openclaw/docs/reference/release-performance-sweep.md

summary, read_when, title

summary	read_when	title
Release performance, install footprint, dependency count, and shrinkwrap audit for the April to May 2026 cleanup sweep	You are validating the May 2026 performance and package-size cleanup You need the numbers behind the OpenClaw performance and dependency blog post You are changing release gates, package shrinkwrap, or plugin dependency boundaries	Release performance sweep

This page captures the technical evidence behind the May 2026 OpenClaw performance and dependency cleanup.

Two audits are combined here:

• Release performance sweep: GitHub Releases from v2026.5.27 back through stable v2026.4.23, using the OpenClaw Performance workflow, profile=smoke, repeat=1, mock-provider lane.
• Earlier April context: published clawgrit-reports mock-provider baselines from v2026.4.1 through v2026.5.2, used only to avoid treating the broken late-April releases as the public performance baseline.
• Install footprint sweep: fresh npm install --ignore-scripts installs into temporary packages, with du -sk node_modules for size and a node_modules walk for package-instance counts.
• npm package size sweep: npm pack openclaw@<version> --dry-run --json for published releases, recording compressed tarball size, unpacked size, and file count.

The main performance sweep uses one smoke sample per tag. Earlier April context uses published repeat-3 medians from `clawgrit-reports`. Use both as trend evidence and regression-hunting signal, not as statistically significant release-gate data.

Quick read

Performance sweep:

• Requested releases: 76
• Artifact-backed points: 73
• CI unavailable: 3
• Best cold agent turn: v2026.5.27-beta.1 at 2,575ms
• Best warm agent turn: v2026.5.27-beta.1 at 2,217ms
• Best source gateway default readyz p50: v2026.5.27-beta.1 at 1,462ms
• Latest stable measured point: v2026.5.27
• Earlier April narrative baseline: v2026.4.14 published median at 9,819ms cold, 7,458ms warm, and 686.2MB peak RSS.

Install footprint sweep:

• Root npm-shrinkwrap.json is absent in 2026.5.20 and present in 2026.5.22.
• 2026.5.22 installed a 911.8 MB nested openclaw/node_modules tree.
• 2026.5.27 still installed a 675.9 MB nested tree.
• Current main keeps shrinkwrap but installs 0 MB nested openclaw/node_modules.
• Current main installs at 407.4 MB and 314 installed dependencies.
• Published npm package size peaked at 2026.3.31: 43.3 MB compressed, 182.6 MB unpacked, and 21,037 files.
• Latest stable 2026.5.27 npm package size is 17.8 MB compressed, 79.0 MB unpacked, and 12,509 files.

Headline interpretation

Do not use the late-April broken rows as public performance baselines. v2026.4.23 and v2026.4.29 are useful regression evidence, but the large 14x-style deltas mostly describe the recovery from a bad release line.

For the blog narrative, use the earlier April published baseline as scale:

Metric	Earlier April baseline	v2026.5.27	Delta
Cold agent turn	9,819ms	3,378ms	65.6% lower, 2.9x faster
Warm agent turn	7,458ms	2,973ms	60.1% lower, 2.5x faster
Agent peak RSS	686.2MB	635.5MB	7.4% lower

The earlier April baseline is v2026.4.14 from the published clawgrit-reports mock-provider run. That run used repeat 3 and failed only because the diagnostic timeline was not emitted; the cold, warm, and RSS medians are still useful as rough scale. Treat this as narrative context, not a release-gate statistic.

Within the single-sample stable May sweep, the line moved more modestly:

Metric	v2026.5.2	v2026.5.27	Delta
Cold agent turn	3,897ms	3,378ms	13.3% lower
Warm agent turn	3,610ms	2,973ms	17.6% lower
Agent peak RSS	613.7MB	635.5MB	3.6% higher

Best prerelease point in the single-sample sweep:

Metric	v2026.5.27	v2026.5.27-beta.1	Delta
Cold agent turn	3,378ms	2,575ms	23.8% lower
Warm agent turn	2,973ms	2,217ms	25.4% lower
Agent peak RSS	635.5MB	635.3MB	flat

Install footprint:

