Openclaw openclaw-parallels-smoke

Name: openclaw-parallels-smoke
Author: openclaw

End-to-end Parallels smoke, upgrade, and rerun workflow for OpenClaw across macOS, Windows, and Linux guests. Use when Codex needs to run, rerun, debug, or interpret VM-based install, onboarding, gateway smoke tests, latest-release-to-main upgrade checks, fresh snapshot retests, or optional Discord roundtrip verification under Parallels.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/.agents/skills/openclaw-parallels-smoke" ~/.claude/skills/openclaw-openclaw-openclaw-parallels-smoke && rm -rf "$T"

OpenClaw · Install into ~/.openclaw/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/skills && cp -r "$T/.agents/skills/openclaw-parallels-smoke" ~/.openclaw/skills/openclaw-openclaw-openclaw-parallels-smoke && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: .agents/skills/openclaw-parallels-smoke/SKILL.md

OpenClaw Parallels Smoke

Use this skill for Parallels guest workflows and smoke interpretation. Do not load it for normal repo work.

Global rules

Use the snapshot most closely matching the requested fresh baseline.
Gateway verification in smoke runs should use
```
openclaw gateway status --deep --require-rpc
```
unless the stable version being checked does not support it yet.
Stable
```
2026.3.12
```
pre-upgrade diagnostics may require a plain
```
gateway status --deep
```
fallback.
Treat
```
precheck=latest-ref-fail
```
on that stable pre-upgrade lane as baseline, not automatically a regression.
Pass
```
--json
```
for machine-readable summaries.
Per-phase logs land under
```
/tmp/openclaw-parallels-*
```
.
Do not run local and gateway agent turns in parallel on the same fresh workspace or session.
Hard-cap every top-level Parallels lane with host
```
timeout --foreground
```
(or
```
gtimeout --foreground
```
if that is the available binary) so a stalled install, snapshot switch, or
```
prlctl exec
```
transport cannot consume the rest of the testing window. Defaults:
- macOS:
```
75m
```
- Linux:
```
75m
```
- Windows:
```
90m
```
- aggregate npm-update wrapper:
```
150m
```
  If a lane hits the cap, stop there, inspect the newest
```
/tmp/openclaw-parallels-*
```
  run directory and phase log, then fix or rerun the smallest affected lane. Do not keep waiting on a capped lane.
Actual OpenClaw npm install/update phases are a stricter budget than whole lanes: install phases should finish within 7 minutes, and update phases should finish within 5 minutes. If a phase named
```
install-main
```
,
```
install-latest
```
,
```
install-baseline
```
, or
```
install-baseline-package
```
exceeds 420s, or a phase named
```
update-dev
```
/ same-guest
```
openclaw update
```
exceeds 300s, treat it as a failure/harness bug and start diagnosis from that phase log. Do not wait for a longer lane cap.
For a full OS matrix, prefer running independent guest-family lanes in parallel when host capacity allows:
- ```
timeout --foreground 75m pnpm test:parallels:macos -- --json
```
- ```
timeout --foreground 90m pnpm test:parallels:windows -- --json
```
- ```
timeout --foreground 75m pnpm test:parallels:linux -- --json
```
  Keep each lane in its own shell/session and track the run directory for each one.
Do not run multiple smoke lanes against the same guest family at once. Tahoe lanes share the host HTTP port, and Windows/Linux lanes can collide on snapshot restore/start state if two jobs touch the same VM concurrently.
Do not run the aggregate
```
pnpm test:parallels:npm-update
```
wrapper in parallel with individual macOS/Windows/Linux smoke lanes; it touches the same guest families and snapshots.
Do not start Parallels lanes while any host command may rebuild, clean, or restage
```
dist
```
(
```
pnpm build
```
,
```
pnpm ui:build
```
,
```
pnpm release:check
```
,
```
pnpm test:install:smoke
```
, npm pack/install smoke, or Docker lanes that run package/build prep). Run the build/package gates first, let them finish, then start the VM matrix. Concurrent
```
dist
```
mutation can make host
```
npm pack
```
fail with missing files and wastes a full VM cycle.
While running or optimizing the matrix, record wall-clock duration per lane and the slowest phase from
```
/tmp/openclaw-parallels-*
```
logs. Use that timing before changing smoke order, timeouts, or helper behavior.
If
```
main
```
is moving under active multi-agent work, prefer a detached worktree pinned to one commit for long Parallels suites. The smoke scripts now verify the packed tgz commit instead of live
```
git rev-parse HEAD
```
, but a pinned worktree still avoids noisy rebuild/version drift during reruns.
For
```
openclaw update --channel dev
```
lanes, remember the guest clones GitHub
```
main
```
, not your local worktree. If a local fix exists but the rerun still fails inside the cloned dev checkout, do not treat that as disproof of the fix until the branch has been pushed.

