openclaw-lighthouse

Gateway reports old version after npm update

Symptoms

After running npm i -g openclaw@latest, the gateway still shows the old version on restart:

Config was last written by a newer OpenClaw (2026.3.13); current version is 2026.3.11.

openclaw --version in the shell shows the correct new version, but the gateway process runs the old one.

Environment

• OpenClaw version: any (observed on 2026.3.11 → 2026.3.13 upgrade)
• OS: Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)
• Install method: npm i -g openclaw

Root cause

OpenClaw’s systemd user service runs from ~/.openclaw/bin/openclaw — a local copy of the binary, not the global /usr/bin/openclaw. When you update globally with npm i -g openclaw@latest, the global binary updates but the local copy in ~/.openclaw/bin/ stays at the old version.

The systemd unit explicitly uses:

ExecStart=%h/.openclaw/bin/openclaw gateway run

Fix

Option A — Copy (one-time):

cp /usr/bin/openclaw ~/.openclaw/bin/openclaw
openclaw gateway restart

Option B — Symlink (permanent, recommended):

ln -sf /usr/bin/openclaw ~/.openclaw/bin/openclaw
openclaw gateway restart

The symlink ensures future npm i -g openclaw@latest updates automatically apply to the gateway without manual intervention.

Notes

• This only affects setups where OpenClaw was installed globally (npm i -g) but the gateway runs as a non-root user with its own ~/.openclaw/bin/ copy.
• If you installed OpenClaw via the install script (curl ... | bash), check whether your setup uses the local or global binary.
• The “Config was last written by a newer OpenClaw” warning is harmless — the config is forward-compatible. But the version mismatch means you’re not getting bugfixes from the update.

Status

• reproduced
• root cause known
• fix available