Metric	Baseline	Current main	Delta
Install size from 2026.5.22 peak	1,020.6MB	407.4MB	60.1% lower
Install size from latest release 2026.5.27	786.9MB	407.4MB	48.2% lower
Dependencies from monthly high 2026.2.26	645	314	51.3% lower
Dependencies from latest release 2026.5.27	371	314	15.4% lower
Nested openclaw/node_modules from 2026.5.22	911.8MB	0MB	removed
Nested openclaw/node_modules from 2026.5.27	675.9MB	0MB	removed

npm package size:

Version	Compressed tarball	Unpacked package	Files	Notes
2026.1.30	12.8MB	33.5MB	4,607	early rebranded package
2026.2.26	23.6MB	82.9MB	10,125	feature growth
2026.3.31	43.3MB	182.6MB	21,037	package-size high point
2026.4.29	22.9MB	74.6MB	9,309	package pruning visible
2026.5.12	23.4MB	80.1MB	12,035	major external-plugin split
2026.5.22	17.2MB	76.9MB	12,386	docs/assets excluded from package
2026.5.27	17.8MB	79.0MB	12,509	latest stable package

2026.5.12 is the visible plugin-extraction milestone in the changelog: Amazon Bedrock, Bedrock Mantle, Slack, OpenShell sandbox, Anthropic Vertex, Matrix, and WhatsApp moved out of the core dependency path so their dependency cones install with those plugins instead of every core install.

Kova agent turn summary

The April stable line contains two different stories. Earlier April was slow but recognizable. Late April became a regression cliff. v2026.5.2 is where the mock-provider lane first drops into the 3-5s range and starts passing consistently in the supplied sweep.

Earlier published context:

Release	Kova	Cold turn	Warm turn	Agent peak RSS
v2026.4.10	FAIL	11,031ms	7,962ms	679.0MB
v2026.4.12	FAIL	11,965ms	8,289ms	713.5MB
v2026.4.14	FAIL	9,819ms	7,458ms	686.2MB
v2026.4.20	FAIL	22,314ms	18,811ms	810.8MB
v2026.4.22	FAIL	9,630ms	7,459ms	743.0MB

Supplied single-sample sweep:

Release	Kova	Cold turn	Warm turn	Agent peak RSS
v2026.4.23	FAIL	47,847ms	8,010ms	1,082.7MB
v2026.4.24	FAIL	48,264ms	25,483ms	996.0MB
v2026.4.25	FAIL	81,080ms	59,172ms	1,113.9MB
v2026.4.26	FAIL	76,771ms	54,941ms	1,140.8MB
v2026.4.27	FAIL	60,902ms	33,699ms	1,156.0MB
v2026.4.29	FAIL	94,031ms	57,334ms	3,613.7MB
v2026.5.2	PASS	3,897ms	3,610ms	613.7MB
v2026.5.7	PASS	3,923ms	3,693ms	654.1MB
v2026.5.12	PASS	7,248ms	6,629ms	834.8MB
v2026.5.18	PASS	3,301ms	2,913ms	630.3MB
v2026.5.20	PASS	3,413ms	2,952ms	643.2MB
v2026.5.22	PASS	4,494ms	4,093ms	654.3MB
v2026.5.26	PASS	2,626ms	2,282ms	660.4MB
v2026.5.27-beta.1	PASS	2,575ms	2,217ms	635.3MB
v2026.5.27	PASS	3,378ms	2,973ms	635.5MB

Source probes

Source probes were skipped for 17 successful older refs because those source trees did not yet have the required probe entry points. Agent-turn metrics still exist for those refs.

Representative source-probe points:

Release	Default readyz p50	50 plugins readyz p50	CLI health p50	Plugin max RSS
v2026.4.29	2,819ms	2,618ms	1,679ms	389.0MB
v2026.5.2	2,324ms	2,013ms	1,384ms	377.2MB
v2026.5.7	1,649ms	1,540ms	1,175ms	387.6MB
v2026.5.18	1,942ms	1,927ms	607ms	426.5MB
v2026.5.20	1,966ms	1,987ms	621ms	455.0MB
v2026.5.22	2,081ms	1,884ms	5,095ms	444.2MB
v2026.5.26	1,546ms	1,634ms	656ms	400.4MB
v2026.5.27-beta.1	1,462ms	1,548ms	548ms	394.0MB
v2026.5.27	1,874ms	1,925ms	660ms	398.0MB

The v2026.5.22 CLI health spike is visible in this table even though the agent-turn lane still passed. Keep the source probes when investigating targeted CLI or gateway regressions.