For

prlctl exec

, pass the VM name before

--current-user

(

prlctl exec "$VM" --current-user ...

), not the other way around.

If the workflow installs OpenClaw from a repo checkout instead of the site installer/npm release, finish by installing a real guest CLI shim and verifying it in a fresh guest shell.
```
pnpm openclaw ...
```
inside the repo is not enough for handoff parity.
On macOS guests, prefer a user-global install plus a stable PATH-visible shim:
- install with
```
NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX="$HOME/.npm-global" npm install -g .
```
- make sure
```
~/.local/bin/openclaw
```
  exists or
```
~/.npm-global/bin
```
  is on PATH
- verify from a brand-new guest shell with
```
which openclaw
```
  and
```
openclaw --version
```

npm install then update

Preferred entrypoint:
```
pnpm test:parallels:npm-update
```
Required coverage: every release/update regression run must include both lanes:
- fresh snapshot -> install requested package/baseline -> smoke
- same guest baseline -> run the guest's installed
```
openclaw update ...
```
  command -> smoke again
The update lane must exercise OpenClaw's internal updater. Do not count a direct
```
npm install -g <tgz-or-spec>
```
or harness-side package swap as update-flow coverage; those are install smokes only.
For published targets, install the old baseline package first (for example
```
openclaw@2026.4.9
```
), then run the installed guest CLI with the intended channel/tag (for example
```
openclaw update --channel beta --yes --json
```
) and verify
```
openclaw --version
```
,
```
openclaw update status --json
```
, gateway RPC, and an agent turn after the command.
For unpublished targets, pack the candidate on the host, serve the
```
.tgz
```
over the harness HTTP server, and point the guest updater at that served package. Prefer
```
openclaw update --tag http://<host-ip>:<port>/openclaw-<version>.tgz --yes --json
```
; when channel persistence also matters, pass
```
--channel <stable|beta>
```
and set
```
OPENCLAW_UPDATE_PACKAGE_SPEC
```
to the same served URL in the guest update environment. The command under test must still be
```
openclaw update
```
, not direct npm.
For unpublished local-fix validation, remember the old baseline updater code still controls the first hop. A fix that lives only in the new updater code cannot change that already-running old process; the served candidate must either keep package/plugin metadata compatible with the baseline host or the baseline itself must include the updater fix.
For beta/stable verification, resolve the tag immediately before the run (
```
npm view openclaw@beta version dist.tarball
```
or
```
npm view openclaw@latest ...
```
). Tags can move while a long VM matrix is already running; restart the matrix when the intended prerelease appears after an earlier registry 404/tag-lag check.
Source Peter's profile in the host shell (
```
set -a; source "$HOME/.profile"; set +a
```
) before OpenAI/Anthropic lanes. Do not print profile contents or env dumps; pass provider secrets through the guest exec environment.
Same-guest update verification should set the default model explicitly to
```
openai/gpt-5.4
```
before the agent turn and use a fresh explicit
```
--session-id
```
so old session model state does not leak into the check.
The aggregate npm-update wrapper must resolve the Linux VM with the same Ubuntu fallback policy as
```
parallels-linux-smoke.sh
```
before both fresh and update lanes. Treat any Ubuntu guest with major version
```
>= 24
```
as acceptable when the exact default VM is missing, preferring the closest version match. On Peter's current host today, missing
