows the exact sanitized issue body and defaults confirmation to No. After confirmation, OpenClaw checks the GitHub CLI's active github.com account with a silent, read-only request before issue creation. Fallback and pending outcomes retain the sanitized report locally; a confirmed issue keeps only its durable issue URL. If the CLI is missing, authentication is unavailable, or GitHub rejects the upload, OpenClaw keeps the sanitized report locally and returns to the previous action menu. Fix the problem, then choose Report update failure and confirm again to retry the same report, or choose Report in browser to review and submit it with your browser's GitHub account. The browser choice is available when the prepared report fits a prefilled link and no uncertain upload is pending; it does not require the GitHub CLI. Completed update and Doctor checks are not rerun. Preparation or submission errors also return to the menu. An uncertain upload stays pending: Check report status looks for the existing issue without creating another one, and no browser handoff is offered. Successful submission, explicit exit, and cancellation retain their normal behavior; Diagnose runs only when selected explicitly. In the Control UI, an interrupted pre-create preparation becomes retryable after its local reservation expires. After an uncertain creation result, OpenClaw checks for an issue matching the exact report. If neither a verified issue URL nor a definitive rejection is available, the report stays pending with no replay link because an issue may already exist. --yes, --json, non-interactive runs, and managed-service handoffs never submit a report.

For admitted updates, unexpected exceptions retain a bounded, redacted error identity and source location in update history, along with the operation reached and the installation and target facts resolved so far. Failure reports include the initiating action and the owner's recorded rollback outcome. Failed steps use stable identifiers such as candidate-state-snapshot, candidate-doctor-lint, and post-install-verify in the report body and issue title; command arguments and private paths remain redacted. Snapshot errors identify the active database, execution approvals, or plugin phase. Schema inspection failures put recognized worker error codes and causes before private source context, including causes after warning lines, so they survive redaction. Saved diagnostic lines omit a path and its trailing text, including quoted paths whose filenames may themselves contain spaces or quotes. A completed database snapshot does not establish that later plugin paths are readable; inspect the source path and filesystem error named by the failing phase. A failure during installation or target resolution keeps that resolution step visible. Older updater processes cannot recover details they already discarded; a report generated by newer code only includes facts that were recorded by the updater that handled the failure.

Managed updates preserve a completed child's refusal reason and failure details in update history, even when its notification has already been consumed. Settings → Updates reads those same recorded facts. For update-recovery-pending, inspect the retained activation's diagnostic and follow its exact recovery command; the original recovery owner still decides whether repair or retirement is safe. A child that produces no usable result is reported as managed-service-handoff-failed. A refusal before service parking leaves the serving Gateway untouched.

Npm install failures record a recognized error code (or unknown) and a sanitized excerpt of npm ERR! / npm error lines in update history and the reviewed report. The existing history format retains at most five lines of 200 UTF-8 bytes each; permission guidance reserves one of those entries. Home paths, credentials, and authenticated registry URLs are redacted before the excerpt is recorded. For EACCES or EPERM, check npm prefix -g and run the update as the installing account with write access to that prefix. For ENOSPC, free space on the prefix and npm cache volumes. For E404 or ETARGET, check the configured registry and the requested version or tag. The generated report includes the applicable next step. An already-running older updater cannot gain this diagnostic capture from its candidate package.

On Windows, a temporarily locked live package can prevent the updater from renaming it into its backup location. The updater retries EPERM, EBUSY, and EACCES with bounded backoff (16 attempts and up to 57.75 seconds of waiting), recording each retry as a warning. If the rename still fails, the failure names both paths and leaves the installed package in place. Close processes holding that installation and check its permissions before retrying. This protection belongs to the installed updater; a newer candidate cannot add it to an older updater already running.

Immutable release installations

An explicitly adopted Linux installation can prepare and activate sealed releases with openclaw update. Its root contains releases/<full-commit-sha> and a current symlink selecting the running generation. A matching directory layout alone does not grant update ownership.

