From 11fcbadec8ee16aa3b46fd6f4149c2a90cb68700 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Sebastian <19554889+sebslight@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2026 10:01:37 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] fix(daemon): guard preferred node selection

---
 CHANGELOG.md                     |  1 +
 src/daemon/runtime-paths.test.ts | 25 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
 src/daemon/runtime-paths.ts      |  9 ++++++++-
 3 files changed, 34 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 6353fd1e15b..7c3e7744621 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Gateway/Update: preserve update.run restart delivery context so post-update status replies route back to the initiating channel/thread. (#18267) Thanks @yinghaosang.
 - CLI/Update: run a standalone restart helper after updates, honoring service-name overrides and reporting restart initiation separately from confirmed restarts. (#18050)
 - CLI/Daemon: warn when a gateway restart sees a stale service token so users can reinstall with `openclaw gateway install --force`, and skip drift warnings for non-gateway service restarts. (#18018)
+- CLI/Daemon: prefer the active version-manager Node when installing daemons and include macOS version-manager bin directories in the service PATH so launchd services resolve user-managed runtimes.
 - CLI/Status: fix `openclaw status --all` token summaries for bot-token-only channels so Mattermost/Zalo no longer show a bot+app warning. (#18527) Thanks @echo931.
 - CLI/Configure: make the `/model picker` allowlist prompt searchable with tokenized matching in `openclaw configure` so users can filter huge model lists by typing terms like `gpt-5.2 openai/`. (#19010) Thanks @bjesuiter.
 - CLI/Message: preserve `--components` JSON payloads in `openclaw message send` so Discord component payloads are no longer dropped. (#18222) Thanks @saurabhchopade.
diff --git a/src/daemon/runtime-paths.test.ts b/src/daemon/runtime-paths.test.ts
index 45d7142ecec..677bfad30ba 100644
--- a/src/daemon/runtime-paths.test.ts
+++ b/src/daemon/runtime-paths.test.ts
@@ -70,6 +70,31 @@ describe("resolvePreferredNodePath", () => {
     expect(execFile).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(2);
   });
 
+  it("ignores execPath when it is not node", async () => {
+    fsMocks.access.mockImplementation(async (target: string) => {
+      if (target === darwinNode) {
+        return;
+      }
+      throw new Error("missing");
+    });
+
+    const execFile = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ stdout: "22.12.0\n", stderr: "" });
+
+    const result = await resolvePreferredNodePath({
+      env: {},
+      runtime: "node",
+      platform: "darwin",
+      execFile,
+      execPath: "/Users/test/.bun/bin/bun",
+    });
+
+    expect(result).toBe(darwinNode);
+    expect(execFile).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+    expect(execFile).toHaveBeenCalledWith(darwinNode, ["-p", "process.versions.node"], {
+      encoding: "utf8",
+    });
+  });
+
   it("uses system node when it meets the minimum version", async () => {
     fsMocks.access.mockImplementation(async (target: string) => {
       if (target === darwinNode) {
diff --git a/src/daemon/runtime-paths.ts b/src/daemon/runtime-paths.ts
index eb00841cc6a..5730c24efae 100644
--- a/src/daemon/runtime-paths.ts
+++ b/src/daemon/runtime-paths.ts
@@ -19,6 +19,12 @@ function getPathModule(platform: NodeJS.Platform) {
   return platform === "win32" ? path.win32 : path.posix;
 }
 
+function isNodeExecPath(execPath: string, platform: NodeJS.Platform): boolean {
+  const pathModule = getPathModule(platform);
+  const base = pathModule.basename(execPath).toLowerCase();
+  return base === "node" || base === "node.exe";
+}
+
 function normalizeForCompare(input: string, platform: NodeJS.Platform): string {
   const pathModule = getPathModule(platform);
   const normalized = pathModule.normalize(input).replaceAll("\\", "/");
@@ -160,8 +166,9 @@ export async function resolvePreferredNodePath(params: {
 
   // Prefer the node that is currently running `openclaw gateway install`.
   // This respects the user's active version manager (fnm/nvm/volta/etc.).
+  const platform = params.platform ?? process.platform;
   const currentExecPath = params.execPath ?? process.execPath;
-  if (currentExecPath) {
+  if (currentExecPath && isNodeExecPath(currentExecPath, platform)) {
     const execFileImpl = params.execFile ?? execFileAsync;
     const version = await resolveNodeVersion(currentExecPath, execFileImpl);
     if (isSupportedNodeVersion(version)) {