```
Ubuntu 24.04.3 ARM64
```
should fall back to
```
Ubuntu 25.10
```
.
On macOS same-guest update checks, restart the gateway after the npm upgrade before
```
gateway status
```
/
```
agent
```
; launchd can otherwise report a loaded service while the old process has exited and the fresh process is not RPC-ready yet.
The npm-update aggregate's macOS update leg writes the guest update script as root, then runs it as the desktop user. If
```
prlctl exec "$MACOS_VM" --current-user ...
```
cannot authenticate, retry through plain root
```
prlctl exec
```
plus
```
sudo -u <desktop-user> /usr/bin/env HOME=/Users/<desktop-user> USER=<desktop-user> LOGNAME=<desktop-user> PATH=/opt/homebrew/bin:/opt/homebrew/opt/node/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin ...
```
. That is a Parallels transport fallback; still verify
```
openclaw --version
```
, gateway RPC, and an agent turn after the update.
On Windows same-guest update checks, restart the gateway after the npm upgrade before
```
gateway status
```
/
```
agent
```
; in-place global npm updates can otherwise leave stale hashed
```
dist/*
```
module imports alive in the running service.
In those Windows same-guest update checks, do not treat one nonzero
```
openclaw gateway restart
```
as definitive failure. Current login-item restarts can report failure before the background service becomes observable again; follow with a longer RPC-ready wait and use
```
gateway start
```
only as a recovery step if readiness still never returns.
After that Windows restart, do not trust one
```
gateway status --deep --require-rpc
```
call after a fixed sleep. Retry the RPC-ready probe for roughly 30 seconds and log each attempt; current guests can keep port
```
18789
```
bound while the fresh RPC endpoint is still coming up.
For Windows same-guest update checks, prefer the done-file/log-drain PowerShell runner pattern over one long-lived
```
prlctl exec ... powershell -EncodedCommand ...
```
transport. The guest can finish successfully while the outer
```
prlctl exec
```
still hangs.
The Windows same-guest update helper should write stage markers to its log before long steps like tgz download and
```
npm install -g
```
so the outer progress monitor does not sit on
```
waiting for first log line
```
during healthy but quiet installs.
Linux same-guest update verification should also export
```
HOME=/root
```
, pass
```
OPENAI_API_KEY
```
via
```
prlctl exec ... /usr/bin/env
```
, and use
```
openclaw agent --local
```
; the fresh Linux baseline does not rely on persisted gateway credentials.
The npm-update wrapper now prints per-lane progress from the nested log files. If a lane still looks stuck, inspect the nested logs in
```
runDir
```
first (
```
macos-fresh.log
```
,
```
windows-fresh.log
```
,
```
linux-fresh.log
```
,
```
macos-update.log
```
,
```
windows-update.log
```
,
```
linux-update.log
```
) instead of assuming the outer wrapper hung.
If the wrapper fails a lane, read the auto-dumped tail first, then the full nested lane log under
```
/tmp/openclaw-parallels-npm-update.*
```
.
Current known macOS update-lane transport signature when the fallback is missing or bypassed:
```
Unable to authenticate the user. Make sure that the specified credentials are correct and try again.
```
Treat that as Parallels current-user authentication before blaming npm or OpenClaw.

CLI invocation footgun

The Parallels smoke shell scripts should tolerate a literal bare
```
--
```
arg so
```
pnpm test:parallels:* -- --json
```
and similar forwarded invocations work without needing to call
```
bash scripts/e2e/...
```
directly.