Preparation resolves official main once, or accepts an exact --sha <40-hex-commit>, builds off-path, verifies and seals the candidate, and records its preparation. Preparation failure leaves the serving generation in place; an already-current target skips the build. Existing adoption records remain preparation-only. Native activation requires explicit adopt-immutable --enable-activation consent recorded in the installation's control database. No openclaw.json option enables it. --no-restart keeps an enabled installation preparation-only for that invocation.

Immutable preparation requires a separately adopted build account and toolchain. The build account must differ from the runtime account, have no supplementary groups, and match the recorded numeric identity. The updater runs dependency installation and builds in a restricted systemd service with a private home, temporary directory, memory limit, and task limit. Its environment excludes the runtime account's credentials and its filesystem view protects runtime state, service definitions, and existing releases. The updater waits for the entire build cgroup to stop before copying and sealing the new generation as root.

Build storage admission and the runtime account's write/quota probe run separately. A failed admission, installation, build, or process-settlement check leaves the existing service and current pointer unchanged. Uncertain process settlement retains the build scratch for inspection. Installations without an adopted build identity can still inspect status, reuse an already prepared generation, and detect an already-current target; preparing a new target reports the missing adoption. Build-identity adoption is staged for the native immutable update rollout and is not exposed as an openclaw.json setting or CLI flag yet.

--drain-timeout <seconds> sets the immutable drain budget independently of --timeout, which retains the canary/readiness phase budget. The default drain budget comes from the existing restart deferral policy (300 seconds). Drain completes immediately when ready; after its budget, the native suspension owner can interrupt ordinary work while preserving unresolved write custody. For a 30-second drain, use --drain-timeout 30. The flag is rejected on mutable installations. After native service inspection, the updater asks the Gateway to commit shutdown under the original suspension. An expired or resumed suspension refuses that handoff. Once committed, the host owns one-way shutdown; resume and lease expiry cannot reopen admission while native stop waits for dispatch. The stable launcher reads the same activation record before starting a Gateway. Stop and pointer-publication phases block supervisor replacements from admitting work; the native owner explicitly authorizes startup after publication.

When enabled, the native updater drains through the Gateway suspension owner, stops the old service, publishes current under a fenced activation record, starts the selected generation, and verifies its process, build, authenticated health, HTTP readiness, plugins, and channels. Build and install work stay outside cutover. Startup responses with status: "starting", including agent database inspection, keep the readiness wait open within its bounded budget. An inconclusive check retains the recovery record; it does not establish failure. Candidate-authored additive startup config migrations require matching config audit evidence and preserved policy. Other config or state identity changes refuse completion.

Verified activation retires the operation record. A real activation failure may restore the sealed predecessor when the protected state remains compatible; rollback retains a resumable record. This slice does not rewind migrated databases or collect release directories. It supports matching database schema contracts only; incompatible migration requirements refuse activation before drain. Canary rehearsal boots the candidate against isolated copies before cutover, preserving input that the candidate itself must migrate at startup. It does not pre-repair that input with Doctor. No live Doctor or optional NOCOW rewrite runs inside this activation. After live readiness, the updater repeats that startup-only canary against a fresh private copy while the selected Gateway serves, then verifies the same live PID and boot once more before completing activation. This is canary proof; it does not dispatch a model marker turn. JSON distinguishes preparation (prepared) from activation (succeeded, rolled-back, pending, or error). pending, rolled-back, and error return a nonzero exit status.

openclaw update --dry-run reports the immutable target without adoption, preparation, or publication. openclaw update status includes the current and prepared generation identities and activation enablement. Its immutable receipt fields are also available under update.immutable in --json:

• prepared identifies a sealed candidate, not an accepted activation.
• activation identifies retained recovery: operation ID, phase, previous and candidate SHA, optional failure, and the exact recoveryCommand using the recorded external Node and retained helper. Known failure reason codes are shown; other stored error text is replaced with details-withheld.
• lastActivation is historical verification: operation ID, outcome, selectedSha, and verifiedAtMs. Text status labels succeeded as accepted and rolled-back as restored; restored availability is not candidate success. Its optional gateway contains the verified version, buildId, pid, and bootId. Older receipts without these fields remain readable.

