Environment

• OpenClaw: 2026.5.22 (also 2026.5.20)
• Plugin: @tencent-weixin/openclaw-weixin v2.4.4
• Node.js: v23.11.1
• OS: Windows 11 + WSL2 (Ubuntu, kernel 6.6.114.1)
• Gateway: local mode, systemd user service

Symptoms

1. openclaw channels login --channel openclaw-weixin: QR code shows, scans successfully
2. Auth saved to ~/.openclaw/openclaw-weixin/accounts/ correctly
3. CLI sends channels.start via WebSocket after login
4. Gateway responds: errorCode=INVALID_REQUEST errorMessage=invalid channels.start channel
5. Gateway startup log: http server listening (7 plugins: browser, canvas, device-pair, file-transfer, memory-core, phone-control, talk-voice) - no weixin channel, no error about being skipped

Root Cause

The gateway runtime channel registry does not contain openclaw-weixin. The channel register() function (which calls api.registerChannel()) is never invoked because the gateway does not load non-stock channel plugins at startup.

The full call chain:
channels.start handler ? normalizeChannelId("openclaw-weixin") ? normalizeAnyChannelId ? findRegisteredChannelPluginEntry ? buildRegisteredChannelPluginLookup().byKey.get("openclaw-weixin") ? returns undefined ? null ? "invalid channels.start channel" error

The CLI can load the plugin on-the-fly via resolveInstallableChannelPlugin() ? loadScopedChannelPlugin() and the QR login flow works perfectly. But the gateway startup never loads non-stock channel plugins, so channels.start fails.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install OpenClaw 2026.5.20+ on WSL2 (Windows 11)
2. openclaw plugins install @tencent-weixin/openclaw-weixin
3. openclaw config set channels.openclaw-weixin.enabled true
4. openclaw gateway restart
5. openclaw channels login --channel openclaw-weixin
6. Scan QR code with WeChat ? observe error

Workarounds Tried (10+, all failed)

• Remove plugins.allow for auto-discovery
• Add openclaw-weixin to plugins.allow
• openclaw doctor --fix
• openclaw plugins registry --refresh
• Copy plugin to ~/.openclaw/extensions/openclaw-weixin/
• Symlink to stock extensions dir (causes different error)
• Reinstall with --force
• Downgrade to 2026.5.20 then re-upgrade
• Toggle bundledDiscovery between compat and allowlist
• openclaw channels add guided setup

Expected Behavior

After QR scan, gateway should recognize openclaw-weixin, start it via plugin.gateway.startAccount(), and begin long-polling for WeChat messages.

Additional Notes

• Plugin openclaw.plugin.json correctly declares channels: ["openclaw-weixin"]
• Plugin dist/index.js correctly exports register() with api.registerChannel()
• Account auth data (token, userId) correctly saved after QR scan
• openclaw channels capabilities shows accounts with Probe: "unavailable"
• This appears to be a gap in how non-stock channel plugins are loaded at gateway startup vs discovered by CLI