openclaw update

Update OpenClaw and switch between stable/extended-stable/beta/dev channels.

If you installed via npm/pnpm/bun (global install, no git metadata), updates go through the package-manager flow described in Updating.

Usage

openclaw updateopenclaw update statusopenclaw update repairopenclaw update cleanup --dry-runopenclaw update wizardopenclaw update --channel extended-stableopenclaw update --channel betaopenclaw update --channel devopenclaw update --tag betaopenclaw update --dry-runopenclaw update --no-restartopenclaw update --yesopenclaw update --accept-capabilitiesopenclaw update --jsonopenclaw --update

openclaw --update rewrites to openclaw update (useful for shells and launcher scripts).

Failed update and repair attempts enter recovery triage after service recovery and cleanup finish. A verified rollback does not automatically start triage: the previous generation is running again, and the report keeps the failing check as the reason. An interactive update offers the diagnose/report menu with Exit selected by default. Declining or cancelling preserves the failed update's nonzero exit status. JSON, non-interactive, --yes, and managed-service handoff invocations do not prompt after rollback.

After a final interactive update failure, Diagnose update failure and Report update failure are separate choices. Reporting first shows the exact sanitized issue body and defaults confirmation to No. After confirmation, OpenClaw checks the GitHub CLI's active github.com account with a silent, read-only request before issue creation. Fallback and pending outcomes retain the sanitized report locally; a confirmed issue keeps only its durable issue URL. If the CLI is missing or that check cannot confirm authentication, OpenClaw provides a prefilled issue link without starting issue creation. If the exact report exceeds the browser URL limit, OpenClaw keeps the sanitized body locally and returns to the action menu, where reporting can be chosen and confirmed again. A report preparation or submission error also returns to that menu; Diagnose runs only when selected explicitly. In the Control UI, an interrupted pre-create preparation becomes retryable after its local reservation expires. After an uncertain creation result, OpenClaw checks for an issue matching the exact report. If neither a verified issue URL nor a definitive rejection is available, the report stays pending with no replay link because an issue may already exist. --yes, --json, non-interactive runs, and managed-service handoffs never submit a report.

Automation and SSH

For an authorized update on another host, use the target installation's owning account and a non-interactive SSH command:

ssh -T user@gateway-host 'openclaw update --yes' </dev/null

Ensure openclaw resolves to the intended installation in that account's SSH environment. Add the existing global --profile <name> before update when targeting a named profile.

An active chat session alone does not prevent an explicit update. --yes skips confirmation and optional shell-completion prompts. Without it, ordinary upgrades can still run with piped input, but an operation requiring confirmation, such as a downgrade, fails promptly. Failure-report menus and triage consent prompts do not wait for input when stdin is not a terminal. --yes does not grant exec approval or accept changed plugin capabilities.

An agent updating the Gateway that hosts its own session should use the gateway tool's update.run action when available. The SSH recipe is for another host; verify that the destination is not that same Gateway. Normal execution approvals and deployment ownership still apply.

Options

Updater-managed openclaw update finalize runs repair Doctor without an automatic wall-clock deadline, including post-plugin repair. It waits for completion, failure, or manual cancellation. An explicit --timeout <seconds> still limits each finalization phase and its child commands. Post-plugin config validation and readiness checks keep their separate three-minute defaults; other finalization phase limits are unchanged.

There is no --verbose flag. Use --dry-run to preview planned actions, --json for machine-readable results, and openclaw update status --json for channel, availability, and the latest durable update report. Gateway console verbosity (--verbose) and file log level (logging.level: "debug"/"trace") are independent knobs; see Gateway logging.

Interactive updates show phase transitions, the current step, and elapsed time. The phases match the Control UI: requested, staging, validating, optional repairing, activating, restarting, verifying, and finished. When output is piped or captured in a log, progress prints without animation. repairing can follow failed candidate validation or failed post-activation verification when rollback is unsafe or has failed; successful repair returns to validation or verification. The Control UI shows this optional phase only after it starts. Failed steps include the final diagnostics from both output streams; timeouts are labeled explicitly. The final report includes the outcome, recorded phase durations, failed steps, verification facts, and recovery guidance. --json keeps stdout machine-readable and does not print progress steps.

When switching from a dev checkout to a package, the updater replaces npm's install link and leaves the external checkout untouched. If activation fails, restoring that link and its launchers does not verify the mutable checkout's runtime. Recovery stays unverified and does not authorize an automatic restart; inspect the checkout and recovery report before restarting it.

--yes also skips the optional shell-completion setup prompt. Existing completion profiles and caches are still repaired when needed; installing completion in a new shell profile remains an interactive choice.

--tag changes only this package update. A saved update.channel continues to govern later foreground and automatic updates, even after a one-off beta install. Use --channel to change that policy.

For explicit package artifacts, configured plugin availability is checked against the privately staged package version before rehearsal or activation. --dry-run does not stage the artifact and reports that this check remains pending.

For source checkouts, --dry-run previews the update flow without fetching Git refs or checking working-tree changes. The real update checks for uncommitted changes before modifying the checkout. Use openclaw update status to inspect the current branch, version, and update availability.

update wizard

Interactive flow to pick an update channel and confirm whether to restart the Gateway afterward (defaults to restart). Selecting dev without a git checkout offers to create one.

The channel picker reads the local install identity without checking Git freshness or dependencies. Those checks run when you apply the update; use openclaw update status to inspect availability first.

Detailed topics

• Recover a failed update
• update status
• Run history and reports
• update repair
• update cleanup
• What it does
• Validation and activation
• Recovery limits
• Compatibility-checked package rollback
• Restart handoff
• Control-plane response shape
• Git checkout flow
• Channel selection
• Update steps
  • Verify clean worktree
  • Resolve the target
  • Build a candidate
  • Validate the candidate
  • Activate and verify
  • Sync plugins
• Plugin sync details

Related

• openclaw doctor (offers to run update first on git checkouts)
• Development channels
• Updating
• CLI reference