Best possible solution:

Land this PR after required CI and maintainer approval, keeping the fix scoped to managed-root metadata cleanup, stable runtime aliasing, and the narrow Telegram no-config guard.

Do we have a high-confidence way to reproduce the issue?

Yes at source level: current main returns before scrubbing stale managed-root openclaw metadata when the active host is present as a symlink, and current main lacks the stable hook-runner dist entry plus beta.8 legacy alias. I did not perform a live npm-global package-swap reproduction in this read-only review.

Is this the best way to solve the issue?

Yes: the PR uses the existing scrub path but adds a narrow preserve-package-dir mode for linked active hosts, and the hook-runner alias follows the established stable-runtime compatibility pattern. I found no safer narrower fix in the inspected code path.

What I checked:

• Protected PR state: The provided GitHub context marks the author association as MEMBER, and live PR metadata shows the PR is open, mergeable, and labeled maintainer, scripts, channel: telegram, and size: M; this cleanup workflow should not close it. (fcbca2d3fac5)
• Current-main managed-root behavior: Current main treats any managed node_modules/openclaw realpath matching the active package root as the active host and returns before metadata scrub, which also covers a symlinked active host. (src/infra/npm-managed-root.ts:761, 3064d6181d18)
• Current-main scrub behavior: The existing scrub helper removes manifest/lock ownership and then deletes node_modules/openclaw, so using it unchanged on a linked active host would remove the host link. (src/infra/npm-managed-root.ts:946, 3064d6181d18)
• PR managed-root fix: The PR distinguishes managed-active-host from linked-active-host, preserves the linked package directory, and scrubs only stale managed-root ownership metadata for linked hosts. (src/infra/npm-managed-root.ts:761, fcbca2d3fac5)
• PR regression coverage: The PR adds a filesystem regression test that creates a symlinked active host plus stale manifest, lockfile, hidden lock, and bin ownership metadata, then asserts the symlink survives while stale metadata is removed and npm is not invoked. (src/infra/npm-managed-root.test.ts:919, fcbca2d3fac5)
• Current-main runtime compatibility gap: Current main has legacy root runtime aliases for earlier shutdown chunks and a stable server-close.runtime entry, but no stable plugins/hook-runner-global dist entry or beta.8 hook-runner alias. (scripts/runtime-postbuild.mjs:26, 3064d6181d18)

Likely related people:

• steipete: Recent current-main history shows work on managed npm peer repair, legacy lazy runtime aliases, and the Telegram reconnect drain code path touched here. (role: recent area contributor; confidence: high; commits: d9ff8cfb012e, 88943e14f92e, 7270bb95b70e; files: src/infra/npm-managed-root.ts, scripts/runtime-postbuild.mjs, extensions/telegram/src/polling-session.ts)
• shakkernerd: GitHub file history shows several recent commits in the managed npm root peer preservation and repair path. (role: recent managed npm peer repair contributor; confidence: high; commits: 402b0df3b675, f4cb20300f6b, 6e5042cd62e7; files: src/infra/npm-managed-root.ts)
• vincentkoc: Current-main history includes prior managed npm and dist graph work, and this PR head owns the proposed package repair and runtime alias changes. (role: adjacent area contributor and current PR author; confidence: high; commits: 3ba2ce6694d2, 5d557171b3cd, 1b7755311584; files: src/infra/npm-managed-root.ts, tsdown.config.ts, scripts/runtime-postbuild.mjs)

Remaining risk / open question:

• I did not run tests or build commands because this review is read-only; the PR body reports focused Vitest coverage, git diff --check, Crabbox pnpm check:changed, and pnpm build proof.
• The PR body notes that a live npm-global package upgrade against a real user home directory was not tested.

Codex review notes: model gpt-5.5, reasoning high; reviewed against 3064d6181d18.