These facts come from the installation record, so a fresh CLI observer can read them after the updater exits. They do not probe the current process or grant activation authority. A retained activation remains pending recovery even when lastActivation records restored availability or an older accepted update.

Immutable preparation does not switch stored channels and rejects package targets such as --tag. --sha is available only for adopted immutable installations. Gateway update.run still requires the root installation owner to run the CLI outside the Gateway service cgroup; it does not elevate chat requests. update repair directs immutable recovery to update recover.

Before an immutable activation stops the serving Gateway, the updater prewarms the candidate's Node compile cache as the service account at its final release path. This imports the Gateway graph without starting a server. The existing build-ID cache namespace and disabled-cache setting still apply; a failed prewarm is advisory and ordinary cold startup remains available. Candidate rehearsal keeps its separate, cache-disabled environment. Mutable package updates do not prewarm: staging paths change during activation, and compiling again at the final path would add work during downtime.

Immutable status and dry-run also explain migration coverage. JSON exposes immutableCoverage in status and coverage in dry-run. The report inventories default, configured external, and registered agent stores, including absent paths and the registry's original path aliases. It reports declared plugin migration resources and warnings for undeclared resources. External paths are identified; their presence does not establish candidate migration support.

For an already-prepared target, inspection compares the current package, candidate package, and preparation receipt schema contracts and shows each store's schema version against that target. A crossing such as agent schema 24 → 25 names the reason immutable activation refuses it before drain. An unprepared SHA has unknown target coverage: inspection does not fetch, build, or boot it. Matching schema versions are not physical-schema, backup, migration, or activation readiness proof; plugin migration coverage remains unknown.

Live inventory uses the adopted service's effective environment and configuration. If those cannot be read, the report retains the available preparation facts and explains the inventory gap. Run inspection as the installation owner for complete service visibility. Database inspection preserves live SQLite artifacts using private scratch copies, which are disposed afterward; large stores can make this read-only inspection expensive. It does not migrate data, write configuration, enable activation, or stop the serving Gateway.

The serving Gateway must support committed suspension handoff. A new CLI cannot add that capability to an older running process. For the first native activation, have the existing installation owner prepare and activate one bridge release containing this feature. Keep its adoption preparation-only during that bridge. After the bridge is healthy and the previous updater has settled and stopped scheduling, enable native activation from the serving release:

sudo /usr/bin/node /opt/example/current/dist/index.js update adopt-immutable \  --root /opt/example \  --service example.service \  --account openclaw \  --state-dir /var/lib/example \  --config /etc/example/openclaw.json \  --runtime /usr/bin/node \  --previous-updater-stopped \  --enable-activation

Run adoption as root only after the previous updater has settled and stopped scheduling. The acknowledgement does not stop another updater for you. Adoption verifies the existing systemd unit, fixed nonroot service account, explicit effective state/configuration paths and optional --profile, external Node executable, and sealed current generation before recording ownership. Existing systemd environment files are read through the native service reader. Services with a different filesystem root, dynamic accounts, or command-line profile overrides are not supported. Native activation requires cgroup v2 so the updater can verify that the old service and its descendants have stopped. Adoption never edits or restarts the service. Omit --enable-activation to adopt for preparation only. To enable an earlier preparation-only adoption, rerun the original adoption command with the flag; the installation and service identities must still match. For a preparation-only adoption whose existing owner activated the bridge, explicit enablement reconciles the selected generation after verifying both sealed generations and the live bridge process. It retains the predecessor and preserves all other installation bindings. The exact packaged v1 launcher is backed up and upgraded atomically; a custom or modified launcher is preserved and refused. An already-enabled record never accepts an external pointer change.

