fix(update): ignore inherited launchd xpc for respawn (#85789)

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -86,6 +86,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Gateway/WebChat: hide duplicate `gateway-injected` assistant rows when Cursor ACP already persisted the same `acp-runtime` reply. Fixes #85741. Thanks @lxf-lxf.
 - WebChat: scope the visible attachment button to its own composer file input so clicking Upload reliably opens the file picker. (#83952, fixes #47983) Thanks @jason-allen-oneal.
 - Gateway: preserve deferred lifecycle-error cleanup across later non-terminal events so provider timeouts can persist failed session state instead of leaving sessions stuck running. (#85256, fixes #63819) Thanks @samzong.
+- Gateway/update: stop treating inherited macOS `XPC_SERVICE_NAME` values as launchd supervision during update respawn, so GUI-spawned gateways use detached respawn instead of exiting for a missing LaunchAgent. Fixes #85224. Thanks @richardmqq.
 - Agents/subagents: report tool-only child progress during timeout summaries instead of showing no visible output.
 - Telegram/ACP: preserve explicit `:topic:` conversation suffixes when inbound ACP targets do not carry a separate thread id.
 - Browser/proxy: bypass the managed proxy for the exact local managed Chrome CDP readiness and DevTools WebSocket endpoints, so `openclaw browser start` works when the operator proxy blocks loopback egress. (#83255) Thanks @lightcap.

src/infra/process-respawn.test.ts

@@ -86,11 +86,35 @@ describe("restartGatewayProcessWithFreshPid", () => {
     expect(spawnMock).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
   });
 
-  it("returns supervised when launchd hints are present on macOS (no kickstart)", () => {
+  it("returns supervised when OpenClaw launchd markers are present on macOS (no kickstart)", () => {
     clearSupervisorHints();
     expectLaunchdSupervisedWithoutKickstart({ launchJobLabel: "ai.openclaw.gateway" });
   });
 
+  it("returns supervised for a real gateway launchd job without the injected marker", () => {
+    clearSupervisorHints();
+    setPlatform("darwin");
+    process.env.LAUNCH_JOB_LABEL = "ai.openclaw.gateway";
+
+    const result = restartGatewayProcessWithFreshPid();
+
+    expect(result.mode).toBe("supervised");
+    expect(triggerOpenClawRestartMock).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(spawnMock).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
+  it("returns supervised for a real gateway XPC launchd job without the injected marker", () => {
+    clearSupervisorHints();
+    setPlatform("darwin");
+    process.env.XPC_SERVICE_NAME = "ai.openclaw.gateway";
+
+    const result = restartGatewayProcessWithFreshPid();
+
+    expect(result.mode).toBe("supervised");
+    expect(triggerOpenClawRestartMock).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(spawnMock).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
   it("returns supervised on macOS when launchd label is set (no kickstart)", () => {
     expectLaunchdSupervisedWithoutKickstart({ launchJobLabel: "ai.openclaw.gateway" });
   });
@@ -123,12 +147,18 @@ describe("restartGatewayProcessWithFreshPid", () => {
     expect(spawnMock).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
   });
 
-  it("returns supervised when XPC_SERVICE_NAME is set by launchd", () => {
+  it("does not treat inherited XPC_SERVICE_NAME as launchd supervision", () => {
     clearSupervisorHints();
     setPlatform("darwin");
-    process.env.XPC_SERVICE_NAME = "ai.openclaw.gateway";
+    process.env.XPC_SERVICE_NAME = "ai.openclaw.mac";
+    process.env.OPENCLAW_PROFILE = "mac";
+
     const result = restartGatewayProcessWithFreshPid();
-    expect(result.mode).toBe("supervised");
+
+    expect(result).toEqual({
+      mode: "disabled",
+      detail: "unmanaged: use in-process restart to keep custom supervisor PID tracking stable",
+    });
     expect(triggerOpenClawRestartMock).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
     expect(spawnMock).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
   });
@@ -288,6 +318,29 @@ describe("respawnGatewayProcessForUpdate", () => {
     );
   });
 
+  it("spawns a detached update process when macOS only has inherited XPC state", () => {
+    clearSupervisorHints();
+    setPlatform("darwin");
+    process.env.XPC_SERVICE_NAME = "ai.openclaw.mac";
+    process.execArgv = [];
+    process.argv = ["/usr/local/bin/node", "/repo/dist/index.js", "gateway", "run"];
+    spawnMock.mockReturnValue({ pid: 6161, unref: vi.fn(), kill: vi.fn() });
+
+    const result = respawnGatewayProcessForUpdate();
+
+    expect(result.mode).toBe("spawned");
+    expect(result.pid).toBe(6161);
+    expect(spawnMock).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      process.execPath,
+      ["/repo/dist/index.js", "gateway", "run"],
+      {
+        detached: true,
+        env: process.env,
+        stdio: "inherit",
+      },
+    );
+  });
+
   it("returns failed when update detached respawn throws", () => {
     delete process.env.OPENCLAW_NO_RESPAWN;
     clearSupervisorHints();

