From f6d0cc6cc3be6932a73a5961bb924dfa458ae2e9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Vincent Koc <vincentkoc@ieee.org>
Date: Thu, 14 May 2026 16:07:32 +0800
Subject: [PATCH] perf(cli): keep channel option help lightweight

---
 CHANGELOG.md                    |  2 +-
 src/cli/channel-options.test.ts | 13 ++++++-------
 src/cli/channel-options.ts      |  8 ++++----
 3 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 4997c2f375f..afd1144ba75 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 
 ### Fixes
 
-- CLI: lazy-load model, plugin, and device runtime helpers for command actions so parent/help output renders without importing those runtime paths.
+- CLI: lazy-load model, plugin, and device runtime helpers and keep channel option help on generated startup metadata or generic fallback text so parent/help output renders without importing those runtime paths.
 - Gateway/session history: carry monotonic transcript message sequence through live updates and refresh SSE history when stale sequence input would otherwise append bad incremental state. (#81474) Thanks @samzong.
 - Security/sandbox: include Windows `USERPROFILE` in the sandbox blocked home roots so credential-bearing binds (such as `.codex`, `.openclaw`, or `.ssh` under the Windows user profile) are denied even when `HOME` points at a different shell home. (#63074) Thanks @luoyanglang.
 - Gateway/OpenAI-compatible HTTP: parse shared JSON endpoint paths without trusting malformed Host headers, avoiding 500s before `/v1/chat/completions`, `/v1/responses`, and `/v1/embeddings` request handling.
diff --git a/src/cli/channel-options.test.ts b/src/cli/channel-options.test.ts
index bdfdbfa462c..ed8e1c23bb8 100644
--- a/src/cli/channel-options.test.ts
+++ b/src/cli/channel-options.test.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import { afterEach, beforeEach, describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
-import { __testing, resolveCliChannelOptions } from "./channel-options.js";
+import { __testing, formatCliChannelOptions, resolveCliChannelOptions } from "./channel-options.js";
 import { __testing as startupMetadataTesting } from "./startup-metadata.js";
 
 const readFileSyncMock = vi.hoisted(() => vi.fn());
@@ -17,10 +17,6 @@ vi.mock("node:fs", async () => {
   };
 });
 
-vi.mock("../channels/ids.js", () => ({
-  CHAT_CHANNEL_ORDER: ["quietchat", "forum"],
-}));
-
 describe("resolveCliChannelOptions", () => {
   beforeEach(() => {
     __testing.resetPrecomputedChannelOptionsForTests();
@@ -39,14 +35,17 @@ describe("resolveCliChannelOptions", () => {
     );
 
     expect(resolveCliChannelOptions()).toEqual(["cached", "quietchat"]);
+    expect(formatCliChannelOptions(["all"])).toBe("all|cached|quietchat");
   });
 
-  it("falls back to core channel order when metadata is missing", () => {
+  it("falls back to generic channel text when metadata is missing", () => {
     readFileSyncMock.mockImplementation(() => {
       throw new Error("ENOENT");
     });
 
-    expect(resolveCliChannelOptions()).toEqual(["quietchat", "forum"]);
+    expect(resolveCliChannelOptions()).toEqual([]);
+    expect(formatCliChannelOptions()).toBe("channel");
+    expect(formatCliChannelOptions(["all"])).toBe("all");
   });
 
   it("ignores external catalog env during CLI bootstrap", () => {
diff --git a/src/cli/channel-options.ts b/src/cli/channel-options.ts
index 4459ada06fd..2674a352ccc 100644
--- a/src/cli/channel-options.ts
+++ b/src/cli/channel-options.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-import { CHAT_CHANNEL_ORDER } from "../channels/ids.js";
 import { readCliStartupMetadata } from "./startup-metadata.js";
 
 function dedupe(values: string[]): string[] {
@@ -29,7 +28,7 @@ function loadPrecomputedChannelOptions(): string[] | null {
       return precomputedChannelOptions;
     }
   } catch {
-    // Fall back to dynamic catalog resolution.
+    // Source checkouts may not have generated startup metadata yet.
   }
   precomputedChannelOptions = null;
   return null;
@@ -37,11 +36,12 @@ function loadPrecomputedChannelOptions(): string[] | null {
 
 export function resolveCliChannelOptions(): string[] {
   const precomputed = loadPrecomputedChannelOptions();
-  return precomputed ?? [...CHAT_CHANNEL_ORDER];
+  return precomputed ?? [];
 }
 
 export function formatCliChannelOptions(extra: string[] = []): string {
-  return [...extra, ...resolveCliChannelOptions()].join("|");
+  const options = [...extra, ...resolveCliChannelOptions()];
+  return options.length > 0 ? options.join("|") : "channel";
 }
 
 export const __testing = {