fix: skip removed openclaw deps preflight

electron/gateway/runtime-deps.ts

@@ -254,13 +254,22 @@ async function runRuntimeDepsRepair(
   launchContext: GatewayLaunchContext,
   timeoutMs = DEFAULT_RUNTIME_DEPS_PREFLIGHT_TIMEOUT_MS,
 ): Promise<void> {
-  const inspected = await runPluginsDepsCommand(launchContext, [
-    'plugins',
-    'deps',
-    '--json',
-    '--package-root',
-    launchContext.openclawDir,
-  ], timeoutMs);
+  let inspected: { report: OpenClawRuntimeDepsReport; stdout: string; stderr: string };
+  try {
+    inspected = await runPluginsDepsCommand(launchContext, [
+      'plugins',
+      'deps',
+      '--json',
+      '--package-root',
+      launchContext.openclawDir,
+    ], timeoutMs);
+  } catch (error) {
+    if (isOpenClawRuntimeDepsCommandUnavailableMessage(error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error))) {
+      logger.warn('[plugins] OpenClaw plugins deps preflight is unavailable in this OpenClaw version; skipping legacy runtime dependency preflight.');
+      return;
+    }
+    throw error;
+  }
 
   const removedStaleRoot = maybeRemoveStaleInstallRoot(launchContext, inspected.report);
   const missingBefore = Array.isArray(inspected.report.missing) ? inspected.report.missing.length : 0;
@@ -309,6 +318,14 @@ async function runRuntimeDepsRepair(
   logger.info(`[plugins] OpenClaw runtime dependency preflight complete (missing=${missingAfter}, repaired=${repairedCount}, reset=${removedStaleRoot ? 'yes' : 'no'}, local=${localMaterialized ? 'yes' : 'no'}, npm=${npmRepaired ? 'yes' : 'no'})`);
 }
 
+export function isOpenClawRuntimeDepsCommandUnavailableMessage(message: string): boolean {
+  const normalized = message.toLowerCase();
+  return normalized.includes("unknown option '--json'")
+    || normalized.includes("unknown command 'deps'")
+    || normalized.includes('unknown command "deps"')
+    || (normalized.includes('usage: openclaw plugins') && normalized.includes('unknown subcommand'));
+}
+
 function runPluginsDepsCommand(
   launchContext: GatewayLaunchContext,
   args: string[],

tests/unit/openclaw-runtime-deps.test.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+import { isOpenClawRuntimeDepsCommandUnavailableMessage } from '@electron/gateway/runtime-deps';
+
+describe('OpenClaw runtime dependency preflight compatibility', () => {
+  it('treats the removed plugins deps --json CLI as unavailable', () => {
+    expect(
+      isOpenClawRuntimeDepsCommandUnavailableMessage([
+        'OpenClaw runtime dependency preflight failed (code=1, signal=none)',
+        "error: unknown option '--json'",
+        'Usage: openclaw plugins [options] [command]',
+      ].join('\n')),
+    ).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it('does not hide unrelated OpenClaw preflight failures', () => {
+    expect(
+      isOpenClawRuntimeDepsCommandUnavailableMessage([
+        'OpenClaw runtime dependency preflight failed (code=1, signal=none)',
+        'Error: Cannot find module sqlite-vec',
+      ].join('\n')),
+    ).toBe(false);
+  });
+});