Summary

Several OpenClaw CLI commands hang indefinitely in their default text output path with no stdout/stderr, while their --json variants complete successfully. The gateway is healthy and responsive, so this appears to be a CLI text/bootstrap/rendering path issue rather than a gateway availability issue.

This looks related to the existing 2026.4.x CLI hang reports, especially #63249 and #62335, but this reproduction is on 2026.4.26 and specifically shows agents list --json working while agents list hangs.

Environment

• OpenClaw: 2026.4.26 (be8c246)
• OS: Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie), Linux VPS
• Install: npm global under user octest, ~/.npm-global/bin/openclaw
• Node tested:
  • v24.15.0 / npm 11.12.1
  • v22.22.2 / npm 10.9.7
• Gateway: user systemd service, loopback 127.0.0.1:18789, active/running
• Gateway ExecStart: /usr/bin/node --use-env-proxy /home/octest/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/index.js gateway --port 18789
• Network: outbound access through local mixed HTTP/SOCKS proxy at 127.0.0.1:2080; gateway service has HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, ALL_PROXY, NO_PROXY and Node --use-env-proxy

Homebrew was removed during diagnosis; Node is now from /usr/bin/node. The issue persisted across Homebrew removal and both Node 22 and Node 24 tests.

What works

openclaw --version
# OpenClaw 2026.4.26 (be8c246)

openclaw health
# completes, usually around 6s

openclaw agents --help
# completes, around 5s

openclaw agents list --json
# completes, around 5s, returns expected JSON

openclaw status --json --timeout 5000
# completes, around 6-9s, returns expected JSON

Gateway logs confirm the WS/RPC plane is responsive, e.g.:

[ws] ⇄ res ✓ health 841ms cached=true
[ws] ⇄ res ✓ channels.status 100ms

What hangs

These commands hang with zero stdout and zero stderr until killed by timeout:

timeout 60 openclaw agents list
# exit 124, 0 bytes stdout, 0 bytes stderr

timeout 60 openclaw agents
# exit 124, 0 bytes stdout, 0 bytes stderr

timeout 60 openclaw status --timeout 5000
# exit 124, 0 bytes stdout, 0 bytes stderr

On Node 24.15.0, earlier runs also showed default text openclaw status taking 70-90s or hanging, while status --json remained fast. On Node 22.22.2, text agents list and text status still hung, while JSON variants still worked.

Variants tested

These did not fix openclaw agents list text mode:

openclaw --no-color agents list
NO_COLOR=1 openclaw agents list
TERM=dumb openclaw agents list
COLUMNS=120 openclaw agents list
OPENCLAW_PLUGIN_DISCOVERY_CACHE_MS=600000 openclaw agents list

OPENCLAW_PLUGIN_DISCOVERY_CACHE_MS=600000 slightly improves health timing, but does not fix text command hangs.

Diagnostic notes

CLI bootstrap/plugin discovery cost

Even simple commands have a baseline 5-6s startup cost:

openclaw health                         ~5.8-6.1s
openclaw plugins registry --json        ~5.9s
openclaw plugins list --json            ~5.8s
openclaw plugins list --enabled --json  ~5.5s

OPENCLAW_DISABLE_PERSISTED_PLUGIN_REGISTRY=1 made health slower (~7.6-7.8s), so the persisted registry is being used but does not avoid the heavy bootstrap.

strace observations

For openclaw health, strace showed the child CLI does significant bootstrap/import/plugin metadata work before the first connect to the gateway; after it connects, the gateway response is fast.

For openclaw agents list text mode:

• no stdout/stderr before timeout
• no gateway RPC appears necessary for the failing path
• process enters futex/worker waits / hot-loop-like behavior
• JSON path bypasses the hang and exits

Earlier status tracing showed repeated filesystem churn over bundled extension manifests/package metadata. In one run, each dist/extensions/*/openclaw.plugin.json was checked hundreds of times in a single status invocation.

Expected behavior

openclaw agents list should print the same logical information as openclaw agents list --json and exit promptly.

openclaw status text output should not hang when openclaw status --json succeeds and the gateway is healthy.

Actual behavior

Default text-output commands hang before printing anything, while JSON variants complete.

Related issues

• [Bug] v2026.4.8 — openclaw cron list, openclaw message …, openclaw channels list enter 99% CPU busy-wait and never return #63249 - very similar 2026.4.x CLI subcommands hang/no-output/hot-loop while gateway and JSON commands work
• CLI commands hang indefinitely after upgrade to 2026.4.5, cannot interrupt with Ctrl+C #62335 - CLI commands hang indefinitely after 2026.4.5
• 'openclaw status' command hangs after outputting content (v2026.3.2) #35609 - openclaw status hangs after output
• CLI status/health commands hang after output (regression?) #11843 - CLI status/health commands hang after output / plugin runtime lifecycle