From e7a962396817b6ef28533806e7a46ce7840334cb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Peter Steinberger <steipete@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 2 May 2026 07:40:12 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] fix(crestodian): fail no-tty startup

---
 CHANGELOG.md                      |  1 +
 src/crestodian/crestodian.test.ts | 43 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 src/crestodian/crestodian.ts      |  1 +
 3 files changed, 45 insertions(+)

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index e1166b3aa79..1eeeed12f11 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 
 - Active Memory: use the configured recall timeout as the blocking prompt-build hook budget by default and move cold-start setup grace behind explicit `setupGraceTimeoutMs` config, so the plugin no longer silently extends 15000 ms configs to 45000 ms on the main lane. Fixes #75843. Thanks @vishutdhar.
 - Plugins/web-provider: reuse the active gateway plugin registry for runtime web provider resolution after deriving the same candidate plugin ids as the loader path, avoiding a redundant `loadOpenClawPlugins` call on every request while preserving origin and scope filters. Fixes #75513. Thanks @jochen.
+- Crestodian/CLI: exit non-zero when interactive Crestodian is invoked without a TTY, so scripts and CI no longer treat the setup error as success. Fixes #73646 and supersedes #73928 and #74059. Thanks @bittoby, @luyao618, and @Linux2010.
 - Agents/sandbox: preserve existing workspace file modes when sandbox edits atomically replace files, so 0644 files do not collapse to 0600 after Write/Edit/apply_patch. Fixes #44077. Thanks @patosullivan.
 - Agents/models: keep legacy CLI runtime model refs such as `claude-cli/*` in the configured allowlist after canonical runtime migration, so cron `payload.model` overrides keep working. Fixes #75753. Thanks @RyanSandoval.
 - Codex/app-server: restart the shared Codex app-server client once when it closes during startup thread resume, preserving the existing thread binding instead of retrying `thread/start` on a closed client. Thanks @vincentkoc.
diff --git a/src/crestodian/crestodian.test.ts b/src/crestodian/crestodian.test.ts
index 67f8ba318c9..b1d17d5f408 100644
--- a/src/crestodian/crestodian.test.ts
+++ b/src/crestodian/crestodian.test.ts
@@ -112,4 +112,47 @@ describe("runCrestodian", () => {
     expect(onReadyCalls).toBe(1);
     expect(lines.join("\n")).not.toContain("Say: status");
   });
+
+  it.each([
+    {
+      name: "stdin is not a TTY",
+      input: { isTTY: false } as unknown as NodeJS.ReadableStream,
+      output: { isTTY: true } as unknown as NodeJS.WritableStream,
+      interactive: true,
+    },
+    {
+      name: "stdout is not a TTY",
+      input: { isTTY: true } as unknown as NodeJS.ReadableStream,
+      output: { isTTY: false } as unknown as NodeJS.WritableStream,
+      interactive: true,
+    },
+    {
+      name: "interactive mode is disabled",
+      input: { isTTY: true } as unknown as NodeJS.ReadableStream,
+      output: { isTTY: true } as unknown as NodeJS.WritableStream,
+      interactive: false,
+    },
+  ])("exits non-zero when $name", async ({ input, output, interactive }) => {
+    const { runtime, lines } = createCrestodianTestRuntime();
+    let runInteractiveTuiCalls = 0;
+
+    await expect(
+      runCrestodian(
+        {
+          input,
+          output,
+          interactive,
+          runInteractiveTui: async () => {
+            runInteractiveTuiCalls += 1;
+          },
+        },
+        runtime,
+      ),
+    ).rejects.toThrow("exit 1");
+
+    expect(runInteractiveTuiCalls).toBe(0);
+    expect(lines.join("\n")).toContain(
+      "Crestodian needs an interactive TTY. Use --message for one command.",
+    );
+  });
 });
diff --git a/src/crestodian/crestodian.ts b/src/crestodian/crestodian.ts
index 0aee6a46d5b..550380b39c5 100644
--- a/src/crestodian/crestodian.ts
+++ b/src/crestodian/crestodian.ts
@@ -92,6 +92,7 @@ export async function runCrestodian(
   const outputIsTty = (output as { isTTY?: boolean }).isTTY === true;
   if (!interactive || !inputIsTty || !outputIsTty) {
     runtime.error("Crestodian needs an interactive TTY. Use --message for one command.");
+    runtime.exit(1);
     return;
   }