Summary

Upgrading from 2026.3.13 to 2026.3.22 silently breaks WhatsApp, ACPX, and 4 other plugins. They were added to optionalBundledClusters in scripts/lib/optional-bundled-clusters.mjs, but the npm release workflow doesn't set OPENCLAW_INCLUDE_OPTIONAL_BUNDLED=1, so they're excluded from dist/extensions/ in the published tarball.

Users see a misleading warning and the channel silently stops working:

plugin not found: whatsapp (stale config entry ignored; remove it from plugins config)

Impact: 6 of 13 optional bundled plugins have no install path

whatsapp and acpx are core functionality — WhatsApp is a primary messaging channel and ACPX is the ACP/Codex runtime.

Why there's no workaround via openclaw plugins install

Three failures compound:

1. Not in dist/extensions/ — excluded from the npm build
2. Not on npm — @openclaw/whatsapp and @openclaw/acpx were never published
3. ClawHub namespace squatted — whatsapp@0.0.5-Alpha is a broken community package (missing openclaw.extensions metadata), and 2026.3.22 changed plugin resolution to prefer ClawHub before npm

Reproduction

npm i -g openclaw@2026.3.22
# With existing WhatsApp config from 2026.3.13:
openclaw gateway start
# → plugin not found: whatsapp (stale config entry ignored)
# WhatsApp channel does not load

openclaw plugins install whatsapp
# → Resolves to ClawHub whatsapp@0.0.5-Alpha
# → package.json missing openclaw.extensions

openclaw plugins install @openclaw/whatsapp
# → 404 Not Found (never published)

Manual workaround (confirmed working)

Copy the extension source from the repo into dist/extensions/ and install dependencies:

git clone --depth 1 --branch v2026.3.22 https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw.git /tmp/openclaw-src

cp -r /tmp/openclaw-src/extensions/whatsapp $(npm root -g)/openclaw/dist/extensions/whatsapp
cd $(npm root -g)/openclaw/dist/extensions/whatsapp

# Remove workspace: protocol refs that break npm install
python3 -c "import json; d=json.load(open('package.json')); d.pop('devDependencies',None); d.pop('peerDependencies',None); d.pop('peerDependenciesMeta',None); json.dump(d,open('package.json','w'),indent=2)"
npm install --omit=dev

openclaw gateway restart

This works because the plugin loader uses jiti to transpile TypeScript on the fly.

Fix: PR #52846

Two changes to ease the transition to channels-as-plugins:

1. Keep whatsapp and acpx in default builds

Remove whatsapp and acpx from the optionalBundledClusters list so they ship in npm and Docker releases. Once @openclaw/whatsapp and @openclaw/acpx are published to npm and stable, they can be moved back to optional with proper migration guidance.

2. Show install hint for configured-but-missing channel plugins

When a missing plugin matches a known configured channel, show an actionable message instead of the misleading "stale config entry" warning:

plugin not installed: whatsapp — channel is configured but the plugin is not bundled
in this build. Install it with: openclaw plugins install whatsapp

This helps users of other optional plugins (googlechat, matrix, msteams, etc.) find the right fix.

Remaining work (outside the PR)

• Publish @openclaw/whatsapp and @openclaw/acpx to npm via the plugin-npm-release workflow
• Delist or fix the broken ClawHub whatsapp@0.0.5-Alpha package
• Add migration guidance to release notes when plugins move from bundled to optional
• Consider openclaw doctor --fix auto-installing configured-but-missing channel plugins

Environment

• OpenClaw 2026.3.22 (npm, macOS arm64)
• Upgraded from 2026.3.13 where WhatsApp and ACPX were bundled