fix(openclaw): restore plugin discovery and lifecycle hooks

[LeuciRemi]

Summary

Restore Signet plugin discovery, static tool exposure, and lifecycle capture
with OpenClaw 2026.7.1+.

OpenClaw now performs side-effect-free discovery passes, requires exact tool
contracts, and blocks conversation-aware hooks for non-bundled plugins unless
the operator explicitly grants access. Without those contracts, Signet's tools
and agent_end transcript capture were absent from the active runtime.

Changes

• handle OpenClaw discovery and tool-discovery registration modes without runtime side effects
• declare the exact static tool contract required by OpenClaw
• expose marketplace integrations through mcp_server_list and mcp_server_call
• remove asynchronous dynamic tool registration that OpenClaw could not activate
• grant the explicit conversation-access permission required by agent_end
• preserve existing OpenClaw hook policy while patching configuration
• bump the optional OpenClaw peer dependency to >=2026.7.1
• update connector, onboarding, and marketing documentation
• add regression coverage for discovery, lifecycle registration, configuration migration, and tool contracts

Type

• feat — new user-facing feature (bumps minor)
• fix — bug fix
• refactor — restructure without behavior change
• chore — build, deps, config, docs
• perf — performance improvement
• test — test coverage

Packages affected

• @signet/core
• @signet/daemon
• @signet/cli / dashboard
• @signet/sdk
• @signet/connector-*
• @signet/web
• predictor
• Other: @signetai/signet-memory-openclaw

Screenshots

N/A — no UI changes.

PR Readiness (MANDATORY)

• Spec alignment validated (INDEX.md + dependencies.yaml)
• Agent scoping verified on all new/changed data queries
• Input/config validation and bounds checks added
• Error handling and fallback paths tested (no silent swallow)
• Security checks applied to admin/mutation endpoints
• Docs updated for API/spec/status changes
• Regression tests added for each bug fix
• Lint/typecheck/tests pass locally

The unchecked readiness item is due only to the repository-wide
bun run lint baseline. Typecheck, focused tests, builds, and scoped Biome
checks all pass. This change adds no data queries, admin routes, or mutation
endpoints; the corresponding scoping and security checks are N/A after review.

Migration Notes (if applicable)

• Migration is idempotent
• Daemon Rust parity reviewed or explicitly N/A
• Rollback / compatibility note included in PR description

The configuration patch is idempotent and preserves existing hook policy.
Rust parity is N/A because this change is limited to the OpenClaw integration.
Rollback consists of reverting this commit; older OpenClaw runtimes remain
supported through the explicit legacy runtime path.

Testing

• bun test passes
• bun run typecheck passes
• bun run lint passes
• Tested against running daemon
• N/A

Additional validation:

• 157 focused tests pass across the adapter, connector, CLI sync, and publish-manifest suites
• @signetai/signet-memory-openclaw build passes
• @signet/connector-openclaw build passes
• scoped Biome check passes on all seven touched TypeScript files
• real OpenClaw 2026.7.2 runtime validation confirms all 9 declared tools, all 5 lifecycle hooks, the Signet service, and allowConversationAccess: true
• bun run lint reports 2,329 pre-existing repository-wide formatting errors
• a live Signet daemon was not required because this regression concerns OpenClaw plugin registration

AI disclosure

• No AI tools were used in this PR
• AI tools were used (see Assisted-by tags in commits)

Notes

OpenClaw requires exact contracts.tools declarations and blocks
conversation-aware hooks for non-bundled plugins unless
plugins.entries.signet-memory-openclaw.hooks.allowConversationAccess is
explicitly enabled.

The previous asynchronous marketplace expansion logged tools as registered,
but those tools were absent from OpenClaw's runtime registry. Marketplace
access now remains behind the declared mcp_server_list and
mcp_server_call tools.

[NicholaiVogel]

Hi. The manifest contract and the allowConversationAccess change are clearly correct and necessary for OpenClaw 2026.7.1+. Those parts are good.

I want to understand the removal of registerMarketplaceProxyTools and the 15-second refresh timer before this merges. The previous code dynamically registered marketplace tools so a harness saw them as first-class citizens. The new code requires the harness to call mcp_server_list then mcp_server_call for each one. The old test that verified dedup ("does not reregister marketplace proxy tools on refresh") is rewritten to assert the proxy tools are absent.

The PR description says the old behavior was "asynchronous dynamic tool registration that OpenClaw could not activate" and that tools "were absent from OpenClaw's runtime registry." That is the part I need more detail on. What specifically failed. Did OpenClaw 2026.7.1+ drop support for dynamically registered tools entirely, or did the registration happen at a point in the lifecycle where OpenClaw had already snapshot the tool list. If it is the latter, the fix could be to register the proxy tools during the new tool-discovery pass instead of on a timer, which would preserve the first-class integration. If it is the former and OpenClaw genuinely cannot support dynamic tool registration anymore, then removal is correct and the regression is unavoidable.

The reason this matters: the new mcp_server_list / mcp_server_call indirection is a real downgrade for any harness that previously could call marketplace tools directly. The harness now has to know to do a two-step lookup, and most harnesses will not. If the removal is forced by OpenClaw, fine. If it is a workaround for a timing bug, it is worth fixing properly.

Separately, the two new registration modes (discovery and tool-discovery) and the new registerMemoryCapability API method are a feature, not a fix. The PR type checkbox says fix. That is not a blocker, but the type label should match the contents. The feature work itself looks reasonable.

Can you share what specifically broke with the dynamic registration on OpenClaw 2026.7.1+ so I can tell whether the proxy removal is forced or a workaround.

[LeuciRemi]

Thanks — that is a fair question. I went back and reproduced the old behavior against the actual OpenClaw loaders rather than relying only on the current implementation.

The previous marketplace registration started an asynchronous refresh during the plugin’s synchronous registration phase. Once that phase returns, OpenClaw closes the registration API. registerTool is not one of the methods that remains callable afterward, so the later calls are ignored.

I replayed the old adapter against OpenClaw 2026.5.22, the locally installed 2026.7.1 release, and the current 2026.7.2 reference. In each case, the adapter logged that one mocked marketplace tool had been registered, but that tool was absent from OpenClaw’s runtime registry. There were no diagnostics because calls made after the registration window are silently ignored by the guarded API.

So this was not a dynamic-registration feature that OpenClaw specifically removed in 2026.7.1. The old asynchronous approach was already ineffective on the adapter’s previously declared minimum version, 2026.5.22. OpenClaw still supports registering tools synchronously while the registration window is open, but it does not support adding them asynchronously afterward.

Moving the existing helper into tool-discovery would therefore not fix it: the helper must await the Signet daemon before it knows which marketplace tools to register, while the discovery registration pass must also complete synchronously. Preserving first-class marketplace tools would require a different integration design, potentially through OpenClaw’s native MCP configuration, and that should be validated separately.

I agree that removing the intended first-class proxy surface is worth calling out. However, on the supported versions tested here, it does not remove working runtime behavior: the proxy tools were already missing despite the successful registration log. The declared mcp_server_list and mcp_server_call tools make marketplace access explicit and actually available.

On the PR type: I would keep this as fix. The new registration-mode handling and registerMemoryCapability call adapt Signet to OpenClaw’s current plugin lifecycle and restore existing Signet tools and transcript capture; they do not introduce a new user-facing capability. This also follows the repository convention of reserving feat for user-facing features.

I’ll update the PR description to state the verified version range and the synchronous-registration constraint more precisely.

[NicholaiVogel]

Thanks Rémi, appreciate the thorough repro. That clears it up.

Going to merge this.