fix(cli): format acp client errors with formatErrorMessage (#83904) (#84080)

hcl · clawsweeper[bot] · Takhoffman · web-flow · commit 5d19beb547e1 · 2026-05-19T14:34:51.000Z
Summary: - The PR changes `openclaw acp client` error handling to use `formatErrorMessage`, adds a plain-object rejection regression test, and adds a changelog entry. - Reproducibility: yes. Current main visibly sends `openclaw acp client` caught errors through `String(err)`, ... catch already uses `formatErrorMessage`; I did not run a live failing ACP server in this read-only review. Automerge notes: - PR branch already contained follow-up commit before automerge: fix(cli): format acp client errors with formatErrorMessage (#83904) Validation: - ClawSweeper review passed for head 69ef0e7. - Required merge gates passed before the squash merge. Prepared head SHA: 69ef0e7 Review: #84080 (comment) Co-authored-by: HCL <chenglunhu@gmail.com> Co-authored-by: clawsweeper <274271284+clawsweeper[bot]@users.noreply.github.com> Co-authored-by: clawsweeper[bot] <274271284+clawsweeper[bot]@users.noreply.github.com> Approved-by: takhoffman Co-authored-by: takhoffman <781889+takhoffman@users.noreply.github.com>
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Control UI: treat terminal session status as authoritative over stale active-run flags so completed terminal runs stop showing abort/live UI. (#84057)
 - CLI: preserve embedded equals signs in inline root option values instead of truncating after the second separator. (#83995) Thanks @ThiagoCAltoe.
 - Matrix/config: accept `messages.queue.byChannel.matrix` queue overrides and keep queue provider schema/type keys aligned for Matrix, Google Chat, and Mattermost. Thanks @bdjben.
+- CLI: format `openclaw acp client` failures through the shared error formatter so object-shaped errors stay readable instead of printing `[object Object]`. Fixes #83904. (#84080)
 - Providers/Ollama: default unknown-capabilities models to tool-capable so discovered native Ollama models can use tools when `/api/show` omits capabilities. (#84055) Thanks @dutifulbob.
 - Installer/Windows: launch `install.ps1` onboarding as an attached child process so fresh native Windows installs do not freeze visibly at `Starting setup...` or corrupt the wizard's terminal rendering.
 - Memory/search: close local embedding providers when active-memory searches time out so pending local model loads and embedding contexts are aborted and released. (#83858) Thanks @brokemac79.
diff --git a/src/cli/acp-cli.option-collisions.test.ts b/src/cli/acp-cli.option-collisions.test.ts
@@ -165,4 +165,16 @@ describe("acp cli option collisions", () => {
     await parseAcp(["--token-file", "/tmp/openclaw-acp-missing-token.txt"]);
     expectCliError(/Failed to (inspect|read) Gateway token file/);
   });
+
+  it("formats client errors with formatErrorMessage instead of String(err) (#83904)", async () => {
+    runAcpClientInteractive.mockImplementationOnce(async () => {
+      throw { code: 42, why: "boom" } as unknown as Error;
+    });
+    const program = createAcpProgram();
+    await program.parseAsync(["acp", "client"], { from: "user" });
+
+    const errors = defaultRuntime.error.mock.calls.map(([message]) => String(message));
+    expect(errors).toContain('{"code":42,"why":"boom"}');
+    expect(defaultRuntime.exit).toHaveBeenCalledWith(1);
+  });
 });
diff --git a/src/cli/acp-cli.ts b/src/cli/acp-cli.ts
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ export function registerAcpCli(program: Command) {
           verbose: Boolean(opts.verbose || inheritedVerbose),
         });
       } catch (err) {
-        defaultRuntime.error(String(err));
+        defaultRuntime.error(formatErrorMessage(err));
         defaultRuntime.exit(1);
       }
     });

Original file line number	Diff line number	Diff line change
`@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ export function registerAcpCli(program: Command) {`
`73`	`73`	`verbose: Boolean(opts.verbose \|\| inheritedVerbose),`
`74`	`74`	`});`
`75`	`75`	`} catch (err) {`
`76`		`- defaultRuntime.error(String(err));`
	`76`	`+ defaultRuntime.error(formatErrorMessage(err));`
`77`	`77`	`defaultRuntime.exit(1);`
`78`	`78`	`}`
`79`	`79`	`});`