gateway-gateway memory leak on 2026.4.25 — CPU/RAM grows continuously until OOM

[real crater]

Version: 2026.4.25 (aa36ee6)
OS: Ubuntu 24.04, 4GB RAM, systemd service
Node: v22
Symptom: openclaw-gateway starts successfully but continuously consumes CPU and RAM with no plateau. Reaches 50%+ CPU and 30%+ RAM within 2-3 minutes, eventually OOM kills the process. Reproducible on every restart.
Logs show on startup:
[gateway] qmd memory startup initialization armed for agent "main"
[gateway] qmd memory startup initialization armed for agent "work"
[gateway] qmd memory startup initialization armed for agent "think"
After that, memory climbs continuously with no plateau.
Already tried:

Updated from 2026.4.23 → 2026.4.25 — same behavior
mv ~/.openclaw/plugin-runtime-deps ... && openclaw doctor --fix — same behavior
OPENCLAW_NO_RESPAWN=1 and NODE_COMPILE_CACHE — no change

Currently keeping gateway stopped to keep server stable. Any fix or workaround?

[prime breach]

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[scarlet spire]

I’d treat this as QMD startup/background indexing pressure, not plugin-runtime deps. Those log lines mean the gateway is arming QMD memory work for all 3 agents, and QMD defaults include startup refresh + periodic refresh. (docs.openclaw.ai)

Try this safe workaround first:

openclaw gateway stop

openclaw config set --batch-json '[
  {"path":"memory.qmd.update.onBoot","value":false},
  {"path":"memory.qmd.update.interval","value":"0s"},
  {"path":"memory.qmd.update.embedInterval","value":"0s"}
]'

openclaw gateway start

If it still climbs immediately, temporarily switch off QMD entirely:

openclaw gateway stop
openclaw config set memory.backend builtin
openclaw gateway start

Also: 2026.4.26 is out and includes several QMD/memory fixes, including skipping QMD embedding maintenance in lexical searchMode: "search". Update without auto-restarting first:

openclaw update --no-restart
openclaw doctor
openclaw gateway start

--no-restart is supported by the update command. (docs.openclaw.ai)

If the workaround confirms QMD is the trigger, please file an issue with: