fix: normalize lazy service override imports

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - macOS Gateway: detect installed-but-unloaded LaunchAgent split-brain states during status, doctor, and restart, and re-bootstrap launchd supervision before falling back to unmanaged listener restarts. Fixes #67335, #53475, and #71060; refs #58890, #60885, and #70801. Thanks @ze1tgeist88, @dafacto, and @vishutdhar.
 - Plugins/install: treat mirrored core logger dependencies as staged bundled runtime deps so packaged Gateway starts do not crash when the external plugin-runtime-deps root is missing `tslog`. Fixes #72228; supersedes #72493. Thanks @deepujain.
 - Plugins/install: hide bundled runtime-dependency npm child windows on Windows across Gateway startup, postinstall, and packaged staging paths so Telegram/Anthropic dependency repair no longer flashes shell windows. Fixes #72315. Thanks @athuljayaram and @joshfeng.
+- Plugins/Windows: normalize lazy plugin service override imports before Node ESM loading so drive-letter browser-control module paths no longer fail with `ERR_UNSUPPORTED_ESM_URL_SCHEME`. Fixes #72573; supersedes #72599 and #72582. Thanks @llzzww316, @feineryonah-byte, and @WuKongAI-CMU.
 - Plugins/install: stage bundled plugin runtime dependencies before Gateway startup, drain update restarts, and materialize plugin-owned root chunks in external mirrors so staged deps resolve under native ESM. Fixes #72058; supersedes #72084. Thanks @amnesia106 and @drvoss.
 - TTS/SecretRef: resolve `messages.tts.providers.*.apiKey` from the active runtime snapshot so SecretRef-backed MiniMax and other TTS provider keys work in runtime reply/audio paths. Fixes #68690. Thanks @joshavant.
 - Gateway/install: surface systemd user-bus recovery hints during Linux service activation and retry via the machine user scope when `systemctl --user` reports no-medium bus failures. Fixes #39673; refs #44417 and #63561. Thanks @Arbor4, @myrsu, and @mssteuer.

src/plugins/import-specifier.test.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+import { afterEach, describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
+import { toSafeImportPath } from "./import-specifier.js";
+
+describe("toSafeImportPath", () => {
+  afterEach(() => {
+    vi.restoreAllMocks();
+  });
+
+  it("converts Windows absolute import specifiers to file URLs", () => {
+    vi.spyOn(process, "platform", "get").mockReturnValue("win32");
+
+    expect(toSafeImportPath("C:\\Users\\alice\\plugin\\index.mjs")).toBe(
+      "file:///C:/Users/alice/plugin/index.mjs",
+    );
+    expect(toSafeImportPath("\\\\server\\share\\plugin\\index.mjs")).toBe(
+      "file://server/share/plugin/index.mjs",
+    );
+  });
+
+  it("preserves import specifiers that Node can already resolve", () => {
+    vi.spyOn(process, "platform", "get").mockReturnValue("win32");
+
+    expect(toSafeImportPath("file:///C:/Users/alice/plugin/index.mjs")).toBe(
+      "file:///C:/Users/alice/plugin/index.mjs",
+    );
+    expect(toSafeImportPath("./relative/index.mjs")).toBe("./relative/index.mjs");
+    expect(toSafeImportPath("@openclaw/plugin")).toBe("@openclaw/plugin");
+  });
+
+  it("does not rewrite non-Windows paths", () => {
+    vi.spyOn(process, "platform", "get").mockReturnValue("linux");
+
+    expect(toSafeImportPath("C:\\Users\\alice\\plugin\\index.mjs")).toBe(
+      "C:\\Users\\alice\\plugin\\index.mjs",
+    );
+  });
+});

src/plugins/import-specifier.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+import path from "node:path";
+
+/**
+ * On Windows, Node's ESM loader requires absolute paths to be expressed as
+ * file:// URLs. Raw drive-letter paths like C:\... are parsed as URL schemes.
+ */
+export function toSafeImportPath(specifier: string): string {
+  if (process.platform !== "win32") {
+    return specifier;
+  }
+  if (specifier.startsWith("file://")) {
+    return specifier;
+  }
+  if (path.win32.isAbsolute(specifier)) {
+    const normalizedSpecifier = specifier.replaceAll("\\", "/");
+    if (normalizedSpecifier.startsWith("//")) {
+      return new URL(`file:${encodeURI(normalizedSpecifier)}`).href;
+    }
+    return new URL(`file:///${encodeURI(normalizedSpecifier)}`).href;
+  }
+  return specifier;
+}

src/plugins/lazy-service-module.test.ts

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import { afterEach, describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
-import { startLazyPluginServiceModule } from "./lazy-service-module.js";
+import { defaultLoadOverrideModule, startLazyPluginServiceModule } from "./lazy-service-module.js";
 
 function createAsyncHookMock() {
   return vi.fn(async () => {});
@@ -89,6 +89,40 @@ describe("startLazyPluginServiceModule", () => {
     expect(start).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
   });
 
+  it("normalizes Windows absolute paths in the default override loader", async () => {
+    const platformSpy = vi.spyOn(process, "platform", "get").mockReturnValue("win32");
+    const start = createAsyncHookMock();
+    const importModule = vi.fn(async () => ({ startOverride: start }));
+
+    try {
+      await defaultLoadOverrideModule("C:\\Users\\alice\\browser-service.mjs", importModule);
+    } finally {
+      platformSpy.mockRestore();
+    }
+
+    expect(importModule).toHaveBeenCalledWith("file:///C:/Users/alice/browser-service.mjs");
+  });
+
+  it("leaves caller-supplied override loaders responsible for their own specifiers", async () => {
+    process.env.OPENCLAW_LAZY_SERVICE_OVERRIDE = "C:\\Users\\alice\\browser-service.mjs";
+    const platformSpy = vi.spyOn(process, "platform", "get").mockReturnValue("win32");
+    const start = createAsyncHookMock();
+    const loadOverrideModule = vi.fn(async () => ({ startOverride: start }));
+
+    try {
+      await expectLifecycleStarted({
+        overrideEnvVar: "OPENCLAW_LAZY_SERVICE_OVERRIDE",
+        loadOverrideModule,
+        startExportNames: ["startOverride"],
+      });
+    } finally {
+      platformSpy.mockRestore();
+    }
+
+    expect(loadOverrideModule).toHaveBeenCalledWith("C:\\Users\\alice\\browser-service.mjs");
+    expect(start).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+  });
+
   it("validates the override specifier before loading it", async () => {
     process.env.OPENCLAW_LAZY_SERVICE_OVERRIDE = "virtual:service";
     const loadOverrideModule = vi.fn(async () => ({ startOverride: createAsyncHookMock() }));

src/plugins/lazy-service-module.ts

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { isTruthyEnvValue } from "../infra/env.js";
+import { toSafeImportPath } from "./import-specifier.js";
 
 type LazyServiceModule = Record<string, unknown>;
 
@@ -17,6 +18,14 @@ function resolveExport<T>(mod: LazyServiceModule, names: string[]): T | null {
   return null;
 }
 
+export async function defaultLoadOverrideModule(
+  specifier: string,
+  importModule: (specifier: string) => Promise<LazyServiceModule> = async (source: string) =>
+    await import(source),
+): Promise<LazyServiceModule> {
+  return importModule(toSafeImportPath(specifier));
+}
+
 export async function startLazyPluginServiceModule(params: {
   skipEnvVar?: string;
   overrideEnvVar?: string;
@@ -33,8 +42,7 @@ export async function startLazyPluginServiceModule(params: {
 
   const overrideEnvVar = params.overrideEnvVar?.trim();
   const override = overrideEnvVar ? process.env[overrideEnvVar]?.trim() : undefined;
-  const loadOverrideModule =
-    params.loadOverrideModule ?? (async (specifier: string) => await import(specifier));
+  const loadOverrideModule = params.loadOverrideModule ?? defaultLoadOverrideModule;
   const validatedOverride =
     override && params.validateOverrideSpecifier
       ? params.validateOverrideSpecifier(override)

src/plugins/loader.ts

@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ import {
 } from "./config-state.js";
 import { discoverOpenClawPlugins } from "./discovery.js";
 import { getGlobalHookRunner, initializeGlobalHookRunner } from "./hook-runner-global.js";
+import { toSafeImportPath } from "./import-specifier.js";
 import { loadInstalledPluginIndexInstallRecordsSync } from "./installed-plugin-index-records.js";
 import {
   clearPluginInteractiveHandlers,
@@ -429,32 +430,6 @@ function runPluginRegisterSync(
   }
 }
 
-/**
- * On Windows, the Node.js ESM loader requires absolute paths to be expressed
- * as file:// URLs (e.g. file:///C:/Users/...). Raw drive-letter paths like
- * C:\... are rejected with ERR_UNSUPPORTED_ESM_URL_SCHEME because the loader
- * mistakes the drive letter for an unknown URL scheme.
- *
- * This helper converts Windows absolute import specifiers to file:// URLs and
- * leaves everything else unchanged.
- */
-function toSafeImportPath(specifier: string): string {
-  if (process.platform !== "win32") {
-    return specifier;
-  }
-  if (specifier.startsWith("file://")) {
-    return specifier;
-  }
-  if (path.win32.isAbsolute(specifier)) {
-    const normalizedSpecifier = specifier.replaceAll("\\", "/");
-    if (normalizedSpecifier.startsWith("//")) {
-      return new URL(`file:${encodeURI(normalizedSpecifier)}`).href;
-    }
-    return new URL(`file:///${encodeURI(normalizedSpecifier)}`).href;
-  }
-  return specifier;
-}
-
 type RuntimeDependencyPackageJson = {
   dependencies?: Record<string, unknown>;
   optionalDependencies?: Record<string, unknown>;