From 4587ef903ca6afa6ca58b4c02a656e59a6ca0656 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Patrick Erichsen <patrick.a.erichsen@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2026 16:43:44 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] fix: remote MCP plugins fail to start in native agent
 sessions (#162376)

* fix: remote MCP plugins fail to start in native agent sessions

* test: align remote MCP assertions with normalized transports
---
 docs/plugins/bundles.md        |  2 ++
 src/plugins/bundle-mcp.test.ts | 39 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 src/plugins/bundle-mcp.ts      |  7 +++---
 3 files changed, 44 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/docs/plugins/bundles.md b/docs/plugins/bundles.md
index 9ccf0c8ecf64..7fa3856a2b91 100644
--- a/docs/plugins/bundles.md
+++ b/docs/plugins/bundles.md
@@ -141,6 +141,8 @@ These are recognized and shown in diagnostics, but OpenClaw does not run them:
 ## MCP for embedded OpenClaw
 
 - Enabled bundles can contribute MCP server config.
+- Stdio commands default their working directory to the plugin config directory.
+  Remote HTTP servers do not receive an implicit working directory.
 - OpenClaw merges bundle MCP config into the effective embedded OpenClaw
   settings as `mcpServers`.
 - OpenClaw exposes supported bundle MCP tools during embedded OpenClaw agent
diff --git a/src/plugins/bundle-mcp.test.ts b/src/plugins/bundle-mcp.test.ts
index 22bd230bff4a..d9df8dbbdab0 100644
--- a/src/plugins/bundle-mcp.test.ts
+++ b/src/plugins/bundle-mcp.test.ts
@@ -157,6 +157,35 @@ describe("loadEnabledBundleMcpConfig", () => {
     });
   });
 
+  it("keeps file-backed HTTP bundle servers free of implicit stdio fields", async () => {
+    await withBundleFixture(async ({ homeDir, workspaceDir }) => {
+      const pluginRoot = await writeClaudeBundleManifest({
+        homeDir,
+        pluginId: "remote-bundle",
+        manifest: { name: "remote-bundle" },
+      });
+      await writeBundleTextFiles(pluginRoot, {
+        ".mcp.json": JSON.stringify({
+          mcpServers: {
+            http: { type: "http", url: "https://example.test/mcp" },
+            sse: { type: "sse", url: "https://example.test/sse" },
+          },
+        }),
+      });
+
+      const loaded = loadEnabledBundleMcpConfig({
+        workspaceDir,
+        cfg: createEnabledBundleConfig(["remote-bundle"]),
+      });
+
+      expectNoDiagnostics(loaded.diagnostics);
+      expect(loaded.config.mcpServers).toEqual({
+        http: { transport: "streamable-http", url: "https://example.test/mcp" },
+        sse: { transport: "sse", url: "https://example.test/sse" },
+      });
+    });
+  });
+
   it("uses a provided manifest registry instead of rediscovering bundle plugins", async () => {
     const homeDir = await tempHarness.createTempDir("openclaw-bundle-mcp-home-");
     const workspaceDir = await tempHarness.createTempDir("openclaw-bundle-mcp-workspace-");
@@ -217,6 +246,8 @@ describe("loadEnabledBundleMcpConfig", () => {
                 command: "node",
                 args: ["./mcp-server.js"],
               },
+              remote: { transport: "streamable-http", url: "https://example.test/mcp" },
+              events: { transport: "sse", url: "https://example.test/sse" },
             },
           },
         ],
@@ -230,6 +261,14 @@ describe("loadEnabledBundleMcpConfig", () => {
       args: [path.join(pluginRoot, "mcp-server.js")],
       cwd: pluginRoot,
     });
+    expect(loaded.config.mcpServers.remote).toEqual({
+      transport: "streamable-http",
+      url: "https://example.test/mcp",
+    });
+    expect(loaded.config.mcpServers.events).toEqual({
+      transport: "sse",
+      url: "https://example.test/sse",
+    });
   });
 
   it("skips MCP servers declared by a disabled native plugin", async () => {
diff --git a/src/plugins/bundle-mcp.ts b/src/plugins/bundle-mcp.ts
index be16e0de405c..3e627e111405 100644
--- a/src/plugins/bundle-mcp.ts
+++ b/src/plugins/bundle-mcp.ts
@@ -149,7 +149,6 @@ function absolutizeBundleMcpServer(params: {
   baseDir: string;
   server: BundleMcpServerConfig;
   pluginDataDir?: string;
-  agentFormat?: boolean;
 }): BundleMcpServerConfig {
   const next: BundleMcpServerConfig = { ...params.server };
   const expand = (value: string) =>
@@ -168,10 +167,11 @@ function absolutizeBundleMcpServer(params: {
       : normalizeExpandedAbsolutePath(expanded);
   };
 
+  // Remote transports have no process cwd; native runners reject that stdio-only field.
   if (
+    typeof next.command === "string" &&
     typeof next.cwd !== "string" &&
-    typeof next.workingDirectory !== "string" &&
-    (!params.agentFormat || typeof next.command === "string")
+    typeof next.workingDirectory !== "string"
   ) {
     next.cwd = params.baseDir;
   }
@@ -418,7 +418,6 @@ function loadBundleFileBackedMcpConfig(params: {
             baseDir,
             server,
             pluginDataDir: agentLoaded?.pluginDataDir,
-            agentFormat: params.bundleFormat === "agent",
           }),
         ]),
       ),