Removing the runtime while keeping ~/.openclaw left state that its own updates had migrated past the packaged release, and reinstalling seeded a release that refused to open it; even `openclaw update` refused. Removal now takes openclaw off PATH and leaves the runtime inside ~/.openclaw with the state, where a reinstall picks it back up; deleting ~/.openclaw still takes both.
The first E2E run of the migration found that the new runtime cannot install its gateway service while the old package's gateway, still running from deleted files, holds the state directory, so that service is stopped first. Removal also takes the unit backups `openclaw update` leaves behind.
Codex's review found the rest: upstream's installer takes over any loaded gateway service, so a gateway running another OpenClaw, a foreign command on PATH or an openclaw shadowing it are refused before anything is set up; root is refused before --check runs the user's wrapper; --check needs the package, since --now would otherwise run pacman where no terminal can ask for a password; and moving a service clears the selectors that would aim the install at another unit.
Co-Authored-By: Codex XHigh <noreply@openai.com>
OpenClaw's desktop experience on Linux is its Control UI, served by the
gateway the openclaw package runs, so the Install > AI entry installs
the package and a web app launcher that routes through the new
omarchy-launch-openclaw: first launch hands off to OpenClaw's own
onboarding wizard, later launches start the gateway when needed and open
the dashboard's single-use browser handoff URL as an app window.
Remove > AI tears the gateway service down through OpenClaw's own
gateway uninstall (falling back to systemctl by hand), aborts rather
than dropping the package under a gateway that will not stop, and keeps
the user's agent in ~/.openclaw.
OpenClaw also joins Setup > Defaults > Agent through the same
agent_installer seam Hermes carries: its CLI is the pacman package
rather than a mise tool, so omarchy-install-openclaw-cli answers
--check/--now with pacman, and omarchy-agent runs `openclaw chat`,
seeding prompts through --message.
The menu mark is a new U+E90C glyph traced from the package's lobster
favicon; E90B stays free for the Perplexity mark still in flight on its
own branch.
The launcher recovers the gateway through `openclaw gateway install --force`
(unit not enabled: missing, or an install that died after writing it) or
`openclaw gateway start` (enabled but stopped), never `openclaw dashboard
--yes`: as of OpenClaw 2026.9.1 that defers to "the owning supervisor" in
both cases, and once the gateway is up it copies a one-time browser pairing
URL into the clipboard. The dashboard probe is bounded so an app-grid launch
cannot hang without a terminal to interrupt it. Removal treats only
systemd's own "inactive"/"failed" as a stopped gateway, so an unreachable
user manager aborts instead of dropping the package under a live process.
All of it verified against a real 2026.9.1 install.
Removal also takes down the node-host unit if OpenClaw ever installed one, and
asks (default no, only on a terminal) whether ~/.openclaw should go too, with
its size: the chats and credentials live there next to hundreds of megabytes
of plugin runtimes and cache OpenClaw downloads for itself.
Onboarding goes through omarchy-openclaw-onboard rather than bare `openclaw
onboard`: as of 2026.9.1 the bare command is the guided flow, which ends by
running a foreground gateway and handing off to a browser tab without
returning, so the install script never reached the app launch and no service
was installed. The helper runs the classic wizard (--flow quickstart
--install-daemon --skip-ui) as a background job that keeps the terminal as its
stdin, so its prompts render and take input as upstream draws them, and stops
it once the gateway answers: upstream leaves the wizard running after its
outro (only the TUI branch exits, and the model sign-in holds a socket open).
Every quickstart prompt precedes the service install, so that point is safe.
A gateway that never comes up after this run applies setup ends the wait as a
failure instead
of hanging, an already-running OpenClaw is left alone rather than mistaken for
this run's success, a gateway answering on the port is only this run's once its
process is the unit's own MainPID (an orphan from an
earlier run) is not mistaken for the service this run installs, and a signal at
the helper takes the wizard down with it.
Spencer Bull