src/infra/supervisor-markers.test.ts

@@ -13,12 +13,34 @@ describe("SUPERVISOR_HINT_ENV_VARS", () => {
 });
 
 describe("detectRespawnSupervisor", () => {
-  it("detects launchd and systemd only from non-blank platform-specific hints", () => {
-    expect(detectRespawnSupervisor({ LAUNCH_JOB_LABEL: " ai.openclaw.gateway " }, "darwin")).toBe(
+  it("detects launchd from OpenClaw's explicit marker or current gateway launchd job", () => {
+    expect(
+      detectRespawnSupervisor({ OPENCLAW_LAUNCHD_LABEL: " ai.openclaw.gateway " }, "darwin"),
+    ).toBe("launchd");
+    expect(detectRespawnSupervisor({ OPENCLAW_LAUNCHD_LABEL: "   " }, "darwin")).toBeNull();
+    expect(detectRespawnSupervisor({ LAUNCH_JOB_LABEL: "ai.openclaw.gateway" }, "darwin")).toBe(
       "launchd",
     );
-    expect(detectRespawnSupervisor({ LAUNCH_JOB_LABEL: "   " }, "darwin")).toBeNull();
+    expect(
+      detectRespawnSupervisor(
+        { LAUNCH_JOB_NAME: "ai.openclaw.work", OPENCLAW_PROFILE: "work" },
+        "darwin",
+      ),
+    ).toBe("launchd");
+    expect(detectRespawnSupervisor({ LAUNCH_JOB_LABEL: "ai.openclaw.mac" }, "darwin")).toBeNull();
+    expect(detectRespawnSupervisor({ XPC_SERVICE_NAME: "ai.openclaw.mac" }, "darwin")).toBeNull();
+    expect(
+      detectRespawnSupervisor(
+        { XPC_SERVICE_NAME: "ai.openclaw.mac", OPENCLAW_PROFILE: "mac" },
+        "darwin",
+      ),
+    ).toBeNull();
+    expect(detectRespawnSupervisor({ XPC_SERVICE_NAME: "ai.openclaw.gateway" }, "darwin")).toBe(
+      "launchd",
+    );
+  });
 
+  it("detects systemd only from non-blank platform-specific hints", () => {
     expect(detectRespawnSupervisor({ INVOCATION_ID: "abc123" }, "linux")).toBe("systemd");
     expect(detectRespawnSupervisor({ JOURNAL_STREAM: "" }, "linux")).toBeNull();
   });

src/infra/supervisor-markers.ts

@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
+import { GATEWAY_LAUNCH_AGENT_LABEL, resolveGatewayLaunchAgentLabel } from "../daemon/constants.js";
+
 const SUPERVISOR_HINTS = {
-  launchd: ["LAUNCH_JOB_LABEL", "LAUNCH_JOB_NAME", "XPC_SERVICE_NAME", "OPENCLAW_LAUNCHD_LABEL"],
+  launchd: ["OPENCLAW_LAUNCHD_LABEL"],
   systemd: ["OPENCLAW_SYSTEMD_UNIT", "INVOCATION_ID", "SYSTEMD_EXEC_PID", "JOURNAL_STREAM"],
   schtasks: ["OPENCLAW_WINDOWS_TASK_NAME"],
 } as const;
 
 export const SUPERVISOR_HINT_ENV_VARS = [
+  "LAUNCH_JOB_LABEL",
+  "LAUNCH_JOB_NAME",
+  "XPC_SERVICE_NAME",
   ...SUPERVISOR_HINTS.launchd,
   ...SUPERVISOR_HINTS.systemd,
   ...SUPERVISOR_HINTS.schtasks,
@@ -21,12 +26,24 @@ function hasAnyHint(env: NodeJS.ProcessEnv, keys: readonly string[]): boolean {
   });
 }
 
+function isCurrentGatewayLaunchdJob(env: NodeJS.ProcessEnv): boolean {
+  const expectedLabel = resolveGatewayLaunchAgentLabel(env.OPENCLAW_PROFILE);
+  if (
+    [env.LAUNCH_JOB_LABEL, env.LAUNCH_JOB_NAME].some((value) => value?.trim() === expectedLabel)
+  ) {
+    return true;
+  }
+  return env.XPC_SERVICE_NAME?.trim() === GATEWAY_LAUNCH_AGENT_LABEL;
+}
+
 export function detectRespawnSupervisor(
   env: NodeJS.ProcessEnv = process.env,
   platform: NodeJS.Platform = process.platform,
 ): RespawnSupervisor | null {
   if (platform === "darwin") {
-    return hasAnyHint(env, SUPERVISOR_HINTS.launchd) ? "launchd" : null;
+    return hasAnyHint(env, SUPERVISOR_HINTS.launchd) || isCurrentGatewayLaunchdJob(env)
+      ? "launchd"
+      : null;
   }
   if (platform === "linux") {
     return hasAnyHint(env, SUPERVISOR_HINTS.systemd) ? "systemd" : null;