Summary

image_generate can fail with No image-generation provider registered for google even when the Google plugin is loaded and configured.

Repro

In a runtime where the active plugin registry has a cache key but no imageGenerationProviders, image generation provider lookup skips plugin reload and returns an empty provider list.

Observed symptoms in a live OpenClaw install:

• openclaw plugins list showed google loaded with image-generation capability
• launchd environment contained GEMINI_API_KEY / GOOGLE_API_KEY
• openclaw models status showed Google auth as configured
• image_generate still failed with:
  • No image-generation provider registered for google
  • similarly for openai / fal

Root cause

src/image-generation/provider-registry.ts currently does this:

const registry =
  (active?.imageGenerationProviders?.length ?? 0) > 0 || getActivePluginRegistryKey() || !cfg
    ? active
    : loadOpenClawPlugins({ config: cfg });

That getActivePluginRegistryKey() condition is too aggressive. If an active registry exists with a key but no image providers, lookup will not fall back to loadOpenClawPlugins({ config: cfg }), so the provider map stays empty.

Expected behavior

If the active registry has no image-generation providers and a config is available, provider lookup should fall back to loading plugins from config.

Proposed fix

Remove the getActivePluginRegistryKey() shortcut from image-generation provider resolution and add a regression test covering:

• active registry present
• cache key present
• imageGenerationProviders = []
• config provided
• provider lookup falls back to loadOpenClawPlugins(...)