Install footprint audit

Dependency samples use one stable release per month, plus the 2026.5.22 shrinkwrap-introduction event, latest 2026.5.27, and current main.

Point	Installed deps	Fresh install	OpenClaw package	Nested openclaw/node_modules	Root shrinkwrap	Canvas install behavior
Jan 2026.1.30	605	438.4MB	45.8MB	2.4MB	no	top-level wrapper + darwin-arm64
Feb 2026.2.26	645	575.7MB	110.1MB	3.5MB	no	top-level wrapper + darwin-arm64
Mar 2026.3.31	438	584.1MB	234.8MB	0MB	no	top-level wrapper + darwin-arm64
Apr 2026.4.29	392	335.0MB	97.4MB	0MB	no	none installed
2026.5.22	401	1,020.6MB	1,020.4MB	911.8MB	yes	nested: all 12 @napi-rs/canvas packages
May 2026.5.26	371	767.5MB	767.4MB	656.4MB	yes	nested: all 12 @napi-rs/canvas packages
Latest 2026.5.27	371	786.9MB	786.7MB	675.9MB	yes	nested: all 12 @napi-rs/canvas packages
Current main	314	407.4MB	101.0MB	0MB	yes	top-level wrapper + darwin-arm64

Shrinkwrap boundary

Published tarball inspection verifies the boundary:

Version	Published stable?	Root npm-shrinkwrap.json	Notes
2026.5.20	yes	no	last stable release before shrinkwrap
2026.5.21	no	n/a	no stable npm release
2026.5.22	yes	yes	shrinkwrap introduced
2026.5.23	no	n/a	no stable npm release
2026.5.24	no	n/a	no stable npm release
2026.5.25	no	n/a	no stable npm release
2026.5.26	yes	yes	nested dependency tree still present
2026.5.27	yes	yes	nested dependency tree still present
main	n/a	yes	nested dependency tree removed

The important distinction: shrinkwrap itself is not the problem. Current main still ships root shrinkwrap. The problem was the package shape that made npm materialize a large nested OpenClaw dependency tree and all 12 @napi-rs/canvas platform packages.

For a plain-English explanation of shrinkwrap and the maintainer-level package checks, see npm shrinkwrap.

Supply-chain interpretation

Dependency count is an operational security metric, not only an install-size metric. Every package expands the set of maintainers, tarballs, transitive updates, optional native binaries, and install-time behaviors that operators must trust.

The cleanup direction is:

• keep heavy and optional capabilities outside the default core install
• make plugin packages own their runtime dependency graph
• avoid runtime package-manager repair during Gateway startup
• preserve deterministic installs without causing all-platform native package materialization
• keep install scripts disabled in package acceptance and measurement paths
• catch nested dependency trees and native optional dependency explosions before publishing

Related docs:

• Plugin dependency resolution
• Plugin inventory
• Full release validation

Unavailable performance runs

Release	Run	Result	Reason
v2026.5.3-1	26561664645	failure	mock-provider job failed: CLI startup timed out waiting for qa-channel ready; no qa-channel accounts reported
v2026.5.3	26561666722	failure	mock-provider job failed: CLI startup timed out waiting for qa-channel ready; no qa-channel accounts reported
v2026.4.29-beta.2	26561683635	cancelled	optional baseline fetch hung before artifact upload

Follow-up gates

Recommended release checks from this sweep:

1. Run the mock-provider performance smoke for release candidates and retain artifacts.
2. Track cold turn, warm turn, agent RSS, Gateway readyz, and CLI health.
3. Fresh-install the packed tarball with scripts disabled.
4. Record installed dependency count, install size, package size, nested openclaw/node_modules size, and native optional package shape.
5. Fail or hold release review when nested dependency trees or all-platform native packages appear unexpectedly.