diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index ecf1ffe1892..84bc89dd824 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - OpenAI/Responses: resolve `/think` levels against each GPT model's supported reasoning efforts so `/think off` no longer becomes high reasoning or sends unsupported `reasoning.effort: "none"` payloads.
 - Lobster/TaskFlow: allow managed approval resumes to use `approvalId` without a resume token, and persist that id in approval wait state. (#69559) Thanks @kirkluokun.
 - Plugins/startup: install bundled runtime dependencies into each plugin's own runtime directory, reuse source-checkout repair caches after rebuilds, and log only packages that were actually installed so repeated Gateway starts stay quiet once deps are present.
-- Plugins/startup: ignore pnpm's `npm_execpath` when repairing bundled plugin runtime dependencies so npm-only install flags are not passed to pnpm-launched gateways.
+- Plugins/startup: ignore pnpm's `npm_execpath` when repairing bundled plugin runtime dependencies and skip workspace-only package specs so npm-only install flags or local workspace links do not break packaged plugin startup.
 - Setup/TUI: relaunch the setup hatch TUI in a fresh process while preserving the configured gateway target and auth source, so onboarding recovers terminal state cleanly without exposing gateway secrets on command-line args. (#69524) Thanks @shakkernerd.
 - Codex: avoid re-exposing the image-generation tool on native vision turns with inbound images, and keep bare image-model overrides on the configured image provider. (#65061) Thanks @zhulijin1991.
 - Sessions/reset: clear auto-sourced model, provider, and auth-profile overrides on `/new` and `/reset` while preserving explicit user selections, so channel sessions stop staying pinned to runtime fallback choices. (#69419) Thanks @sk7n4k3d.
diff --git a/src/commands/doctor-bundled-plugin-runtime-deps.test.ts b/src/commands/doctor-bundled-plugin-runtime-deps.test.ts
index 72ebf7cd974..ce295453fe5 100644
--- a/src/commands/doctor-bundled-plugin-runtime-deps.test.ts
+++ b/src/commands/doctor-bundled-plugin-runtime-deps.test.ts
@@ -43,8 +43,10 @@ describe("doctor bundled plugin runtime deps", () => {
 
     writeJson(path.join(root, "dist", "extensions", "alpha", "package.json"), {
       dependencies: {
+        "@openclaw/plugin-sdk": "workspace:*",
         "dep-one": "1.0.0",
         "@scope/dep-two": "2.0.0",
+        openclaw: "workspace:*",
       },
       optionalDependencies: {
         "dep-opt": "3.0.0",
diff --git a/src/plugins/bundled-runtime-deps.test.ts b/src/plugins/bundled-runtime-deps.test.ts
index f5bc40bc2b9..5bf8cd819ac 100644
--- a/src/plugins/bundled-runtime-deps.test.ts
+++ b/src/plugins/bundled-runtime-deps.test.ts
@@ -262,6 +262,72 @@ describe("ensureBundledPluginRuntimeDeps", () => {
     ]);
   });
 