macOS flow

Preferred entrypoint:
```
pnpm test:parallels:macos
```
Default upgrade coverage on macOS should now include: fresh snapshot -> site installer pinned to the latest stable tag ->
```
openclaw update --channel dev
```
on the guest. Treat this as part of the default Tahoe regression plan, not an optional side quest.
```
parallels-macos-smoke.sh --mode upgrade
```
should run that release-to-dev lane by default. Keep the older host-tgz upgrade path only when the caller explicitly passes
```
--target-package-spec
```
.
Because the default upgrade lane no longer needs a host tgz, skip
```
npm pack
```
+ host HTTP server startup for
```
--mode upgrade
```
unless
```
--target-package-spec
```
is set. Keep the pack/server path for
```
fresh
```
and
```
both
```
.
If that release-to-dev lane fails with
```
reason=preflight-no-good-commit
```
and repeated
```
sh: pnpm: command not found
```
tails from
```
preflight build
```
, treat it as an updater regression first. The fix belongs in the git/dev updater bootstrap path, not in Parallels retry logic.
Until the public stable train includes that updater bootstrap fix, the macOS release-to-dev lane may seed a temporary guest-local
```
pnpm
```
shim immediately before
```
openclaw update --channel dev
```
. Keep that workaround scoped to the smoke harness and remove it once the latest stable no longer needs it.
In Tahoe
```
prlctl exec --current-user
```
runs, prefer explicit
```
node .../openclaw.mjs ...
```
invocations for the release->dev handoff itself and for post-update verification. The shebanged global
```
openclaw
```
wrapper can fail with
```
env: node: No such file or directory
```
, and self-updating through the wrapper is a weaker lane than invoking the entrypoint under a fixed
```
node
```
.
Default to the snapshot closest to
```
macOS 26.3.1 latest
```
.
On Peter's Tahoe VM,
```
fresh-latest-march-2026
```
can hang in
```
prlctl snapshot-switch
```
; if restore times out there, rerun with
```
--snapshot-hint 'macOS 26.3.1 latest'
```
before blaming auth or the harness.
```
parallels-macos-smoke.sh
```
now retries
```
snapshot-switch
```
once after force-stopping a stuck running/suspended guest. If Tahoe still times out after that recovery path, then treat it as a real Parallels/host issue and rerun manually.
The macOS smoke should include a dashboard load phase after gateway health: resolve the tokenized URL with
```
openclaw dashboard --no-open
```
, verify the served HTML contains the Control UI title/root shell, then open Safari and require an established localhost TCP connection from Safari to the gateway port.
For Tahoe
```
fresh.gateway-status
```
, prefer non-TTY
```
prlctl exec --current-user ... openclaw gateway status ...
```
plus a few short retries.
```
prlctl enter
```
can spam TTY control bytes and hang the phase log even when the CLI itself is healthy.
If a Tahoe lane times out in
```
fresh.first-agent-turn
```
and the phase log stops right after
```
__OPENCLAW_RC__:0
```
from
```
models set
```
, suspect the
```
prlctl enter
```
/
```
expect
```
wrapper before blaming auth or the model lane. That pattern means the first guest command finished but the transport never released for the next
```
guest_current_user_cli
```
call.
If a packaged install regresses with
```
500
```
on
```
/
```
,
```
/healthz
```
, or
```
__openclaw/control-ui-config.json
```
after
```
fresh.install-main
```
or
```
upgrade.install-main
```
, suspect bundled plugin runtime deps resolving from the package root
```
node_modules
```
rather than
```
dist/extensions/*/node_modules
```
. Repro quickly with a real
```
npm pack
```
/global install lane before blaming dashboard auth or Safari.
```
prlctl exec
```
is fine for deterministic repo commands, but use the guest Terminal or
```
prlctl enter
```
when installer parity or shell-sensitive behavior matters.

Multi-word

openclaw agent --message ...

checks should go through a guest shell wrapper (

guest_current_user_sh

guest_current_user_cli

/bin/sh -lc ...

), not raw

prlctl exec ... node openclaw.mjs ...

, or the message can be split into extra argv tokens and Commander reports

too many arguments for 'agent'

The same wrapper rule applies when bypassing
```
--current-user
```
: write a tiny
```
/tmp/*.sh
```
on the guest and execute
```
/bin/bash /tmp/*.sh
```
through the sudo desktop-user environment. Do not pass
```
openclaw agent --message '...'
```
directly as one raw
```
prlctl exec
```
command.
When ref-mode onboarding stores
```
OPENAI_API_KEY
```
as an env secret ref, the post-onboard agent verification should also export
```
OPENAI_API_KEY
```
for the guest command. The gateway can still reject with pairing-required and fall back to embedded execution, and that fallback needs the env-backed credential available in the shell.
On the fresh Tahoe snapshot,
```
brew
```
exists but
```
node
```
may be missing from PATH in noninteractive exec. Use
```
/opt/homebrew/bin/node
```
when needed.
Fresh host-served tgz installs should install as guest root with
```
HOME=/var/root
```
, then run onboarding as the desktop user via
```
prlctl exec --current-user
```
.
Root-installed tgz smoke can log plugin blocks for world-writable
```
extensions/*
```
; do not treat that as an onboarding or gateway failure unless plugin loading is the task.

