perf(gateway): avoid jiti on native plugin loads

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Gateway/config: stop Gateway startup and hot reload from auto-restoring invalid config; invalid config now fails closed and `openclaw doctor --fix` owns last-known-good repair.
 - Gateway/performance: lazy-load early runtime discovery and shutdown-hook helpers, defer maintenance timers until after readiness, and trim duplicate plugin auto-enable work during Gateway startup.
 - Gateway/performance: defer non-readiness sidecars until after the ready signal, avoid hot-path channel plugin barrel imports, and fast-path trusted bundled plugin metadata during Gateway startup.
+- Gateway/performance: avoid importing `jiti` on native-loadable plugin startup paths, so compiled bundled plugin surfaces do not pay source-transform loader cost unless fallback loading is actually needed.
 - QA/Mantis: add a `pnpm openclaw qa mantis discord-smoke` runner and manual GitHub workflow that verify the Mantis Discord bot can see the configured guild/channel, post a smoke message, add a reaction, and upload artifacts.
 - QA/Mantis: add `pnpm openclaw qa mantis slack-desktop-smoke` to run Slack live QA inside a Crabbox VNC desktop, open Slack Web, and capture desktop screenshots beside the Slack QA artifacts.
 - QA/Mantis: pass the runtime env through desktop-browser Crabbox and artifact-copy child commands, so embedded Mantis callers can provide Crabbox credentials without mutating the parent process. Thanks @vincentkoc.

scripts/load-channel-config-surface.ts

@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 import { spawnSync } from "node:child_process";
+import { createRequire } from "node:module";
 import path from "node:path";
 import { fileURLToPath, pathToFileURL } from "node:url";
-import { createJiti } from "jiti";
+import type { createJiti } from "jiti";
 import { buildChannelConfigSchema } from "../src/channels/plugins/config-schema.js";
 import {
   buildPluginLoaderJitiOptions,
@@ -9,6 +10,23 @@ import {
   resolvePluginSdkScopedAliasMap,
 } from "../src/plugins/sdk-alias.js";
 
+type CreateJiti = typeof createJiti;
+
+const requireForJiti = createRequire(import.meta.url);
+let createJitiLoaderFactory: CreateJiti | undefined;
+
+function loadCreateJitiLoaderFactory(): CreateJiti {
+  if (createJitiLoaderFactory) {
+    return createJitiLoaderFactory;
+  }
+  const loaded = requireForJiti("jiti") as { createJiti?: CreateJiti };
+  if (typeof loaded.createJiti !== "function") {
+    throw new Error("jiti module did not export createJiti");
+  }
+  createJitiLoaderFactory = loaded.createJiti;
+  return createJitiLoaderFactory;
+}
+
 function isBuiltChannelConfigSchema(
   value: unknown,
 ): value is { schema: Record<string, unknown>; uiHints?: Record<string, unknown> } {
@@ -137,7 +155,7 @@ export async function loadChannelConfigSurfaceModule(
         pluginSdkResolution: "src",
       }),
     };
-    const jiti = createJiti(import.meta.url, {
+    const jiti = loadCreateJitiLoaderFactory()(import.meta.url, {
       ...buildPluginLoaderJitiOptions(aliasMap),
       interopDefault: true,
       tryNative: false,

src/plugins/plugin-module-loader-cache.test.ts

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import { importFreshModule } from "openclaw/plugin-sdk/test-fixtures";
 import { afterEach, describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
+import type { PluginModuleLoaderFactory } from "./plugin-module-loader-cache.js";
 
 afterEach(() => {
   vi.restoreAllMocks();
@@ -22,7 +23,17 @@ async function loadCachedPluginModuleLoader(scope: string) {
     typeof import("./plugin-module-loader-cache.js")
   >(import.meta.url, `./plugin-module-loader-cache.js?scope=${scope}`);
 
