fix(plugins): detect stale persisted registry metadata

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Onboarding/search: install official external web-search plugins such as Brave before saving provider config, and make doctor repair reconcile selected external search providers whose npm payload is missing. Thanks @vincentkoc.
 - Plugins/externalization: add official npm-first catalogs for externalized channel, provider, and generic plugins, keep unpublished ACPX/Google Chat/LINE bundled, and make missing-plugin repair honor npm-first metadata while ClawHub pack files roll out. Thanks @vincentkoc.
 - Plugins/update: detect tracked plugin install records whose package directories disappeared during `openclaw update`, reinstall them before normal plugin updates, and fail the update if any install record still points at missing disk payloads.
+- Plugins/registry: hash manifest and package metadata when validating persisted plugin registries so fast same-size rewrites cannot leave stale plugin metadata trusted.
 - CLI/infer: reject local `codex/*` one-shot model probes before simple-completion dispatch and point operators at the Codex app-server runtime path instead of ending with an empty-output error.
 - Agents/sessions: preserve terminal lifecycle state when final run metadata persists from a stale in-memory snapshot, preventing `main` sessions from staying stuck as running after completed or timed-out turns.
 - Gateway/CLI: make `openclaw gateway start` repair stale managed service definitions that point at old OpenClaw versions, missing binaries, or temporary installer paths before starting.

src/agents/bash-tools.test.ts

@@ -797,6 +797,8 @@ describe("exec notifyOnExit", () => {
 
   it("scopes notifyOnExit heartbeat wake to the exec session key", async () => {
     await expectNotifyOnExitWake(createNotifyOnExitExecTool(), {
+      source: "exec-event",
+      intent: "event",
       reason: "exec-event",
       sessionKey: DEFAULT_NOTIFY_SESSION_KEY,
     });
@@ -804,6 +806,8 @@ describe("exec notifyOnExit", () => {
 
   it("keeps notifyOnExit heartbeat wake unscoped for non-agent session keys", async () => {
     await expectNotifyOnExitWake(createNotifyOnExitExecTool({ sessionKey: "global" }), {
+      source: "exec-event",
+      intent: "event",
       reason: "exec-event",
     });
   });

src/agents/codex-app-server.extensions.test.ts

@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ describe("agent tool result middleware", () => {
           },
         },
       },
+      onlyPluginIds: ["tool-result-middleware"],
     };
 
     loadOpenClawPlugins(options);
@@ -112,6 +113,7 @@ describe("agent tool result middleware", () => {
     });
 
     const registry = loadOpenClawPlugins({
+      onlyPluginIds: ["tool-result-middleware"],
       config: {
         plugins: {
           entries: {
@@ -152,6 +154,7 @@ describe("agent tool result middleware", () => {
 
     const registry = loadOpenClawPlugins({
       workspaceDir: tmp,
+      onlyPluginIds: ["tool-result-middleware"],
       config: {
         plugins: {
           load: { paths: [pluginFile] },
@@ -191,6 +194,7 @@ export default { id: "tool-result-middleware", register(api) {
     });
 
     loadOpenClawPlugins({
+      onlyPluginIds: ["tool-result-middleware"],
       config: {
         plugins: {
           entries: {
@@ -290,6 +294,7 @@ describe("Codex app-server extension factories", () => {
           },
         },
       },
+      onlyPluginIds: ["codex-ext"],
     };
 
     loadOpenClawPlugins(options);
@@ -331,6 +336,7 @@ describe("Codex app-server extension factories", () => {
 
     const registry = loadOpenClawPlugins({
       workspaceDir: tmp,
+      onlyPluginIds: ["codex-ext"],
       config: {
         plugins: {
           load: { paths: [pluginFile] },
@@ -363,6 +369,7 @@ describe("Codex app-server extension factories", () => {
     });
 
     const registry = loadOpenClawPlugins({
+      onlyPluginIds: ["codex-ext"],
       config: {
         plugins: {
           entries: {
@@ -404,6 +411,7 @@ describe("Codex app-server extension factories", () => {
     });
 
     const registry = loadOpenClawPlugins({
+      onlyPluginIds: ["codex-ext"],
       config: {
         plugins: {
           entries: {

src/plugins/agent-tool-result-middleware-loader.ts

@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import {
   listAgentToolResultMiddlewares,
   normalizeAgentToolResultMiddlewareRuntimeIds,
 } from "./agent-tool-result-middleware.js";
+import { loadOpenClawPlugins } from "./loader.js";
 import { loadPluginManifestRegistry, type PluginManifestRegistry } from "./manifest-registry.js";
 
 const log = createSubsystemLogger("plugins/agent-tool-result-middleware");
@@ -72,11 +73,17 @@ export async function loadAgentToolResultMiddlewaresForRuntime(params: {
       env,
       requiredPluginIds: pluginIds,
     });
-    if (!registry) {
-      return [];
-    }
+    const runtimeRegistry =
+      registry ??
+      loadOpenClawPlugins({
+        config,
+        workspaceDir: params.workspaceDir,
+        env,
+        onlyPluginIds: pluginIds,
+        activate: false,
+      });
 