Windows flow

Preferred entrypoint:
```
pnpm test:parallels:windows
```
Use the snapshot closest to
```
pre-openclaw-native-e2e-2026-03-12
```
.
Default upgrade coverage on Windows should now include: fresh snapshot -> site installer pinned to the requested stable tag ->
```
openclaw update --channel dev
```
on the guest. Keep the older host-tgz upgrade path only when the caller explicitly passes
```
--target-package-spec
```
.

Optional exact npm-tag baseline on Windows:

bash scripts/e2e/parallels-windows-smoke.sh --mode upgrade --target-package-spec openclaw@<tag> --json

. That lane installs the published npm tarball as baseline, then runs

openclaw update --channel dev

Optional forward-fix Windows validation:

bash scripts/e2e/parallels-windows-smoke.sh --mode upgrade --upgrade-from-packed-main --json

. That lane installs the packed current-main npm tgz as baseline, then runs

openclaw update --channel dev

Always use

prlctl exec --current-user

; plain

prlctl exec

lands in

NT AUTHORITY\\SYSTEM

Prefer explicit
```
npm.cmd
```
and
```
openclaw.cmd
```
.
Use PowerShell only as the transport with
```
-ExecutionPolicy Bypass
```
, then call the
```
.cmd
```
shims from inside it.
Current Windows Node installs expose
```
corepack
```
as a
```
.cmd
```
shim. If a release-to-dev lane sees
```
corepack
```
on PATH but
```
openclaw update --channel dev
```
still behaves as if corepack is missing, treat that as an exec-shim regression first.
If an exact published-tag Windows lane fails during preflight with
```
npm run build
```
and
```
'pnpm' is not recognized
```
, remember that the guest is still executing the old published updater. Validate the fix with
```
--upgrade-from-packed-main
```
, then wait for the next tagged npm release before expecting the historical tag lane to pass.

Multi-word

openclaw agent --message ...

checks should call

& $openclaw ...

inside PowerShell, not

Start-Process ... -ArgumentList

against

openclaw.cmd

, or Commander can see split argv and throw

too many arguments for 'agent'