-  return { createJiti, getCachedPluginModuleLoader };
+  const getCachedPluginModuleLoaderWithMock: typeof getCachedPluginModuleLoader = (params) =>
+    getCachedPluginModuleLoader({
+      ...params,
+      createLoader: params.createLoader ?? asPluginModuleLoaderFactory(createJiti),
+    });
+
+  return { createJiti, getCachedPluginModuleLoader: getCachedPluginModuleLoaderWithMock };
+}
+
+function asPluginModuleLoaderFactory(factory: unknown): PluginModuleLoaderFactory {
+  return factory as PluginModuleLoaderFactory;
 }
 
 describe("getCachedPluginModuleLoader", () => {
@@ -361,7 +372,8 @@ describe("getCachedPluginModuleLoader", () => {
   it("serves compiled .js targets from native require without invoking the module loader", async () => {
     const fromSourceTransformer = vi.fn();
     const createJiti = vi.fn(() => fromSourceTransformer);
-    vi.doMock("jiti", () => ({ createJiti }));
+    const jitiModuleFactory = vi.fn(() => ({ createJiti }));
+    vi.doMock("jiti", jitiModuleFactory);
     const nativeStub = vi.fn((target: string) => ({
       ok: true as const,
       moduleExport: { loadedFrom: target },
@@ -381,12 +393,14 @@ describe("getCachedPluginModuleLoader", () => {
       modulePath: "/repo/dist/extensions/demo/api.js",
       importerUrl: "file:///repo/src/plugins/public-surface-loader.ts",
       loaderFilename: "file:///repo/src/plugins/public-surface-loader.ts",
+      createLoader: asPluginModuleLoaderFactory(createJiti),
     });
 
     const result = loader("/repo/dist/extensions/demo/api.js") as { loadedFrom: string };
     expect(result.loadedFrom).toBe("/repo/dist/extensions/demo/api.js");
     // Jiti should not be constructed or invoked for .js targets that
     // `tryNativeRequireJavaScriptModule` resolves.
+    expect(jitiModuleFactory).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
     expect(createJiti).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
     expect(fromSourceTransformer).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
     // allowWindows must be passed so the native fast path works on Windows too.
@@ -420,6 +434,7 @@ describe("getCachedPluginModuleLoader", () => {
       modulePath: "/repo/dist/extensions/demo/api.js",
       importerUrl: "file:///repo/src/plugins/public-surface-loader.ts",
       loaderFilename: "file:///repo/src/plugins/public-surface-loader.ts",
+      createLoader: asPluginModuleLoaderFactory(createJiti),
     });
 
     const result = loader("/repo/dist/extensions/demo/api.js") as { fromSourceTransform: boolean };
@@ -455,6 +470,7 @@ describe("getCachedPluginModuleLoader", () => {
       importerUrl: "file:///C:/Users/alice/openclaw/dist/src/plugins/public-surface-loader.js",
       loaderFilename: "C:\\Users\\alice\\openclaw\\dist\\extensions\\feishu\\api.js",
       tryNative: true,
+      createLoader: asPluginModuleLoaderFactory(createJiti),
     });
 
     loader("C:\\Users\\alice\\openclaw\\dist\\extensions\\feishu\\api.js");
@@ -489,6 +505,7 @@ describe("getCachedPluginModuleLoader", () => {
       loaderFilename: "file:///repo/src/plugins/bundled-capability-runtime.ts",
       aliasMap: { "openclaw/plugin-sdk": "/repo/shim.js" },
       tryNative: false,
+      createLoader: asPluginModuleLoaderFactory(createJiti),
     });
 
     const result = loader("/repo/dist/extensions/demo/api.js") as { fromSourceTransform: boolean };
@@ -528,6 +545,7 @@ describe("getCachedPluginModuleLoader", () => {
       importerUrl: "file:///C:/Users/alice/openclaw/src/plugins/loader.ts",
       loaderFilename: "C:\\Users\\alice\\openclaw\\extensions\\feishu\\api.ts",
       tryNative: false,
+      createLoader: asPluginModuleLoaderFactory(createJiti),
     });
 
     loader("C:\\Users\\alice\\openclaw\\extensions\\feishu\\api.ts");
@@ -560,6 +578,7 @@ describe("getCachedPluginModuleLoader", () => {
       modulePath: "/repo/dist/extensions/demo/api.js",
       importerUrl: "file:///repo/src/plugins/public-surface-loader.ts",
       loaderFilename: "file:///repo/src/plugins/public-surface-loader.ts",
+      createLoader: asPluginModuleLoaderFactory(createJiti),
     });
 
     const loose = loader as unknown as (t: string, ...a: unknown[]) => unknown;

