What happened?

Three plugin test cases fail on any POSIX machine where /tmp/openclaw exists or can be created with safe ownership (developer laptops after any OpenClaw run, warm CI boxes, remote test hosts):

• src/plugins/git-install.test.ts > installPluginFromGitSpec > falls back to OS temp when target workspace creation fails
• src/plugins/manifest-model-id-normalization.test.ts > manifest model id normalization > reuses manifest metadata while file fingerprints are unchanged
• src/plugins/tools.optional.test.ts > resolvePluginTools optional tools > reloads when gateway binding would otherwise reuse a default-mode active registry

Example failure:

AssertionError: expected '/tmp/openclaw' to be '/tmp' // Object.is equality
  at src/plugins/git-install.test.ts:571 — expect(path.dirname(fallbackPrefix)).toBe(await fs.realpath(os.tmpdir()))

Mechanism

withTempDir (src/infra/install-source-utils.ts) defaults its root to resolvePreferredOpenClawTmpDir() (src/infra/tmp-openclaw-dir.ts), which on POSIX prefers — and creates on demand — POSIX_OPENCLAW_TMP_DIR = "/tmp/openclaw" whenever ownership/permissions are safe, falling back to os.tmpdir() only when that is unsafe. The tests assert the fallback lands under os.tmpdir(), which only holds in environments where /tmp/openclaw resolves unsafe (e.g. CI uid mismatch). The assertions encode the environment, not the contract.

Reproduction

node scripts/run-vitest.mjs src/plugins/git-install.test.ts on macOS or Linux as a user that can own /tmp/openclaw → 3 failures. Verified 2026-07-07 on macOS (worktree of 6683a86) and a clean Linux box (both with /tmp/openclaw absent-then-created and pre-existing): 3 failed / 95 passed each time. All three test files and their prod modules are byte-identical to origin/main (last touched by #99896).

Expected

Tests should pin the temp-root resolution (inject resolvePreferredOpenClawTmpDirOptions / the resolver dep, or assert against resolvePreferredOpenClawTmpDir() instead of os.tmpdir()) so they pass regardless of host /tmp/openclaw state.