Windows installer/tgz phases now retry once after guest-ready recheck; keep new Windows smoke steps idempotent so a transport-flake retry is safe.
If a Windows retry sees the VM become
```
suspended
```
or
```
stopped
```
, resume/start it before the next
```
prlctl exec
```
; otherwise the second attempt just repeats the same
```
rc=255
```
.
Windows global
```
npm install -g
```
phases can stay quiet for a minute or more even when healthy; inspect the phase log before calling it hung, and only treat it as a regression once the retry wrapper or timeout trips.
When those Windows global installs stay quiet, the useful progress often lives in the guest npm debug log, not the helper phase log. The smoke script now streams incremental
```
npm-cache/_logs/*-debug-0.log
```
deltas into the phase log during long baseline/package installs; read those lines before assuming the lane is stalled.
The Windows baseline-package helpers now auto-dump the latest guest
```
npm-cache/_logs/*-debug-0.log
```
tail on timeout or nonzero completion. Read that tail in the phase log before opening a second guest shell.
The same incremental npm-debug streaming also applies to
```
--upgrade-from-packed-main
```
/ packaged-install baseline phases. A phase log that still says only
```
install.start
```
,
```
install.download-tgz
```
,
```
install.install-tgz
```
can still be healthy if the streamed npm-debug section shows registry fetches or bundled-plugin postinstall work.
Fresh Windows tgz install phases should also use the background PowerShell runner plus done-file/log-drain pattern; do not rely on one long-lived
```
prlctl exec ... powershell ... npm install -g
```
transport for package installs.
Windows release-to-dev helpers should log
```
where pnpm
```
before and after the update and require
```
where pnpm
```
to succeed post-update. That proves the updater installed or enabled
```
pnpm
```
itself instead of depending on a smoke-only bootstrap.
Fresh Windows ref-mode onboard should use the same background PowerShell runner plus done-file/log-drain pattern as the npm-update helper, including startup materialization checks, host-side timeouts on short poll
```
prlctl exec
```
calls, and retry-on-poll-failure behavior for transient transport flakes.
Fresh Windows daemon-health reachability should use
```
openclaw gateway probe --json
```
with a longer timeout and treat
```
ok: true
```
as success; full
```
gateway status --require-rpc
```
checks are too eager during initial startup on current main.
Fresh Windows ref-mode agent verification should set
```
OPENAI_API_KEY
```
in the PowerShell environment before invoking
```
openclaw.cmd agent
```
, for the same pairing-required fallback reason as macOS.
The standalone Windows upgrade smoke lane should stop the managed gateway after
```
upgrade.install-main
```
and before
```
upgrade.onboard-ref
```
. Restarting before onboard can leave the old process alive on the pre-onboard token while onboard rewrites
```
~/.openclaw/openclaw.json
```
, which then fails
```
gateway-health
```
with
```
unauthorized: gateway token mismatch
```
.
If standalone Windows upgrade fails with a gateway token mismatch but
```
pnpm test:parallels:npm-update
```
passes, trust the mismatch as a standalone ref-onboard ordering bug first; the npm-update helper does not re-run ref-mode onboard on the same guest.
Keep onboarding and status output ASCII-clean in logs; fancy punctuation becomes mojibake in current capture paths.
If you hit an older run with
```
rc=255
```
plus an empty
```
fresh.install-main.log
```
or
```
upgrade.install-main.log
```
, treat it as a likely
```
prlctl exec
```
transport drop after guest start-up, not immediate proof of an npm/package failure.

Linux flow

Preferred entrypoint:
```
pnpm test:parallels:linux
```
Use the snapshot closest to fresh
```
Ubuntu 24.04.3 ARM64
```
.
If that exact VM is missing on the host, any Ubuntu guest with major version
```
>= 24
```
is acceptable; prefer the closest versioned Ubuntu guest with a fresh poweroff snapshot. On Peter's host today, that is
```
Ubuntu 25.10
```
.
Use plain
```
prlctl exec
```
;
```
--current-user
```
is not the right transport on this snapshot.
Fresh snapshots may be missing
```
curl
```
, and
```
apt-get update
```
can fail on clock skew. Bootstrap with
```
apt-get -o Acquire::Check-Date=false update
```
and install
```
curl ca-certificates
```
.
Fresh
```
main
```
tgz smoke still needs the latest-release installer first because the snapshot has no Node or npm before bootstrap.
This snapshot does not have a usable
```
systemd --user
```
session; managed daemon install is unsupported.
The Linux smoke now falls back to a manual
```
setsid openclaw gateway run --bind loopback --port 18789 --force
```
launch with
```
HOME=/root
```
and the provider secret exported, then verifies
```
gateway status --deep --require-rpc
```
when available.
The Linux manual gateway launch should wait for
```
gateway status --deep --require-rpc
```
inside the
```
gateway-start
```
phase; otherwise the first status probe can race the background bind and fail a healthy lane.
If Linux gateway bring-up fails, inspect
```
/tmp/openclaw-parallels-linux-gateway.log
```
in the guest phase logs first; the common failure mode is a missing provider secret in the launched gateway environment.

Discord roundtrip

Discord roundtrip is optional and should be enabled with:

```
--discord-token-env
```
```
--discord-guild-id
```
```
--discord-channel-id
```

Keep the Discord token only in a host env var.

Use installed

openclaw message send/read

, not

node openclaw.mjs message ...

Set
```
channels.discord.guilds
```
as one JSON object, not dotted config paths with snowflakes.
Avoid long
```
prlctl enter
```
or expect-driven Discord config scripts; prefer
```
prlctl exec --current-user /bin/sh -lc ...
```
with short commands.
For a narrower macOS-only Discord proof run, the existing
```
parallels-discord-roundtrip
```
skill is the deep-dive companion.