openclaw/docs/cli/update.md

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CLI reference for `openclaw update` (safe-ish source update + gateway auto-restart)	You want to update a source checkout safely You are debugging `openclaw update` output or options You need to understand `--update` shorthand behavior	Update

openclaw update

Safely update OpenClaw and switch between stable/beta/dev channels.

If you installed via npm/pnpm/bun (global install, no git metadata), updates happen via the package-manager flow in Updating.

Usage

openclaw update
openclaw update status
openclaw update wizard
openclaw update --channel beta
openclaw update --channel dev
openclaw update --tag beta
openclaw update --tag main
openclaw update --dry-run
openclaw update --no-restart
openclaw update --yes
openclaw update --json
openclaw --update

Options

• --no-restart: skip restarting the Gateway service after a successful update. Package-manager updates that do restart the Gateway verify the restarted service reports the expected updated version before the command succeeds.
• --channel <stable|beta|dev>: set the update channel (git + npm; persisted in config).
• --tag <dist-tag|version|spec>: override the package target for this update only. For package installs, main maps to github:openclaw/openclaw#main.
• --dry-run: preview planned update actions (channel/tag/target/restart flow) without writing config, installing, syncing plugins, or restarting.
• --json: print machine-readable UpdateRunResult JSON, including postUpdate.plugins.warnings when corrupt or unloadable managed plugins need repair after the core update succeeds, beta-channel plugin fallback details when a plugin has no beta release, and postUpdate.plugins.integrityDrifts when npm plugin artifact drift is detected during post-update plugin sync.
• --timeout <seconds>: per-step timeout (default is 1800s).
• --yes: skip confirmation prompts (for example downgrade confirmation).

openclaw update does not have a --verbose flag. Use --dry-run to preview the planned channel/tag/install/restart actions, --json for machine-readable results, and openclaw update status --json when you only need channel and availability details. If you are debugging Gateway logs around an update, console verbosity and file log level are separate: Gateway --verbose affects terminal/WebSocket output, while file logs require logging.level: "debug" or "trace" in config. See Gateway logging.

In Nix mode (`OPENCLAW_NIX_MODE=1`), mutating `openclaw update` runs are disabled. Update the Nix source or flake input for this install instead; for nix-openclaw, use the agent-first [Quick Start](https://github.com/openclaw/nix-openclaw#quick-start). `openclaw update status` and `openclaw update --dry-run` remain read-only. Downgrades require confirmation because older versions can break configuration.

update status

Show the active update channel + git tag/branch/SHA (for source checkouts), plus update availability.

openclaw update status
openclaw update status --json
openclaw update status --timeout 10

Options:

• --json: print machine-readable status JSON.
• --timeout <seconds>: timeout for checks (default is 3s).

update wizard

Interactive flow to pick an update channel and confirm whether to restart the Gateway after updating (default is to restart). If you select dev without a git checkout, it offers to create one.

Options:

• --timeout <seconds>: timeout for each update step (default 1800)

What it does

When you switch channels explicitly (--channel ...), OpenClaw also keeps the install method aligned:

• dev → ensures a git checkout (default: ~/openclaw, override with OPENCLAW_GIT_DIR), updates it, and installs the global CLI from that checkout.
• stable → installs from npm using latest.
• beta → prefers npm dist-tag beta, but falls back to latest when beta is missing or older than the current stable release.

The Gateway core auto-updater (when enabled via config) launches the CLI update path outside the live Gateway request handler. Control-plane update.run package-manager updates also use a managed-service handoff instead of replacing the package tree inside the live Gateway process. The Gateway starts a detached helper, exits, and the helper runs the normal openclaw update --yes --json CLI path from outside the Gateway process tree. If that handoff is unavailable, update.run returns a structured response with the safe shell command to run manually.

For package-manager installs, openclaw update resolves the target package version before invoking the package manager. npm global installs use a staged install: OpenClaw installs the new package into a temporary npm prefix, verifies the packaged dist inventory there, then swaps that clean package tree into the real global prefix. If verification fails, post-update doctor, plugin sync, and restart work do not run from the suspect tree. Even when the installed version already matches the target, the command refreshes the global package install, then runs plugin sync, a core-command completion refresh, and restart work. This keeps packaged sidecars and channel-owned plugin records aligned with the installed OpenClaw build while leaving full plugin-command completion rebuilds to explicit openclaw completion --write-state runs.

When a local managed Gateway service is installed and restart is enabled, package-manager updates stop the running service before replacing the package tree, then refresh the service metadata from the updated install, restart the service, and verify the restarted Gateway reports the expected version before reporting Gateway: restarted and verified.. On macOS, the post-update check also verifies the LaunchAgent is loaded/running for the active profile and the configured loopback port is healthy. If the plist is installed but launchd is not supervising it, OpenClaw re-bootstraps the LaunchAgent automatically, then reruns the health/version/channel readiness checks. A fresh bootstrap loads the RunAtLoad job directly, so update recovery does not immediately kickstart -k the newly spawned Gateway. If the Gateway still does not become healthy, the command exits non-zero and prints the restart log path plus explicit restart, reinstall, and package rollback instructions. If restart cannot run, the command prints Gateway: restart skipped (...) or Gateway: restart failed: ... with a manual openclaw gateway restart hint. With --no-restart, package replacement still runs but the managed service is not stopped or restarted, so the running Gateway may keep old code until you restart it manually.