Prepare and activate the next reviewed generation as root, outside the service cgroup. It must differ from the bridge release to exercise a native cutover:

sudo /usr/bin/node /opt/example/current/dist/index.js update --sha <candidate-sha> --no-restartsudo /usr/bin/node /opt/example/current/dist/index.js update --sha <candidate-sha> --drain-timeout 30sudo /usr/bin/node /opt/example/current/dist/index.js update recover --root /opt/example

Before drain, activation prepares one independently sealed copy of its invoking runtime per source SHA under the installation-sibling control directory's recovery-<sha> path. Its recovery.mjs launcher uses the adopted external Node and the same native recovery owner. It remains executable without the candidate or a private deployment checkout. There is no runtime copy or build during cutover.

update recover --root <installation-root> reconciles retained pointer and service effects before continuing. It verifies a healthy selected candidate or restored predecessor and retires the record without another restart. Run it from either retained immutable-capable generation if current needs recovery. Pending and rolled-back results also print an exact Recovery: command and include recoveryCommand in JSON. Use that independent helper when a release directory is unavailable; preserve its control directory and sealed runtime. --timeout <seconds> bounds readiness observation; --json returns the result and receipt lines without mixing prose into stdout. Recovery also accepts --drain-timeout; it applies only if an unhealthy service must be stopped. Healthy recovery never drains or restarts the serving process. Preserve the record and retained releases while recovery is pending. If recovery retries a stopped candidate and confirms another startup failure, it uses the same protected predecessor rollback as activation. A candidate still starting or an inconclusive check remains pending. If the updater is interrupted after shutdown commits, the Gateway still completes its shutdown. Keep the independent recovery command available: recovery observes whether the supervisor restarted the predecessor or the service is stopped before taking another action. A lost handoff reply never authorizes a blind native stop or a fallback to the older reversible handoff.

After an updater crash, recovery can repair a hot SQLite rollback journal in the installation control or its native executor lease. It first validates a private recovered copy and acquires current ownership before allowing SQLite to repair the source. Ordinary update and status reads do not perform that repair. Repairing preparation-only metadata never enables activation.

The immutable update design records the preparation, activation, and recovery contracts. Existing published updaters need explicit adoption after installing an immutable-capable release; candidate code cannot change the behavior of an older installed updater.

Candidate-owned admission

For package-manager updates, openclaw update privately stages the selected package once, then lets that candidate decide whether the live installation can be updated. Registry targets and explicit artifacts such as --tag ./openclaw.tgz use the same flow. The stage is reused for verification, canary rehearsal, and activation; a refusal or pre-mutation failure removes it and leaves the installed package and serving Gateway in place. After admission and package verification, a matching installed version and artifact build identity remain a no-op unless the update needs to replace the installation method or a separate serving root. The temporary candidate is removed without activating it.

When replacement is needed, the updater retains its running worker files before changing the installed package. Linux OverlayFS installations use private copies so hard-link copy-up cannot invalidate the retained files’ identity checks. Other supported filesystems keep the hard-link fast path and copy fallback.

SQLite read-only workers use that retained generation through post-install verification, even after the package manager removes the previous package path. The updater joins those workers before returning. It records completed runtime projections for cleanup by the next eligible update or openclaw doctor --fix, so recursive deletion does not delay command exit after the final result. Cleanup keeps projections while another OpenClaw process may still use them. Already-installed older updaters, including 2026.9.6, still run their original worker-launch code; installing a corrected candidate cannot repair that first hop.

Source updates retain a retired workspace dependency link when only its ignored node_modules directory remains. An older installed updater that fails at updater-runtime-retention needs this correction in its running code before retrying; a newer candidate cannot repair that earlier step.

Runtime retention excludes updater-owned package backups in the global module directory, including backup symlinks to source checkouts. An older installed updater such as 2026.9.6 can still follow a retained .openclaw.package-backup-* link and refuse an update with a host-owned plugin-link error. Preserve that historical link outside the global module directory, keeping its resolved target unchanged, before retrying. Do not delete its source checkout or move backups belonging to an active or unresolved update.

The installed updater reads the candidate's package.json before running its pending lifecycle scripts. openclaw.updateAdmissionProtocol: 1 advertises the internal admission command. Reading this marker does not execute candidate code. Managed-service preflight still runs in the installed updater before the candidate admission process starts.

The candidate inspects the live installation read-only, using the same selected profile, state directory, configuration path, and environment. It does not acquire a lease, write history, run Doctor repairs, start a Gateway, or receive update execution authority. A missing custom plugins.load.paths entry can therefore produce an admission warning while preserving the configured path and plugin configuration bytes. Admission does not promise to repair that path.

