feat: add plugin startup activation metadata

src/plugins/manifest.json5-tolerance.test.ts

@@ -127,6 +127,7 @@ describe("loadPluginManifest JSON5 tolerance", () => {
     const json5Content = `{
   id: "openai",
   activation: {
+    onStartup: false,
     onProviders: ["openai", "", "openai-codex"],
     onCommands: ["models", ""],
     onChannels: ["web", ""],
@@ -150,6 +151,7 @@ describe("loadPluginManifest JSON5 tolerance", () => {
     expect(result.ok).toBe(true);
     if (result.ok) {
       expect(result.manifest.activation).toEqual({
+        onStartup: false,
         onProviders: ["openai", "openai-codex"],
         onCommands: ["models"],
         onChannels: ["web"],

src/plugins/manifest.ts

@@ -140,6 +140,14 @@ export type PluginManifestProviderRequest = {
 export type PluginManifestActivationCapability = "provider" | "channel" | "tool" | "hook";
 
 export type PluginManifestActivation = {
+  /**
+   * Explicit Gateway startup activation. Every plugin should set this as
+   * OpenClaw moves away from implicit startup sidecar loading. Set true when
+   * the plugin must be imported during Gateway startup; set false to opt out
+   * of the deprecated implicit startup sidecar fallback when no other
+   * activation trigger matches.
+   */
+  onStartup?: boolean;
   /**
    * Provider ids that should include this plugin in activation/load plans.
    * This is planner metadata only; runtime behavior still comes from register().
@@ -920,6 +928,7 @@ function normalizeManifestActivation(value: unknown): PluginManifestActivation |
   const onChannels = normalizeTrimmedStringList(value.onChannels);
   const onRoutes = normalizeTrimmedStringList(value.onRoutes);
   const onConfigPaths = normalizeTrimmedStringList(value.onConfigPaths);
+  const onStartup = typeof value.onStartup === "boolean" ? value.onStartup : undefined;
   const onCapabilities = normalizeTrimmedStringList(value.onCapabilities).filter(
     (capability): capability is PluginManifestActivationCapability =>
       capability === "provider" ||
@@ -929,6 +938,7 @@ function normalizeManifestActivation(value: unknown): PluginManifestActivation |
   );
 
   const activation = {
+    ...(onStartup !== undefined ? { onStartup } : {}),
     ...(onProviders.length > 0 ? { onProviders } : {}),
     ...(onAgentHarnesses.length > 0 ? { onAgentHarnesses } : {}),
     ...(onCommands.length > 0 ? { onCommands } : {}),