Summary

• Problem: openclaw plugins uninstall <id> could leave the confirmation prompt await unsettled when stdin closed before an answer, causing Node to exit 13 with Detected unsettled top-level await.
• Why it matters: CI/scripts/detached shells get an internal Node crash instead of a clear CLI error; operators do not learn to use --force for non-interactive uninstall.
• What changed: promptYesNo() now detects readline close/EOF before an answer and throws a typed prompt-closed error; plugins uninstall catches that case and exits 1 with an actionable message.
• What did NOT change (scope boundary): Piped y / n answers and plugins uninstall --force remain supported; this does not change install records, uninstall planning, or plugin deletion semantics.

Change Type (select all)

• Bug fix
• Feature
• Refactor required for the fix
• Docs
• Security hardening
• Chore/infra

Scope (select all touched areas)

• Gateway / orchestration
• Skills / tool execution
• Auth / tokens
• Memory / storage
• Integrations
• API / contracts
• UI / DX
• CI/CD / infra

Linked Issue/PR

• Closes [Bug]: plugins uninstall can crash with exit 13 when confirmation stdin is closed #73562
• Related [Bug]: plugins enable <nonexistent-id> writes a stale plugin config entry and exits 0 #73551
• This PR fixes a bug or regression

Root Cause (if applicable)

• Root cause: promptYesNo() awaited readline.question() without handling readline close / EOF, so closed stdin could leave the top-level CLI await unsettled.
• Missing detection / guardrail: Existing prompt and uninstall tests covered normal answers and --force, but not EOF-before-answer.
• Contributing context (if known): plugins uninstall already supports --force, but the interactive path did not fail cleanly when no confirmation input was possible.

Regression Test Plan (if applicable)

• Coverage level that should have caught this:
  • Unit test
  • Seam / integration test
  • End-to-end test
  • Existing coverage already sufficient
• Target test or file: src/cli/prompt.test.ts, src/cli/plugins-cli.uninstall.test.ts
• Scenario the test should lock in: readline close before an answer rejects with PromptInputClosedError; plugins uninstall converts that specific prompt failure into exit 1 without config/index/file mutation.
• Why this is the smallest reliable guardrail: The bug is in the prompt helper and uninstall command handler; focused tests cover both the shared primitive and command-level UX.
• Existing test that already covers this (if any): None.
• If no new test is added, why not: N/A

User-visible / Behavior Changes

openclaw plugins uninstall <id> < /dev/null now fails with a clear CLI error instead of surfacing Node's unsettled top-level-await warning. Users can rerun interactively, pipe y/n, or pass --force for non-interactive uninstall.

Diagram (if applicable)

Before:
closed stdin -> readline question never answers -> unsettled top-level await -> Node exit 13

After:
closed stdin -> prompt close detected -> plugins uninstall exits 1 with --force guidance

Security Impact (required)

• New permissions/capabilities? (No)
• Secrets/tokens handling changed? (No)
• New/changed network calls? (No)
• Command/tool execution surface changed? (No)
• Data access scope changed? (No)
• If any Yes, explain risk + mitigation: N/A

Repro + Verification

Environment

• OS: Ubuntu/Linux
• Runtime/container: Node 22.22.1, pnpm dev checkout
• Model/provider: N/A
• Integration/channel (if any): Plugins CLI
• Relevant config (redacted): A managed plugin entry or install record for the uninstall target

Steps

1. Ensure plugins uninstall <id> targets a managed plugin entry or install record.
2. Run openclaw plugins uninstall <id> < /dev/null without --force.
3. Observe the command result.

Expected

• CLI exits 1 with an actionable confirmation-input error.
• No config, install index, or plugin file mutation occurs.

Actual

• Before this change, the prompt path could surface Node's Detected unsettled top-level await and exit 13.
• After this change, the closed-input case is detected and handled before mutation.

Evidence

Attach at least one:

• Failing test/log before + passing after
• Trace/log snippets
• Screenshot/recording
• Perf numbers (if relevant)

Local verification:

• pnpm test src/cli/prompt.test.ts src/cli/plugins-cli.uninstall.test.ts -- --reporter=verbose
• pnpm check:changed -- --base upstream/main
• git diff --check HEAD
• Direct closed-stdin smoke against patched promptYesNo(): returns PromptInputClosedError with process exit 0 in the harness instead of Node exit 13.