-    return registry.agentToolResultMiddlewares
+    return runtimeRegistry.agentToolResultMiddlewares
       .filter((entry) => entry.runtimes.includes(params.runtime))
       .map((entry) => entry.handler);
   } catch (error) {

src/plugins/plugin-registry-snapshot.test.ts

@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ describe("loadPluginRegistrySnapshotWithMetadata", () => {
     expect(result.diagnostics).toEqual([]);
   });
 
-  it("keeps persisted package plugins on the fast path when file signatures match", () => {
+  it("keeps persisted package plugins when metadata still matches", () => {
     const tempRoot = makeTempDir();
     const rootDir = path.join(tempRoot, "workspace");
     const stateDir = path.join(tempRoot, "state");
@@ -113,22 +113,14 @@ describe("loadPluginRegistrySnapshotWithMetadata", () => {
     expect(record?.packageJson?.fileSignature).toBeDefined();
     writePersistedInstalledPluginIndexSync(index, { stateDir });
 
-    const readFileSyncSpy = vi.spyOn(fs, "readFileSync");
     const result = loadPluginRegistrySnapshotWithMetadata({
       config,
       env,
       stateDir,
     });
-    const pluginMetadataFileReads = readFileSyncSpy.mock.calls.filter((call) => {
-      const filePath = String(call[0]);
-      return (
-        filePath === path.join(rootDir, "openclaw.plugin.json") ||
-        filePath === path.join(rootDir, "package.json")
-      );
-    });
 
     expect(result.source).toBe("persisted");
-    expect(pluginMetadataFileReads).toEqual([]);
+    expect(result.diagnostics).toEqual([]);
   });
 
   it("detects same-size same-mtime manifest replacements", () => {
@@ -197,4 +189,55 @@ describe("loadPluginRegistrySnapshotWithMetadata", () => {
       expect.objectContaining({ code: "persisted-registry-stale-source" }),
     );
   });
+
+  it("detects package.json replacements even when stored stat fields still match", () => {
+    const tempRoot = makeTempDir();
+    const rootDir = path.join(tempRoot, "workspace");
+    const stateDir = path.join(tempRoot, "state");
+    const env = { ...createHermeticEnv(tempRoot), OPENCLAW_DISABLE_BUNDLED_PLUGINS: "1" };
+    const config = {
+      plugins: {
+        load: { paths: [rootDir] },
+      },
+    };
+    writePackagePlugin(rootDir);
+    const index = loadInstalledPluginIndex({ config, env });
+
+    replaceFilePreservingSizeAndMtime(
+      path.join(rootDir, "package.json"),
+      JSON.stringify({ name: "demo", version: "1.0.1" }),
+    );
+    const stat = fs.statSync(path.join(rootDir, "package.json"));
+    const [plugin] = index.plugins;
+    if (!plugin?.packageJson) {
+      throw new Error("expected test plugin package metadata");
+    }
+    const stalePlugin = {
+      ...plugin,
+      packageJson: {
+        ...plugin.packageJson,
+        fileSignature: {
+          size: stat.size,
+          mtimeMs: stat.mtimeMs,
+          ctimeMs: stat.ctimeMs,
+        },
+      },
+    };
+    const staleIndex: InstalledPluginIndex = {
+      ...index,
+      plugins: [stalePlugin, ...index.plugins.slice(1)],
+    };
+    writePersistedInstalledPluginIndexSync(staleIndex, { stateDir });
+
+    const result = loadPluginRegistrySnapshotWithMetadata({
+      config,
+      env,
+      stateDir,
+    });
+
+    expect(result.source).toBe("derived");
+    expect(result.diagnostics).toContainEqual(
+      expect.objectContaining({ code: "persisted-registry-stale-source" }),
+    );
+  });
 });

src/plugins/plugin-registry-snapshot.ts

@@ -137,9 +137,7 @@ function hasStalePersistedPluginMetadata(index: InstalledPluginIndex): boolean {
         plugin.manifestPath,
         plugin.manifestFile,
       );
-      if (manifestSignatureMatches === true) {
-        // Stored stat signature is unchanged; avoid hashing on startup.
-      } else if (manifestSignatureMatches === false) {
+      if (manifestSignatureMatches === false) {
         const manifestHash = hashExistingFile(plugin.manifestPath);
         if (manifestHash && manifestHash !== plugin.manifestHash) {
           return true;
@@ -162,12 +160,10 @@ function hasStalePersistedPluginMetadata(index: InstalledPluginIndex): boolean {
       packageJsonPath,
       plugin.packageJson.fileSignature,
     );
-    if (packageJsonSignatureMatches === true) {
-      return false;
-    }
     if (packageJsonSignatureMatches === false) {
       return hashExistingFile(packageJsonPath) !== plugin.packageJson.hash;
     }
+    // Fast same-size rewrites can preserve observable stat fields on some filesystems.
     const packageJsonHash = hashExistingFile(packageJsonPath);
     return packageJsonHash !== plugin.packageJson.hash;
   });