Error: Failed to set agents.defaults.workspace=/root/.openclaw-dench/workspace.

[b4ctest007]

npx denchclaw

██████╗ ███████╗███╗ ██╗ ██████╗██╗ ██╗ ██████╗██╗ █████╗ ██╗ ██╗
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╚═════╝ ╚══════╝╚═╝ ╚═══╝ ╚═════╝╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚═════╝╚══════╝╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚══╝╚══╝
DENCHCLAW 2.2.3 (unknown) — Your inbox, your infra, your rules.

│
◇ [###-------------] 1/5 Checking global OpenClaw install -> found 2026.3.13
│
◇ [######----------] 2/5 Ensuring openclaw@latest is installed globally -> already ...
│
◇ [##########------] 3/5 Resolving global and shell OpenClaw paths -> path discover...
│
◇ [#############---] 4/5 Verifying OpenClaw CLI responsiveness -> OpenClaw responded
│
◇ [################] 5/5 Caching OpenClaw check result -> saved (5m TTL)
│
◇ Check and install OpenClaw updates now?
│ No
Error: Failed to set agents.defaults.workspace=/root/.openclaw-dench/workspace.

[kumarabhirup]

Thanks for reporting this! The fix has been pushed in 1c92aaf — the issue was that openclaw config set agents.defaults.workspace was called before the workspace directory existed on disk, and some OpenClaw builds validate the path before accepting it. This especially affects fresh Linux installs.

The fix will be included in v2.3.0. Please hold tight until then, and let us know if you run into anything else!

[madarco]

thanks for the quick fix!

However I still get the issue on v2.3.0 and latest openclaw OpenClaw 2026.3.13 (61d171a)

openclaw@ip-10-0-1-196:~$ npx denchclaw

██████╗ ███████╗███╗   ██╗ ██████╗██╗  ██╗ ██████╗██╗      █████╗ ██╗    ██╗
██╔══██╗██╔════╝████╗  ██║██╔════╝██║  ██║██╔════╝██║     ██╔══██╗██║    ██║
██║  ██║█████╗  ██╔██╗ ██║██║     ███████║██║     ██║     ███████║██║ █╗ ██║
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██████╔╝███████╗██║ ╚████║╚██████╗██║  ██║╚██████╗███████╗██║  ██║╚███╔███╔╝
╚═════╝ ╚══════╝╚═╝  ╚═══╝ ╚═════╝╚═╝  ╚═╝ ╚═════╝╚══════╝╚═╝  ╚═╝ ╚══╝╚══╝ 
  DENCHCLAW 2.3.0 (unknown) — I'll do the boring stuff while you dramatically stare at the logs like it's cinema.

│
◇  [###-------------] 1/5 Checking global OpenClaw install -> found 2026.3.13
│
◇  [######----------] 2/5 Ensuring openclaw@latest is installed globally -> already ...
│
◇  [##########------] 3/5 Resolving global and shell OpenClaw paths -> path discover...
│
◇  [#############---] 4/5 Verifying OpenClaw CLI responsiveness -> OpenClaw responded
│
◇  [################] 5/5 Caching OpenClaw check result -> saved (5m TTL)
│
◇  Check and install OpenClaw updates now?
│  No
│
◑  Configuring default workspace…...Error: Failed to set agents.defaults.workspace=/home/openclaw/.openclaw-dench/workspace.

Any wokraround? /home/openclaw/.openclaw-dench/workspace exists

[kumarabhirup]

Second attempt made at fixing this: fc04de7

Try out v2.3.3.

I restructured how folder creation and config settings are handled (just reordered them), so I am hoping that fixes it.

The issue was probably that the actual root cause on fresh installs is that the OpenClaw profile "dench" doesn't exist yet. The profile is created by openclaw onboard, but ensureDefaultWorkspacePath calls openclaw --profile dench config set ... , well before onboard. The CLI rejects the config set because the profile hasn't been initialized.

Let me know if that is fixed now!

[kumarabhirup]

@vedworks reproduced this issue on a fresh install in VM.

[madarco]

if can help I solved by:
using root
installing openclaw first
then npx denchclaw (will give error)
openclaw onboard
then again npx denchclaw

[kumarabhirup]

@madarco Thank you so much for the report. Would v2.3.3 have fixed this issue? Still unconfirmed if that fix works, but good troubleshooting on your end!

[kumarabhirup]

This should be fully fixed now in 4436e57.

Root cause: On a fresh install, the OpenClaw "dench" profile doesn't exist until openclaw onboard creates it. But bootstrap was calling openclaw --profile dench config set ... for gateway.mode, gateway.port, and plugin trust before onboard ran — so the CLI rejected the call because the profile wasn't initialized yet. The earlier fix (1c92aaf / fc04de7) only addressed the workspace path; the gateway and plugin config calls still used the CLI pre-onboard.

What changed:

• All pre-onboard config (workspace, gateway.mode, gateway.port) is now staged via direct JSON file writes — no CLI calls before the profile exists
• Plugin trust was already written to JSON by syncBundledPlugins; the redundant CLI re-application before onboard has been removed
• Post-onboard, everything is still applied via the CLI once the profile is live

This also fixes the separate "gateway closed (1006 abnormal closure)" false-positive that could appear even when the gateway was healthy — hidden gateway restarts inside plugin sync were racing the health probe.

Will be in v2.3.4. @madarco would appreciate if you could verify on a fresh Linux install when it's out!