Legacy plugin configuration, such as Discord's nested dm.policy and dm.allowFrom, is admitted with a warning when the candidate's Doctor planner produces a fully valid configuration. Admission checks the projected database targets while preserving the original config and state bytes. The normal update-time Doctor still owns saving the repair, backups, and rollback.

A valid admit verdict replaces only the candidate-owned checks it reports. Installed Node preflight always runs for package updates, including selection or private provisioning of a compatible runtime after an informational Node warning. A valid refuse verdict reports the candidate's reason and next action through the usual pre-mutation error and JSON output. History records the checks in a candidate-admission step. The installed updater continues to own the update after admission, including every mutation.

If the marker is absent or invalid, the updater uses its installed admission checks and records update-admission-unsupported-target. If the candidate times out, crashes, or returns no valid protocol-1 verdict, it records update-admission-fallback and uses those same installed checks. These warnings are informational; the installed checks determine whether the update proceeds. Both warning steps retain their identity, status, and timestamps when history compacts at its 128-step or 16 KiB limit. Warning text can be compacted to fit that limit. This requires no migration and does not change admission decisions.

Use --admission installed to force the installed checks. The default option is --admission auto; this option has no environment-variable form. --dry-run always uses installed checks and does not stage a package or invoke candidate admission. Git/source updates keep their existing flow.

openclaw update admit is an internal command, hidden from help. The supervisor passes --context <absolute-path> to a private mode-0600 context file; this command path and required argument select admission child mode. The command emits one JSON document with protocol, verdict, reasons, warnings, and facts containing candidate/installed versions, the candidate's nodeEngines requirement when declared, and named check results. It exits 0 for admission, 3 for refusal, or 2 for an internal error without a valid verdict. It rejects inherited update authority variables with exit 2, allowing the supervisor to fall back. It does not perform managed-service ancestry checks. The default admission budget is 120 seconds and follows the canary timeout budget resolution.

Run JSON includes run.admission with owner: "candidate" or "installed", and optional protocol, candidateVersion, checks, and fallbackReason. The ledger stores this metadata in its existing origin JSON; run.origin.candidateAdmission retains the bounded, redacted verdict, including all recorded reasons and warnings. Older history records can omit admission metadata.

Admission metadata is diagnostic and can be omitted from history when recovery receipts use the full history budget.

This handoff works only when the installed updater already supports it. An older updater that refuses before staging cannot use a newer candidate's judgment; follow the recovery guidance for that installed release first.

Automation and SSH

For an authorized update on another host, use the target installation's owning account and a non-interactive SSH command:

ssh -T user@gateway-host 'openclaw update --yes' </dev/null

Check that openclaw resolves to the intended installation in that account's SSH environment. Add the existing global --profile <name> before update when targeting a named profile.

An active chat session alone does not prevent an explicit update. --yes skips confirmation and optional shell-completion prompts. Without it, ordinary upgrades can still run with piped input, but an operation requiring confirmation, such as a downgrade, fails promptly. Failure-report menus and triage consent prompts do not wait for input when stdin is not a terminal. --yes does not grant exec approval or accept changed plugin capabilities.

An agent updating the Gateway that hosts its own session should use the gateway tool's update.run action when available. The SSH recipe is for another host; verify that the destination is not that same Gateway. Normal execution approvals and deployment ownership still apply.

Native service commands during updates

Native service install, restart, and stop commands launched by the updater through the target CLI retain the original update owner while their child processes settle. A command whose owner exits or loses its lease cannot start another native mutation or commit its pending config changes. A new update remains excluded while a registered child or its process group is still alive.

The target runtime must support this ownership handoff. Candidate validation checks that support before stopping the Gateway or activating its replacement. A missing target CLI or an older target without support is refused; the updater does not invoke the old runtime installer as a substitute. Authorized installation-root changes bind the destination CLI separately while retaining the original update owner. Update-owned commands also refuse unmanaged restart/stop and detached restart or Windows Startup-folder fallbacks that cannot retain this ownership. Ordinary user-invoked openclaw gateway commands keep their existing behavior.

