Problem

External channel plugins (like DingTalk) were not appearing in interactive menus for openclaw configure --section channels and openclaw onboard, even though the plugins were properly loaded and configured.

Root Cause

The PLUGIN_REQUIRED_COMMANDS whitelist in src/cli/program/preaction.ts only included 'message', 'channels', and 'directory'. This controlled which commands triggered ensurePluginRegistryLoaded() in the preAction hook.

Without plugin registry initialization, channel selection menus fell back to core-only channels, excluding external plugins from being visible to users during interactive configuration.

Solution

Add 'configure' and 'onboard' to PLUGIN_REQUIRED_COMMANDS to ensure the plugin registry is loaded before these commands display their interactive menus.

Changes

• Modified PLUGIN_REQUIRED_COMMANDS in src/cli/program/preaction.ts to include 'configure' and 'onboard' commands
• File: src/cli/program/preaction.ts
• Change: Expanded from 3 to 5 commands in the whitelist

Impact

✅ External channel plugins are now discoverable in interactive menus:

• openclaw configure --section channels now shows linked plugins in channel selection
• openclaw onboard now shows linked plugins during onboarding flow
• DingTalk channel (and other external plugins) now appear in channel status lists

✅ No performance impact:

• These commands already load configuration, so plugin loading adds no new overhead
• Lazy-loading pattern still preserved for other commands

✅ Backward compatible:

• Existing commands (channels, message, directory) continue to work unchanged
• Core channels remain visible in all contexts

Verification

Tested with DingTalk plugin (linked locally via openclaw plugins install -l .):

$ openclaw channels status
Checking channel status…
- Telegram default: enabled, configured, running
- DingTalk default: enabled, configured, stopped  ✅ Now visible!

$ openclaw configure --section channels
# Channel status section shows both Telegram and DingTalk ✅

Related Patterns

This follows the existing pattern used in:

• channels command: loads plugins to display channel status
• message command: loads plugins for message routing
• directory command: loads plugins for provider discovery

The same plugin discovery mechanism is now available to configure and onboard for interactive user flows.

Greptile Summary

Adds configure and onboard to PLUGIN_REQUIRED_COMMANDS whitelist in src/cli/program/preaction.ts:23-29, ensuring external channel plugins (like DingTalk) appear in interactive menus.

Key changes:

• Expanded PLUGIN_REQUIRED_COMMANDS Set from 3 to 5 entries by adding 'configure' and 'onboard'
• Both commands call listChannelPlugins() in their wizards (src/commands/configure.channels.ts:18 and src/commands/onboard-channels.ts:116), which requires the plugin registry to be loaded
• Follows existing pattern used by channels, message, and directory commands

Impact:

• External channel plugins now visible in openclaw configure --section channels and openclaw onboard interactive flows
• No performance impact (commands already load config, plugin loading is lazy-initialized)
• Backward compatible with existing workflows

Confidence Score: 5/5

• This PR is safe to merge with no risk
• Simple, well-scoped fix that adds two strings to a Set constant. The change is well-tested in production (verified with DingTalk plugin), follows existing patterns, has zero risk of regression, and solves a real bug where external plugins were missing from interactive menus
• No files require special attention

_{Last reviewed commit: feb4e41}

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