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Bun releases up to 1.3.x cannot run the OpenClaw CLI or Gateway because they do not provide the required node:sqlite API. OpenClaw feature-probes the runtime: Bun builds that ship node:sqlite (1.4.0 canary and later) can run the CLI and Gateway experimentally, while older Bun versions are rejected at startup. Node remains the supported and recommended runtime for all OpenClaw runtime commands.
Bun remains usable as an optional package-script runner. The default package manager remains pnpm, which is fully supported and used by docs tooling. Bun cannot use pnpm-lock.yaml and ignores it, and current Bun versions fail to resolve this repo’s pnpm-workspace.yaml layout during bun install, so dependency installs should use pnpm install.

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Install

1

Install dependencies

Current Bun versions (including 1.4 canary) cannot resolve this repo’s pnpm workspace layout, so bun install fails during workspace resolution. Use pnpm install.
2

Build and test

Commands that launch OpenClaw itself should still run through Node; Bun runtimes that provide node:sqlite (1.4.0 canary and later) can run them experimentally.

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Lifecycle scripts

Bun blocks dependency lifecycle scripts unless explicitly trusted. For this repo, the commonly blocked scripts are not required:
  • baileys preinstall: checks Node major >= 20 (OpenClaw requires Node 22.22.3+, 24.15+, or 25.9+, with Node 26 recommended)
  • protobufjs postinstall: emits warnings about incompatible version schemes (no build artifacts)
If you hit a runtime issue that needs these scripts, trust them explicitly:

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Caveats

Some package scripts hardcode pnpm internally (for example check:docs, ui:*, protocol:check). Running them via bun run still shells out to pnpm, so just run those via pnpm directly.