Bug Description

When running update.run (OpenClaw self-update), the plugins.installs section in openclaw.json is cleared to {}. After the gateway restarts, all globally-installed plugins are lost because the plugin discovery mechanism relies on install records to locate npm-installed plugins.

Environment

• OpenClaw version: 2026.5.2 (8b2a6e5)
• OS: macOS (arm64)
• Plugins affected: @openclaw/feishu, @memtensor/memos-cloud-openclaw-plugin
• Plugin install location: ~/.openclaw/npm/node_modules/

Reproduction Steps

1. Have globally installed plugins via openclaw plugins install @openclaw/feishu and openclaw plugins install @memtensor/memos-cloud-openclaw-plugin
2. Verify 3 plugins loaded: feishu, memory-core, memos-cloud-openclaw-plugin
3. Run update.run (OpenClaw self-update from WebUI or CLI)
4. After restart, only memory-core (bundled) loads — feishu and memos-cloud are gone
5. plugins.installs in openclaw.json is {}

Evidence from logs

2026-05-03T09:31:19 [reload] config change detected: models.providers.bailian.baseUrl, models.providers.bailian.apiKey
2026-05-03T09:31:44 [gateway] update.run completed status=ok
2026-05-03T09:31:49 [gateway] auto-enabled plugins:
- memory-core tool configured, enabled automatically.
2026-05-03T09:31:50 [gateway] http server listening (1 plugin: memory-core; 3.2s)

Previously (before update):

2026-04-30T07:35:56 [gateway] ready (3 plugins: feishu, memory-core, memos-cloud-openclaw-plugin; 1.8s)

Impact

• All cron task notifications failed (03:00–06:00 window) because the feishu channel plugin was unavailable
• Gateway required manual plugin re-installation to restore functionality
• plugins.installs was {} — no install records persisted across the update

Workaround

Manually re-install plugins after every update:

openclaw plugins install @openclaw/feishu
openclaw plugins install @memtensor/memos-cloud-openclaw-plugin
openclaw gateway restart

Suggested Fix

update.run should preserve plugins.installs and plugins.entries when writing the updated config, or the update process should re-verify and restore install records after completion.

Related

• plugins/installs.json file at ~/.openclaw/plugins/installs.json correctly retains install records, but openclaw.json plugins.installs is what the gateway uses at startup
• The install records in installs.json point to correct paths, but the gateway reports "plugin not found" because plugins.installs in openclaw.json is empty