src/plugins/plugin-module-loader-cache.ts

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-import { createJiti } from "jiti";
+import { createRequire } from "node:module";
+import type { createJiti } from "jiti";
 import { toSafeImportPath } from "../shared/import-specifier.js";
 import { tryNativeRequireJavaScriptModule } from "./native-module-require.js";
 import { PluginLruCache } from "./plugin-cache-primitives.js";
@@ -45,6 +46,9 @@ export type PluginModuleLoaderStatsSnapshot = {
 
 const DEFAULT_PLUGIN_MODULE_LOADER_CACHE_ENTRIES = 128;
 const MAX_TRACKED_SOURCE_TRANSFORM_TARGETS = 24;
+const JITI_FACTORY_OVERRIDE_KEY = Symbol.for("openclaw.pluginModuleLoaderJitiFactoryOverride");
+const requireForJiti = createRequire(import.meta.url);
+let createJitiLoaderFactory: PluginModuleLoaderFactory | undefined;
 const pluginModuleLoaderStats = {
   calls: 0,
   nativeHits: 0,
@@ -96,6 +100,26 @@ export function resetPluginModuleLoaderStatsForTest(): void {
   pluginModuleLoaderStats.sourceTransformTargets.clear();
 }
 
+function loadCreateJitiLoaderFactory(): PluginModuleLoaderFactory {
+  const override = (
+    globalThis as typeof globalThis & {
+      [JITI_FACTORY_OVERRIDE_KEY]?: PluginModuleLoaderFactory;
+    }
+  )[JITI_FACTORY_OVERRIDE_KEY];
+  if (override) {
+    return override;
+  }
+  if (createJitiLoaderFactory) {
+    return createJitiLoaderFactory;
+  }
+  const loaded = requireForJiti("jiti") as { createJiti?: PluginModuleLoaderFactory };
+  if (typeof loaded.createJiti !== "function") {
+    throw new Error("jiti module did not export createJiti");
+  }
+  createJitiLoaderFactory = loaded.createJiti;
+  return createJitiLoaderFactory;
+}
+
 export function createPluginModuleLoaderCache(
   maxEntries = DEFAULT_PLUGIN_MODULE_LOADER_CACHE_ENTRIES,
 ): PluginModuleLoaderCache {
@@ -166,10 +190,13 @@ function createLazySourceTransformLoader(params: {
     if (loadWithSourceTransform) {
       return loadWithSourceTransform;
     }
-    const jitiLoader = (params.createLoader ?? createJiti)(params.loaderFilename, {
-      ...buildPluginLoaderJitiOptions(params.aliasMap),
-      tryNative: params.tryNative,
-    });
+    const jitiLoader = (params.createLoader ?? loadCreateJitiLoaderFactory())(
+      params.loaderFilename,
+      {
+        ...buildPluginLoaderJitiOptions(params.aliasMap),
+        tryNative: params.tryNative,
+      },
+    );
     loadWithSourceTransform = new Proxy(jitiLoader, {
       apply(target, thisArg, argArray) {
         const [first, ...rest] = argArray as [unknown, ...unknown[]];

src/plugins/test-helpers/registry-jiti-mocks.ts

@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ const registryJitiMocks = vi.hoisted(() => ({
   loadPluginManifestRegistry: vi.fn(),
   loadPluginRegistrySnapshot: vi.fn(),
 }));
+const pluginModuleLoaderJitiFactoryOverrideKey = Symbol.for(
+  "openclaw.pluginModuleLoaderJitiFactoryOverride",
+);
 
 vi.mock("jiti", () => ({
   createJiti: (...args: Parameters<typeof registryJitiMocks.createJiti>) =>
@@ -43,6 +46,11 @@ vi.mock("../plugin-registry.js", async (importOriginal) => {
   };
 });
 export function resetRegistryJitiMocks(): void {
+  (
+    globalThis as typeof globalThis & {
+      [pluginModuleLoaderJitiFactoryOverrideKey]?: typeof registryJitiMocks.createJiti;
+    }
+  )[pluginModuleLoaderJitiFactoryOverrideKey] = registryJitiMocks.createJiti;
   registryJitiMocks.createJiti.mockReset();
   registryJitiMocks.discoverOpenClawPlugins.mockReset();
   registryJitiMocks.loadPluginManifestRegistry.mockReset();