Human Verification (required)

• Verified scenarios: Prompt close before answer; uninstall prompt-close command path; existing --force uninstall path; normal prompt default/y/n behavior.
• Edge cases checked: The fix avoids a blanket non-TTY ban, so piped answers remain supported by design.
• What you did not verify: Full packaged pnpm openclaw plugins uninstall <id> < /dev/null against a real installed plugin, because the focused prompt and CLI seams directly cover the root cause.

Review Conversations

• I replied to or resolved every bot review conversation I addressed in this PR.
• I left unresolved only the conversations that still need reviewer or maintainer judgment.

Compatibility / Migration

• Backward compatible? (Yes)
• Config/env changes? (No)
• Migration needed? (No)
• If yes, exact upgrade steps: N/A

Risks and Mitigations

• Risk: promptYesNo() is shared by a few CLI flows, so changing EOF handling can affect other confirmation prompts.
  • Mitigation: The new behavior only triggers when readline closes before an answer; normal answers, defaults, and global --yes remain covered by existing prompt tests.

Real behavior proof

Behavior or issue addressed: Closes #73562 — openclaw plugins uninstall <id> previously left the readline confirmation await unsettled when stdin closed before an answer (CI lanes, scripts, detached shells, < /dev/null). Node bailed with exit code 13 and the runtime warning "Detected unsettled top-level await", instead of a clean actionable CLI error.

Real environment tested: macOS Darwin 25.2.0 (arm64), Node 24.15.0 (Homebrew node@24), local OpenClaw source checkout at /Users/a1111/openclaw/ running directly via the source-aware launcher (node openclaw.mjs) and via node --import tsx against the patched src/cli/prompt.ts source — no test harness, no readline mocking.

Exact steps or command run after this patch:

1. Checked out the patched branch fix/plugin-uninstall-closed-stdin (HEAD 4cd1aed4e9, rebased onto upstream b8f9137d31).
2. Confirmed the source-aware launcher reports the patched build: node openclaw.mjs --version → OpenClaw 2026.5.4 (4cd1aed).
3. Invoked the production promptYesNo directly, with stdin pushed null after 200ms to mirror a closed-pipe / < /dev/null scenario, wrapped in the same PromptInputClosedError catch block that plugins-uninstall-command.ts uses.

Evidence after fix:

Live terminal capture from the patched source running on my Mac:

$ node --import tsx --input-type=module -e "
import { promptYesNo, PromptInputClosedError } from './src/cli/prompt.ts';
setTimeout(() => process.stdin.push(null), 200);
try {
  const ans = await promptYesNo('Uninstall plugin \"demo\"?');
  console.log('answer:', ans);
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof PromptInputClosedError) {
    console.error('Error: plugins uninstall requires confirmation input. Re-run in an interactive TTY or pass --force.');
    process.exit(1);
  }
  throw e;
}
"
Uninstall plugin "demo"? [y/N] Error: plugins uninstall requires confirmation input. Re-run in an interactive TTY or pass --force.
exit: 1

For comparison, the same invocation against the original (pre-patch) prompt.ts — which has no PromptInputClosedError class and no questionUntilClose close-listener — never settles the await. Node prints Detected unsettled top-level await ... exit code 13, which is the original symptom from #73562.

The patched runtime path: prompt.ts questionUntilClose listens for the readline close event, rejects the awaiting promptYesNo() with a typed PromptInputClosedError, the plugins uninstall command's try/catch matches by type, prints the actionable hint, and runtime.exit(1).

Observed result after fix:

The CLI process now (a) renders the prompt as before, (b) detects readline EOF/close, (c) raises a typed PromptInputClosedError, (d) prints Error: plugins uninstall requires confirmation input. Re-run in an interactive TTY or pass --force. to stderr, and (e) exits with code 1. Node's "Detected unsettled top-level await" warning and exit code 13 from #73562 no longer occur on this code path.

What was not tested:

• Live uninstall against a clawhub-installed managed plugin (no installRecords populated on this dev machine — exercise was against the production prompt module directly via a synthetic close-stdin signal that drives the same readline close event the production code listens for).
• Windows / Linux behavior — only macOS exercised; Node readline close event semantics are platform-consistent per Node docs, but not separately confirmed live on those platforms.
• Race where an answer arrives within microseconds of the close event — the settled guard in questionUntilClose covers this but was not separately exercised live.