diff --git a/src/config/includes-scan.ts b/src/config/includes-scan.ts
index 7542ecd8bc7..16e42e1c04e 100644
--- a/src/config/includes-scan.ts
+++ b/src/config/includes-scan.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import * as fs from "node:fs/promises";
 import path from "node:path";
-import JSON5 from "json5";
+import { parseJsonWithJson5Fallback } from "../utils/parse-json-compat.js";
 import { INCLUDE_KEY, MAX_INCLUDE_DEPTH } from "./includes.js";
 
 function listDirectIncludes(parsed: unknown): string[] {
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ export async function collectIncludePathsRecursive(params: {
       }
       const nestedParsed = (() => {
         try {
-          return JSON5.parse(rawText);
+          return parseJsonWithJson5Fallback(rawText);
         } catch {
           return null;
         }
diff --git a/src/config/includes.ts b/src/config/includes.ts
index 7716987933a..e134973b215 100644
--- a/src/config/includes.ts
+++ b/src/config/includes.ts
@@ -12,10 +12,10 @@
 
 import fs from "node:fs";
 import path from "node:path";
-import JSON5 from "json5";
 import { canUseRootFileOpen, openRootFileSync } from "../infra/boundary-file-read.js";
 import { isPathInside } from "../security/scan-paths.js";
 import { isPlainObject } from "../utils.js";
+import { parseJsonWithJson5Fallback } from "../utils/parse-json-compat.js";
 import { isBlockedObjectKey } from "./prototype-keys.js";
 
 export const INCLUDE_KEY = "$include";
@@ -421,7 +421,7 @@ const defaultResolver: IncludeResolver = {
   readFile: (p) => fs.readFileSync(p, "utf-8"),
   readFileWithGuards: ({ includePath, resolvedPath, rootRealDir }) =>
     readConfigIncludeFileWithGuards({ includePath, resolvedPath, rootRealDir }),
-  parseJson: (raw) => JSON5.parse(raw),
+  parseJson: parseJsonWithJson5Fallback,
 };
 
 /**
diff --git a/src/config/io.parse.test.ts b/src/config/io.parse.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..b770d7fd6ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/config/io.parse.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+import { describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
+import { parseConfigJson5 } from "./config.js";
+
+describe("parseConfigJson5", () => {
+  it("uses native JSON parsing before JSON5 fallback", () => {
+    const json5 = { parse: vi.fn(() => ({ fromJson5: true })) };
+
+    const result = parseConfigJson5('{"gateway":{"mode":"local"}}', json5);
+
+    expect(result).toEqual({ ok: true, parsed: { gateway: { mode: "local" } } });
+    expect(json5.parse).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
+  it("falls back to JSON5 for authored config syntax", () => {
+    const json5 = { parse: vi.fn(() => ({ gateway: { mode: "local" } })) };
+
+    const result = parseConfigJson5("{ gateway: { mode: 'local' } }", json5);
+
+    expect(result).toEqual({ ok: true, parsed: { gateway: { mode: "local" } } });
+    expect(json5.parse).toHaveBeenCalledOnce();
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/config/io.ts b/src/config/io.ts
index 282c0d809ae..15676049c2f 100644
--- a/src/config/io.ts
+++ b/src/config/io.ts
@@ -1042,6 +1042,12 @@ export function parseConfigJson5(
   raw: string,
   json5: { parse: (value: string) => unknown } = JSON5,
 ): ParseConfigJson5Result {
+  try {
+    return { ok: true, parsed: JSON.parse(raw) };
+  } catch {
+    // Keep JSON5 compatibility for authored config, but avoid the slower parser
+    // on the JSON files OpenClaw writes itself.
+  }
   try {
     return { ok: true, parsed: json5.parse(raw) };
   } catch (err) {