On Windows, capability checks stay alive until the updater finishes binding their process identity. If Windows cannot supply a process creation timestamp, the updater retains the identity established by the live parent or uses the child's recorded launcher identity, with a warning in the run history and diagnostic logs. A different observed identity still refuses the handoff. Scheduled Tasks using InteractiveToken remain supported; this does not require storing a task password.

This target-CLI protection does not cover every Doctor or plugin child or the in-process service preparation before package mutation.

After Scheduled Task autostart has been suspended, cancelling before installation mutation restores it before exit, while retaining checks on the original update owner and task identity. This protection belongs to the installed updater; installing a release with the fix enables it for the next update that release performs.

Options

Post-core repair Doctor and openclaw update finalize run without a separate per-Doctor deadline unless the operator supplies --timeout. A fresh post-core process receives the operator choice separately from its internal step allowance. Older targets retain their existing allowance and deadline behavior.

When --timeout is omitted, current CLI and RPC finalization do not add an aggregate activation deadline. Explicit operator limits and inherited activation allowances still apply; older or unrecognized handoffs retain their existing finite-deadline behavior. Checks, ownership admission, readiness, recovery, and cleanup retain their own bounds. An explicit --timeout <seconds> limits each finalization phase and its child commands. Admission and config phases scale with shared SQLite state.

After activation or rollback is verified, obsolete package and launcher backup trees share a five-minute cleanup budget. Expiry retains the remaining backups and records their paths as a warning without undoing the verified installation. Cleanup checks this budget between filesystem operations and waits for operations already in flight to settle, so stalled storage can extend the cleanup wait. Ownership and path-identity failures remain distinct from cleanup expiry.

A later verified package activation also retires historical package backups captured before that update began. Symlink retirement removes only the link; source checkouts remain untouched. Failed updates and rollbacks preserve those historical backups, and separately retained database snapshots keep their own recovery lifetime.

Post-plugin config validation and readiness checks use the measured shared and agent database sizes after Doctor finishes, including WAL files. Post-core plugin installation and update work have no default deadline when --timeout is omitted; explicit operator limits and older caller allowances still apply. When an aggregate activation budget is present, it uses the measured database sizes, observed candidate startup, plugin count, and the caller's step allowance. Migrated finalization preserves explicit or inherited allowances. Aggregate expiry reports update-activation-timeout and retains ownership until writers settle; it does not authorize rollback or restart. Use openclaw update status and Doctor for recovery guidance.

There is no --verbose flag. Use --dry-run to preview planned actions, --json for machine-readable results, and openclaw update status --json for channel, availability, and the latest durable update report. Gateway console verbosity (--verbose) and file log level (logging.level: "debug"/"trace") are independent knobs; see Gateway logging.

With --no-restart, state verification blocked by another process is deferred, and the installed update is recorded with Gateway readiness unverified. That recorded contention also defers Gateway recovery verification. Restart the Gateway through its service owner, then run openclaw update status and openclaw doctor; keep recovery backups until verification completes. Other failures keep their recovery diagnostics; a genuine database incompatibility still fails.

Interactive updates show phase transitions, the current step, and elapsed time. The phases match the Control UI: requested, staging, validating, activating, restarting, verifying, and finished. When output is piped or captured in a log, progress prints without animation and reports elapsed time every 30 seconds while a step is running. Updates, verification, and rollback do not require inference or model authentication. Model-auth findings remain warnings. Automatic inference repair belongs to triage after an update has finished with a failed outcome and released its update ownership; it does not change that recorded outcome. Reports from older updaters can still contain a repairing phase. Failed steps include the final diagnostics from both output streams; timeouts are labeled explicitly. The final report includes the outcome, recorded phase durations, failed steps, verification facts, and recovery guidance. --json keeps stdout machine-readable and does not print progress steps or run the progress observer. Progress observes committed ledger rows through a reusable read-only worker connection instead of repeatedly copying shared state. This applies to updates launched by the fixed updater; a published older updater keeps its own progress reader until it is replaced.

