Environment

• OpenClaw 2026.5.2 (8b2a6e5)
• Raspberry Pi 5, Linux arm64, Node 22.22.2
• Single-user gateway, systemd-managed

Symptom

Running openclaw plugins install <pkgB> after a prior openclaw plugins install <pkgA> removes pkgA's on-disk directory. The install record for pkgA remains in ~/.openclaw/plugins/installs.json, but ~/.openclaw/npm/node_modules/@openclaw/<pkgA> is gone. The gateway then can't load pkgA and emits Config warnings: plugins.entries.<pkgA>: plugin not found: <pkgA> (stale config entry ignored; remove it from plugins config). The same wipe happens on openclaw doctor --fix.

This makes it impossible to have more than one externally-installed @openclaw/* plugin via the CLI — each install resets to a single-plugin state.

Reproduction

Starting from a clean ~/.openclaw/npm/node_modules/@openclaw/ directory:

$ openclaw plugins install @openclaw/discord
Installed plugin: discord
$ ls ~/.openclaw/npm/node_modules/@openclaw/
discord

$ openclaw plugins install @openclaw/acpx@beta
Installed plugin: acpx
$ ls ~/.openclaw/npm/node_modules/@openclaw/
acpx                       # <-- discord is gone

$ openclaw doctor --fix
Updated ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json
$ ls ~/.openclaw/npm/node_modules/@openclaw/
discord                    # <-- acpx is gone

$ cat ~/.openclaw/plugins/installs.json | jq '.installRecords | keys'
[
  "acpx",
  "discord"                # <-- both records still tracked, but only one on disk
]

Likely root cause

~/.openclaw/npm/ has no package.json. openclaw plugins install appears to invoke npm install <pkg> (or equivalent) into that directory. With no package.json to anchor a dependency tree, npm treats every package other than the one you're installing as extraneous and removes it. Each subsequent install/repair therefore yields a single-package node_modules. openclaw doctor --fix repeats the same pattern when reconciling the install records.

Workaround

Manually maintain a package.json at ~/.openclaw/npm/ that lists every installed @openclaw/* plugin as a dependency, then run npm install directly:

$ cat > ~/.openclaw/npm/package.json << 'EOF'
{
  "name": "openclaw-plugins-install-root",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "private": true,
  "dependencies": {
    "@openclaw/discord": "2026.5.2",
    "@openclaw/acpx": "2026.5.2-beta.2"
  }
}
EOF
$ cd ~/.openclaw/npm && npm install
$ openclaw plugins enable acpx
$ systemctl --user restart openclaw-gateway.service

After this, both packages coexist and the gateway boots with the full plugin set. The workaround obviously breaks the next time anything calls openclaw plugins install or openclaw doctor --fix, since they presumably overwrite or ignore this package.json.

Suggested fix directions

1. Have openclaw plugins install maintain a package.json (or equivalent dep manifest) in ~/.openclaw/npm/ that reflects all rows in installs.json before running the npm operation, so the targeted package is added but the others stay in the dep tree.
2. Or invoke npm with --no-package-lock and --prefer-offline against a synthesized dep tree that includes every previously-installed plugin, so npm doesn't see anything as extraneous.
3. Or stop using a shared ~/.openclaw/npm/node_modules/ for multi-plugin installs, and instead install each plugin into its own directory keyed off the install record.

Related issues

• [Bug]: Discord & Zalo channels removed after upgrade to 2026.5.2 — no migration path #76391 — Discord/Zalo removed from bundled, no installable version on ClawHub. Adjacent but different (this one is about install mechanics, not registry availability).
• [Bug]: Every upgrade nukes QQ Bot — stock plugin removed, npm blocked by security scan #76397 — QQ Bot stock-to-npm transition; closed without resolution.
• Bug: update.run clears plugins.installs, causing all globally-installed plugins to be lost on restart #76430 — openclaw update clears plugins.installs in openclaw.json. Related but different code path.
• v2026.5.2 upgrade fails: "Plugin install payload missing after update" for @openclaw/diffs #76426 — "Plugin install payload missing after update" for @openclaw/diffs. Same family of issues (post-install package directory missing).