Severity: P1 — memory-lancedb is non-functional on global npm installs (all platforms)

The memory-lancedb extension fails to load on any globally installed OpenClaw instance. memory_store, memory_recall, and all long-term memory operations are broken.

memory-lancedb: failed to load LanceDB.
Error: Cannot find module 'apache-arrow'
Require stack:
  - @lancedb/lancedb/dist/arrow.js

Root Cause

@lancedb/lancedb@0.26.2 has runtime dependencies that aren't explicitly listed in extensions/memory-lancedb/package.json:

Note on native platform bindings: @lancedb/lancedb already declares all platform-specific binaries (@lancedb/lancedb-darwin-arm64, @lancedb/lancedb-linux-x64-gnu, etc.) as its own optionalDependencies. These propagate correctly through the package manager — no explicit re-declaration needed in this extension's package.json.

Fix

Single-file change: promote implicit peer/transitive dependencies to explicit entries in extensions/memory-lancedb/package.json.

  "dependencies": {
    "@lancedb/lancedb": "^0.26.2",
    "@sinclair/typebox": "0.34.48",
+   "apache-arrow": ">=15.0.0 <=18.1.0",
+   "flatbuffers": "^24.3.25",
    "openai": "^6.22.0",
+   "reflect-metadata": "^0.2.2"
  },

Version ranges are exact matches from npm registry:

• apache-arrow: matches @lancedb/lancedb@0.26.2's peer dep range (>=15.0.0 <=18.1.0)
• flatbuffers: matches apache-arrow@18.x's dependency (^24.3.25)
• reflect-metadata: matches @lancedb/lancedb@0.26.2's dependency (^0.2.2)

Why this approach

Scope

• 1 file changed: extensions/memory-lancedb/package.json
• +3 dependencies (apache-arrow, flatbuffers, reflect-metadata)
• Zero code changes — only dependency declarations
• Non-breaking: existing installs where deps happen to resolve will continue to work

Reproduction

npm install -g openclaw     # any platform
openclaw config set plugins.entries.memory-lancedb.enabled true --json
openclaw config set plugins.entries.memory-lancedb.config.embedding.apiKey "sk-..." --json
openclaw gateway restart
# → memory-lancedb: failed to load LanceDB. Error: Cannot find module 'apache-arrow'

Verified

Tested on macOS ARM64 (M4) with OpenClaw v2026.2.19-2. After manually installing these deps into the extension's node_modules, memory-lancedb loads and operates correctly:

memory-lancedb: initialized (db: ~/.openclaw/memory/lancedb, model: text-embedding-3-small)

Note: exports field gap in @lancedb/lancedb

There is a separate upstream issue: @lancedb/lancedb's package.json exports field doesn't expose ./dist/arrow, which OpenClaw's extension code requires. This needs either an upstream LanceDB fix or a build-time patch in OpenClaw. Filed separately — this PR focuses on the dependency resolution fix which addresses the most common failure mode.

Fixes #22687
Related: #19466 (Docker variant of the same issue)

Greptile Summary

Promotes implicit peer and transitive dependencies to explicit entries in extensions/memory-lancedb/package.json to fix global npm install failures. The @lancedb/lancedb@0.26.2 package has peer dependencies (apache-arrow) and runtime dependencies (reflect-metadata) that pnpm's workspace hoisting places under node_modules/.ignored/, making them unresolvable at runtime. This PR correctly adds these as explicit dependencies with version ranges that match the upstream package requirements.

Key changes:

• Adds apache-arrow (>=15.0.0 <=18.1.0) matching @lancedb/lancedb's peer dependency range
• Adds flatbuffers (^24.3.25) as transitive dependency of apache-arrow
• Adds reflect-metadata (^0.2.2) matching @lancedb/lancedb's dependency
• Adds all 8 platform-specific native bindings as optional dependencies pinned to 0.26.2

This approach aligns with the repository guidelines in AGENTS.md:12 which states "runtime deps must live in dependencies" for plugin installations.

Confidence Score: 5/5

• This PR is safe to merge with minimal risk - it only adds dependency declarations without any code changes.
• The PR correctly addresses a critical runtime failure by adding missing dependencies to the package.json. All added dependencies exist in the lockfile with compatible versions, the approach follows repository guidelines for plugin dependencies, and the change is non-breaking (existing installs where deps happen to resolve will continue to work). The version ranges are carefully matched to upstream requirements, and all 8 platform-specific native bindings are included.
• No files require special attention - the single changed file has straightforward dependency additions.

_{Last reviewed commit: d4b3756}