Bug type

Behavior bug (incorrect output/state without crash)

Summary

Bug report — agents/tool-images resize triggered by session:history in Control UI

Summary

In OpenClaw Control UI (webchat), log lines from agents/tool-images (Image resized to fit limits) are repeatedly emitted even when the user sends text-only messages and cron jobs are disabled.

Evidence indicates the trigger is session:history refresh/poll behavior in the UI, not user input and not cron job execution.

Environment

• OpenClaw: 2026.3.2
• OS: Windows 10.0.26200 x64
• Channel: webchat (Control UI)
• Model: openai-codex/gpt-5.3-codex

Reproduction steps

1. Open Control UI webchat.
2. Ensure no active cron job execution affecting the test (job disabled for isolation).
3. Send only text messages (e.g., test-1, test-2).
4. Tail logs:

   openclaw logs --follow --plain

5. Observe periodic log lines:
   • subsystem: agents/tool-images
   • label: session:history
   • message: Image resized to fit limits ...

Key evidence

Example line observed during text-only phase:

2026-03-03T15:13:07.717Z info agents/tool-images {"subsystem":"agents/tool-images"} {"label":"session:history", ... } Image resized to fit limits: 1338x923px 70.0KB -> 50.5KB (-27.9%)

Additional confirmation:

• With the job disabled, lines still appeared.
• Closing Control UI tab for ~2 minutes caused those lines to stop.

This strongly suggests UI-driven session-history retrieval is causing reprocessing of historical images.

Expected behavior

• agents/tool-images resize should not repeatedly run for historical image attachments during normal text-only chat activity.
• History polling/refresh should avoid re-transforming unchanged historical images.

Actual behavior

• Repeated resize logs for the same historical image(s), with label:"session:history", producing console noise and confusion.

Impact

• Noisy logs
• Misleading diagnostics (looks like new image processing while user sends text only)
• User trust/UX degradation

Suggested fix directions

1. Cache transformed history attachments by stable key (messageId + attachmentId + transform params).
2. Skip transformation for already compliant assets on repeated session:history fetches.
3. Add dedupe guard in history render/serialization path.
4. Reduce log severity/rate for repeated identical resize operations.

Current workaround

• /compact or session reset can reduce recurrence temporarily.
• Closing the Control UI tab stops the repeated lines while closed.

Optional extra diagnostics (for maintainer)

• Add trace IDs linking chat.history request -> agents/tool-images calls.
• Log cache hit/miss reason when label=session:history.

Steps to reproduce

1. Open OpenClaw Control UI (webchat).
2. Keep cron job disabled (to isolate).
3. Start log tail: openclaw logs --follow --plain.
4. Send only text messages (e.g. test-1, test-2).
5. Observe repeated log lines from agents/tool-images with label:"session:history" and message Image resized to fit limits ....
6. Close the Control UI tab for ~2 minutes: the repeated lines stop.
7. Reopen Control UI: repeated lines resume.

Expected behavior

When using Control UI with text-only messages, historical image attachments should not be repeatedly reprocessed. The logs should not continuously show agents/tool-images "Image resized to fit limits" for session:history unless new images are actually introduced.

Actual behavior

• Repeated resize logs for the same historical image(s), with label:"session:history", producing console noise and confusion.

OpenClaw version

2026.3.2

Operating system

Windows 11

Install method

npm global

Logs, screenshots, and evidence

Impact and severity

No response

Additional information

No response