+  it("skips workspace-only runtime deps before npm install", () => {
+    const packageRoot = makeTempDir();
+    const extensionsRoot = path.join(packageRoot, "dist", "extensions");
+    const pluginRoot = path.join(extensionsRoot, "qa-channel");
+    fs.mkdirSync(pluginRoot, { recursive: true });
+    fs.writeFileSync(
+      path.join(pluginRoot, "package.json"),
+      JSON.stringify({
+        dependencies: {
+          "@openclaw/plugin-sdk": "workspace:*",
+          "external-runtime": "^1.2.3",
+          openclaw: "workspace:*",
+        },
+      }),
+    );
+
+    const calls: BundledRuntimeDepsInstallParams[] = [];
+    const result = ensureBundledPluginRuntimeDeps({
+      env: {},
+      installDeps: (params) => {
+        calls.push(params);
+      },
+      pluginId: "qa-channel",
+      pluginRoot,
+    });
+
+    expect(result).toEqual({
+      installedSpecs: ["external-runtime@^1.2.3"],
+      retainSpecs: ["external-runtime@^1.2.3"],
+    });
+    expect(calls).toEqual([
+      {
+        installRoot: pluginRoot,
+        missingSpecs: ["external-runtime@^1.2.3"],
+        installSpecs: ["external-runtime@^1.2.3"],
+      },
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it("does not install when runtime deps are only workspace links", () => {
+    const packageRoot = makeTempDir();
+    const extensionsRoot = path.join(packageRoot, "dist", "extensions");
+    const pluginRoot = path.join(extensionsRoot, "qa-channel");
+    fs.mkdirSync(pluginRoot, { recursive: true });
+    fs.writeFileSync(
+      path.join(pluginRoot, "package.json"),
+      JSON.stringify({
+        dependencies: {
+          "@openclaw/plugin-sdk": "workspace:*",
+          openclaw: "workspace:*",
+        },
+      }),
+    );
+
+    const result = ensureBundledPluginRuntimeDeps({
+      env: {},
+      installDeps: () => {
+        throw new Error("workspace-only runtime deps should not install");
+      },
+      pluginId: "qa-channel",
+      pluginRoot,
+    });
+
+    expect(result).toEqual({ installedSpecs: [], retainSpecs: [] });
+  });
+
   it("skips install when staged plugin-local runtime deps are present", () => {
     const packageRoot = makeTempDir();
     const extensionsRoot = path.join(packageRoot, "dist", "extensions");
diff --git a/src/plugins/bundled-runtime-deps.ts b/src/plugins/bundled-runtime-deps.ts
index a1b5679e2cc..e7043fc4e6e 100644
--- a/src/plugins/bundled-runtime-deps.ts
+++ b/src/plugins/bundled-runtime-deps.ts
@@ -62,6 +62,17 @@ function collectRuntimeDeps(packageJson: JsonObject): Record<string, unknown> {
   };
 }
 
+function normalizeInstallableRuntimeDepVersion(rawVersion: unknown): string | null {
+  if (typeof rawVersion !== "string") {
+    return null;
+  }
+  const version = rawVersion.trim();
+  if (version === "" || version.toLowerCase().startsWith("workspace:")) {
+    return null;
+  }
+  return version;
+}
+
 function isSourceCheckoutRoot(packageRoot: string): boolean {
   return (
     fs.existsSync(path.join(packageRoot, ".git")) &&
@@ -402,10 +413,10 @@ function collectBundledPluginRuntimeDeps(params: {
       continue;
     }
     for (const [name, rawVersion] of Object.entries(collectRuntimeDeps(packageJson))) {
-      if (typeof rawVersion !== "string" || rawVersion.trim() === "") {
+      const version = normalizeInstallableRuntimeDepVersion(rawVersion);
+      if (!version) {
         continue;
       }
-      const version = rawVersion.trim();
       const byVersion = versionMap.get(name) ?? new Map<string, Set<string>>();
       const pluginIds = byVersion.get(version) ?? new Set<string>();
       pluginIds.add(pluginId);
@@ -549,11 +560,10 @@ export function ensureBundledPluginRuntimeDeps(params: {
     return { installedSpecs: [], retainSpecs: [] };
   }
   const deps = Object.entries(collectRuntimeDeps(packageJson))
-    .map(([name, rawVersion]) =>
-      typeof rawVersion === "string" && rawVersion.trim() !== ""
-        ? { name, version: rawVersion.trim() }
-        : null,
-    )
+    .map(([name, rawVersion]) => {
+      const version = normalizeInstallableRuntimeDepVersion(rawVersion);
+      return version ? { name, version } : null;
+    })
     .filter((entry): entry is { name: string; version: string } => Boolean(entry));
   if (deps.length === 0) {
     return { installedSpecs: [], retainSpecs: [] };