Control-plane response shape

When update.run is invoked through the Gateway control plane on a package-manager install, the handler reports the handoff initiation separately from the CLI update that continues after the Gateway exits:

• ok: true, result.status: "skipped", result.reason: "managed-service-handoff-started", and handoff.status: "started" mean the Gateway created the managed-service handoff and scheduled its own restart so the detached helper can run openclaw update --yes --json outside the live service process.
• ok: false, result.reason: "managed-service-handoff-unavailable", and handoff.status: "unavailable" mean OpenClaw could not find a supervising service boundary for a safe handoff. The response includes handoff.command, the shell command to run from outside the Gateway.
• ok: false, result.reason: "managed-service-handoff-failed" means the Gateway tried to create the handoff but could not spawn the detached helper.

The sentinel payload is still written before the Gateway exits, and the CLI handoff updates the same restart sentinel after the managed-service restart health checks complete. During the handoff, the sentinel can carry stats.reason: "restart-health-pending" with no success continuation; the restarted Gateway keeps polling it and only fires the continuation after the CLI has verified service health and rewritten the sentinel with the final ok result. openclaw status and openclaw status --all show an Update restart row while that sentinel is pending or failed, and update.status returns the latest cached sentinel.

Git checkout flow

Channel selection

• stable: checkout the latest non-beta tag, then build and doctor.
• beta: prefer the latest -beta tag, but fall back to the latest stable tag when beta is missing or older.
• dev: checkout main, then fetch and rebase.

Update steps

Requires no uncommitted changes. Switches to the selected channel (tag or branch). Dev only. Runs the TypeScript build in a temp worktree. If the tip fails, walks back up to 10 commits to find the newest buildable commit. Set `OPENCLAW_UPDATE_PREFLIGHT_LINT=1` to also run lint during this preflight; lint runs in constrained serial mode because user update hosts are often smaller than CI runners. Rebases onto the selected commit (dev only). Uses the repo package manager. For pnpm checkouts, the updater bootstraps `pnpm` on demand (via `corepack` first, then a temporary `npm install pnpm@11` fallback) instead of running `npm run build` inside a pnpm workspace. Builds the gateway and the Control UI. `openclaw doctor` runs as the final safe-update check. Syncs plugins to the active channel. Dev uses bundled plugins; stable and beta use npm. Updates tracked plugin installs.

On the beta update channel, tracked npm and ClawHub plugin installs that follow the default/latest line try a plugin @beta release first. If the plugin has no beta release, OpenClaw falls back to the recorded default/latest spec and reports that as a warning. For npm plugins, OpenClaw also falls back when the beta package exists but fails install validation. These plugin fallback warnings do not make the core update fail. Exact versions and explicit tags are not rewritten.

If an exact pinned npm plugin update resolves to an artifact whose integrity differs from the stored install record, `openclaw update` aborts that plugin artifact update instead of installing it. Reinstall or update the plugin explicitly only after verifying that you trust the new artifact. Post-update plugin sync failures that are scoped to a managed plugin and that the sync path can route around (e.g. an unreachable npm registry for a non-essential plugin) are reported as warnings after the core update succeeds. The JSON result keeps the top-level update `status: "ok"` and reports `postUpdate.plugins.status: "warning"` with `openclaw doctor --fix` and `openclaw plugins inspect --runtime --json` guidance. Unexpected updater or sync exceptions still fail the update result. Fix the plugin install or update error, then rerun `openclaw doctor --fix` or `openclaw update`.

After the per-plugin sync step, openclaw update runs a mandatory post-core convergence pass before the gateway is restarted: it repairs missing configured plugin payloads, validates each active tracked install record on disk, and statically verifies its package.json is parseable (and any explicitly-declared main exists). Failures from this pass — and an invalid OpenClaw config snapshot — return postUpdate.plugins.status: "error" and flip the top-level update status to "error", so openclaw update exits non-zero and the gateway is not restarted with an unverified plugin set. The error includes structured postUpdate.plugins.warnings[].guidance lines pointing at openclaw doctor --fix and openclaw plugins inspect <id> --runtime --json for follow-up. Disabled plugin entries and records that are not trusted-source-linked official sync targets are skipped here, mirroring the skipDisabledPlugins policy used by the missing-payload check, so a stale disabled plugin record cannot block an otherwise valid update.

When the updated Gateway starts, plugin loading is verify-only: startup does not run package managers or mutate dependency trees. Package-manager update.run restarts are handed to the CLI managed-service path, so the package swap happens outside the old Gateway process and the service health checks decide whether the update can be reported as complete.

If pnpm bootstrap still fails, the updater stops early with a package-manager-specific error instead of trying npm run build inside the checkout.

--update shorthand

openclaw --update rewrites to openclaw update (useful for shells and launcher scripts).

Related

• openclaw doctor (offers to run update first on git checkouts)
• Development channels
• Updating
• CLI reference