Summary

On 2026.6.10, running openclaw doctor --fix (to reconcile an unrelated plugin version drift) silently added the external codex plugin to my config and enabled it — plugins.allow += "codex" and plugins.entries.codex = { "enabled": true } — even though:

• I have never configured codex,
• the @openclaw/codex package is not installed on this machine, and
• the codex plugin alters provider routing (it pulls openai/* into the Codex harness).

It appears to be the "enable codex when the openai plugin is enabled" coupling (cf. #70767) firing inside doctor --fix. Because my openai plugin is enabled, --fix decided I should have codex enabled too. The config write hot-reloaded live within ~2s.

It was harmless only by luck — the @openclaw/codex package wasn't installed, so nothing loaded and openai/* routing was unaffected (verified). On any machine where that package is present (it has auto-installed on upgrade historically), this would silently reroute all OpenAI traffic — including orchestrator + fallback chains — by merely running a health check.

Why I think this is a bug (not just a bad default)

1. --fix injected config I never declared. A repair command should reconcile toward the user's declared intent, not add and enable a brand-new, routing-altering plugin.
2. It enabled an uninstalled plugin. Writing enabled: true for a plugin whose package is absent yields an internally inconsistent config. (Doctor's own lint elsewhere flags "plugin not installed" for acpx — yet it happily enables codex which is equally not installed.)
3. It contradicted its own diagnostic. Doctor warned: "ignored plugins.load.paths entry that points at OpenClaw's current bundled plugin directory; remove this redundant path." --fix left that path in place and instead deleted my explicit acpx: { "enabled": false } entry — destroying intent rather than fixing the flagged item (related: doctor --fix strips renamed config keys and disables the plugin instead of migrating #84985).
4. It did not fix what it was run for — the actual plugin version drift it was invoked to reconcile was untouched.

Reproduction

1. On 2026.6.10, have plugins.entries.openai.enabled = true and no codex entry in config.
2. Run openclaw doctor --fix.
3. Diff the config against the pre-fix backup doctor writes (openclaw.json.bak).

Actual config change made by --fix (sanitized)

  plugins.allow:
-   "acpx",
    ...
    "memory-core",
+   "codex"

  plugins.entries:
-   "acpx": { "enabled": false },
+   "codex": { "enabled": true }

  plugins.load.paths:
    # UNCHANGED — the redundant bundled acpx path doctor warned about was NOT removed
    [ ".../openclaw/dist/extensions/acpx" ]

Expected behavior

• doctor --fix should not add and enable a plugin the user never configured — at minimum it should not enable a plugin whose package is not installed, and never one that silently changes provider routing without explicit confirmation.
• It should fix the item it actually warned about (the redundant plugins.load.paths entry) and preserve explicit user enabled: false choices.

Environment

• OpenClaw: 2026.6.10 (global npm package, Node 24.14.1, Linux)
• Gateway: systemd user service on 127.0.0.1:18789
• openai plugin enabled; codex never configured; @openclaw/codex not installed
• Only bundled codex-related extension present is codex-supervisor; plain codex is an external catalog plugin

Related

• doctor --fix migrates codex/gpt-5.5 to openai/gpt-5.5, then Codex app-server startup times out on 2026.6.1 #90881 — doctor --fix codex↔openai migration causing app-server timeout (opposite direction; same doctor↔codex coupling area)
• fix(doctor): gate legacy Codex canonicalization on a migration plan #93180 — fix(doctor): gate legacy Codex canonicalization on a migration plan (in-flight; likely overlaps)
• fix(doctor): enable codex when openai plugin is enabled #70767 — fix(doctor): enable codex when openai plugin is enabled (probable origin of this coupling)
• [Bug] openclaw doctor --fix incorrectly enables built-in feishu plugin, causing conflict with openclaw-lark #44722 — prior precedent that doctor --fix auto-enabling a plugin (feishu) is treated as a bug/regression

Happy to provide the full sanitized config diff or logs if useful.