When no update is active, openclaw update status labels the saved outcome Last recorded update with the recorded start time, so historical results are distinct from current update activity.

When switching from a dev checkout to a package, the updater replaces npm's install link and leaves the external checkout untouched. If activation fails, restoring that link and its launchers does not verify the mutable checkout's runtime. Recovery stays unverified and does not authorize an automatic restart; inspect the checkout and recovery report before restarting it.

For a profile without a runtime database, an older npm target initializes its compatible state before the updater records history. The selected release's Doctor runs before activation, including when npm's install hooks already created the database. Existing databases retain their downgrade protections. When the updater can read shared state, target-release preflight also checks configured, retired, and registered custom agent stores and names every incompatible store before changing the installation or stopping the Gateway. State newer than the updater can read retains a single install-compatible-build or restore-backup refusal.

If database schema preflight cannot inspect the configured paths because the config is invalid, its refusal lists the config file and invalid fields. Run openclaw doctor --fix to repair retired or unrecognized fields, correct any remaining errors, and retry the update. Preflight leaves the config unchanged.

Explicit package specs on a fresh profile first stage with a temporary OpenClaw profile. The updater inspects the staged runtime's declared schema and Node requirements before admitting changes to the selected profile. Artifacts without declared schema support are refused without creating the profile's runtime database. Preparation uses the original package spec and owning package manager.

A fresh-profile --dry-run leaves the database absent and does not record a run. For package targets, it checks the exact target's Node requirements using the same runtime planner as a real update. Text output and JSON notes report Would refuse update when no usable runtime is available, or Would replace when the updater can refresh its owned managed service to a compatible Node. The preview still exits successfully and does not install a package or change the service. If package metadata cannot be resolved, retry with an exact published --tag; failed target selection does not initialize the profile with the updater's schema. Metadata failures retain the detected update mode and a specific failure fact for registry lookup, dist-tag resolution, version mismatch, schema declarations, or Git target inspection. The summary and openclaw update status --json include the reason and next step; the bounded failure report includes the same public description without publishing local paths or registry response text. Existing updaters cannot gain these diagnostics until the candidate has been installed.

--dry-run --json reports the known installed version in currentVersion for package and Git installs, including a saved dev channel that selects conversion to Git. If the target version is unresolved, targetVersion remains null and the additive targetVersionReason field explains why. Resolved targets omit this field. The text preview also shows the installed version and explains unresolved targets.

--yes also skips the optional shell-completion setup prompt. Existing completion profiles and caches are still repaired when needed; installing completion in a new shell profile remains an interactive choice.

--tag changes only this package update. A saved update.channel continues to govern later foreground and automatic updates, even after a one-off beta install. Use --channel to change that policy.

For explicit package artifacts, configured plugin availability is checked against the privately staged package version before rehearsal or activation. --dry-run does not stage the artifact and reports that this check remains pending.

Managed update handoffs preserve the selected artifact, including already-current repeats, so target checks use that artifact's database schema and runtime requirements.

For source checkouts, --dry-run previews the update flow without fetching Git refs or checking working-tree changes. The real update checks for uncommitted changes before modifying the checkout. Use openclaw update status to inspect the current branch, version, and update availability.

update wizard

Interactive flow to pick an update channel and confirm whether to restart the Gateway afterward (defaults to restart). Selecting dev without a git checkout offers to create one.

The channel picker reads the local install identity without checking Git freshness or dependencies. Those checks run when you apply the update; use openclaw update status to inspect availability first.

Detailed topics

• Recover a failed update
• update status
• Run history and reports
• update repair
• update cleanup
• What it does
• Validation and activation
• Recovery limits
• Compatibility-checked package rollback
• Restart handoff
• Control-plane response shape
• Git checkout flow
• Channel selection
• Update steps
  • Verify clean worktree
  • Resolve the target
  • Build a candidate
  • Validate the candidate
  • Activate and verify
  • Sync plugins
• Plugin sync details

Related

• openclaw doctor (offers to run update first on git checkouts)
• Development channels
• Updating
• CLI reference