Bug type

Regression (worked before, now fails)

Beta release blocker

No

Summary

Upgrading OpenClaw from 2026.5.2 to 2026.5.3-1 via pnpm add -g openclaw@latest silently drops externally-installed plugins (@openclaw/whatsapp and @openclaw/bluebubbles). After the upgrade and gateway restart, both channels disappear from openclaw status and openclaw channels status. The plugins must be manually reinstalled via openclaw plugins install.

Steps to reproduce

1. Start with OpenClaw 2026.5.2. Have two external plugins installed and working:

   openclaw plugins install @openclaw/whatsapp
   openclaw plugins install @openclaw/bluebubbles

   Both channels are connected and functional. openclaw channels status shows both as running, connected.

2. Upgrade OpenClaw to 2026.5.3-1:

   pnpm add -g openclaw@latest

3. Restart the gateway (required after upgrade).

4. Check status:

   openclaw status
   openclaw channels status

Expected behavior

Both externally-installed plugins should survive the upgrade. openclaw channels status should continue showing WhatsApp and BlueBubbles as running, connected, same as before the upgrade.

Actual behavior

Both @openclaw/whatsapp and @openclaw/bluebubbles are silently dropped. They no longer appear in openclaw channels status or openclaw plugins list output. No warning or error is logged during the upgrade or gateway restart indicating that external plugins were lost.

Manual reinstallation restores them:

openclaw plugins install @openclaw/whatsapp
openclaw plugins install @openclaw/bluebubbles

After reinstallation, both channels immediately reconnect and function normally. The plugins are installed to ~/.openclaw/npm/node_modules/ as expected.

OpenClaw version

2026.5.3-1 (upgraded from 2026.5.2)

Operating system

macOS 15.4 (Darwin 25.4.0, arm64 — Mac Mini M4 Pro)

Install method

pnpm global (pnpm add -g openclaw)

Model

anthropic/claude-opus-4-6

Provider / routing chain

openclaw -> anthropic (direct)

Additional provider/model setup details

Not relevant to this bug — affects plugin/channel lifecycle, not model routing.

Logs, screenshots, and evidence

Post-upgrade openclaw channels status only shows Slack and Telegram (stock plugins). WhatsApp and BlueBubbles are absent.

Post-reinstall openclaw channels status:

- BlueBubbles default: enabled, configured, running, connected, url:http://localhost:1234
- Slack default: enabled, configured, running, connected, in:1m ago, bot:config, app:config, health:healthy
- Telegram default: enabled, configured, running, connected, mode:polling, token:config
- WhatsApp default: enabled, configured, linked, running, connected, dm:open, health:healthy

openclaw plugins list after reinstall shows both external plugins sourced from ~/.openclaw/npm/node_modules/:

@openclaw/bluebubbles  enabled  ~/.openclaw/npm/node_modules/@openclaw/bluebubbles/dist/index.js  2026.5.3
@openclaw/whatsapp     enabled  ~/.openclaw/npm/node_modules/@openclaw/whatsapp/dist/index.js     2026.5.3

No gateway logs captured for the moment of loss (logs rotated after restart).

Impact and severity

• Affected: Any user with externally-installed plugins who upgrades OpenClaw via their package manager.
• Severity: High — messaging channels silently go offline. No inbound messages are received, no outbound messages can be sent. For users relying on WhatsApp or BlueBubbles as primary communication channels, this causes a silent outage.
• Frequency: Deterministic — reproduced on upgrade from 2026.5.2 → 2026.5.3-1. Likely affects every minor/patch upgrade.
• Consequence: Silent communication blackout until the user notices channels are missing and manually reinstalls each plugin. No warning is surfaced during upgrade or at startup.

Additional information

• Related issues: This is a recurring pattern. [Bug]: openclaw plugins install removes other installed external plugins #76546 documents external plugins being removed when installing another external plugin. [Bug]: WhatsApp breaks after upgrading from v2026.3.13 to v2026.3.22 #53907 documents WhatsApp breaking after the 2026.3.x plugin refactor. Plugin upgrade doesn't install npm dependencies, breaks feishu channel #61115 documents plugin upgrades not preserving npm dependencies. The root cause appears to be that the external plugin installation directory (~/.openclaw/npm/node_modules/) is not treated as durable state across OpenClaw upgrades.
• Last known good version: 2026.5.2
• First known bad version: 2026.5.3-1
• Workaround: After every OpenClaw upgrade, manually re-run openclaw plugins install <plugin> for each external plugin. This is fragile and undiscoverable.
• Suggested fix: The upgrade path should detect and preserve externally-installed plugins. At minimum, openclaw doctor or the post-upgrade lifecycle should warn when previously-registered external plugins are no longer loadable. Ideally, openclaw upgrade or the package manager post-install hook should re-run npm install in ~/.openclaw/npm/ to restore external plugin dependencies.