Upgrading the OpenClaw Version

Constraints

• Automatic version upgrade is supported only when the OpenClaw gateway status is Running.
• The OpenClaw version installed by yourself cannot be automatically upgraded. You need to upgrade it manually. For details, see Manual Version Upgrade.
• If you have changed the default OpenClaw deployment directory after purchasing a FlexusL instance running the OpenClaw application image, the version cannot be automatically upgraded. You need to upgrade it manually. For details, see Manual Version Upgrade.
• The OpenClaw image version 2026.1.30 or earlier cannot be automatically upgraded. You need to upgrade it manually. For details, see Manual Version Upgrade.

Precautions

• The automatic upgrade takes about 1 to 15 minutes. Please wait patiently. During the upgrade, the OpenClaw gateway service is suspended, the configured bots cannot be used for conversations, and the application management page is temporarily unavailable. After the upgrade is successful, your models, channels, skills, and memory will not be lost.
• The automatic version upgrade may fail. If it fails, the system will automatically roll back to the original version. If the rollback fails, OpenClaw will be unavailable. In this case, perform the operations described in Manual Version Upgrade or submit a service ticket.
• Ensure that the disk capacity is sufficient. Otherwise, the automatic version upgrade may fail.
• During the automatic version upgrade, do not upgrade the version repeatedly. Otherwise, the version upgrade may fail.
• During the automatic version upgrade, do not perform operations on the FlexusL instance, such as stopping the instance, creating an image, or resetting the password. Otherwise, the version upgrade may fail.
• During the automatic version upgrade, do not modify or configure OpenClaw in the OS. Otherwise, the version upgrade may fail.

Prerequisites

You have purchased a FlexusL instance with the OpenClaw application image installed.

Automatic Version Upgrade

1. Log in to the FlexusL console.
2. Click Configure Now on the target FlexusL instance card.

   If Configure Now is not displayed, click the resource card to go to the resource details page and choose Application Management from the left navigation pane.

3. Click Version upgrade in the Application Management card.
   

   If the OpenClaw gateway status is Running and Version upgrade is grayed out, the current version is already the latest version.

   

4. Confirm the upgrade and wait until the upgrade is complete.

   

5. Check that the OpenClaw version has been upgraded to the latest version.

   

Manual Version Upgrade

You can manually upgrade the OpenClaw version by reinstalling the OS.

• Reinstalling the OS clears the data in all partitions of the system disk, including the system partition. Back up data in advance.
• If you need to retain the current OpenClaw memory, back it up before reinstalling the OS so that you can restore the memory after the OS is reinstalled.

  If you do not need to retain the OpenClaw memory, go to 3.

• After the OS is reinstalled, you need to reconfigure information such as models and channels.
• For OpenClaw image versions 2026.1.30 and earlier, OpenClaw memory cannot be restored after the upgrade. Exercise caution when deciding to perform an upgrade. If you do not need to retain the OpenClaw memory, go to 3 to reinstall the OS and reconfigure OpenClaw.

In normal cases, OpenClaw saves valuable memory data in the workspace directory, including the following important files:

• Bot settings: SOUL.md
• Daily records: memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md
• Long-term memory: MEMORY.md (if any)
• Skill directory: skills

Before reinstalling the OS, you need to download the entire workspace folder locally for backup, so that you can restore the memory data after the OS is reinstalled. Here, we use the file management of CloudShell to upload and download data.

1. Back up the OpenClaw memory data.
   1. Log in to the FlexusL console.
   2. Reset the password for the FlexusL instance.

      A FlexusL instance does not have an initial password. If you want to log in to a FlexusL instance, set a password for it first. If you have already set a password, skip this step.

      On the target resource card, choose > Reset Password to reset the password as instructed.

      

      For details, see Resetting the Password for a FlexusL Instance.

   3. On the target resource card, click Remote Login. In the displayed dialog box, click Log In via CloudShell.

      

      For more login methods, see Login Modes.

   4. Enter the username and password to log in to the server. The username is root, and the password is the one set in 1.b. The following uses EIP as an example.

      

      Ensure that the remote port (default SSH port: 22) of the CloudShell proxy IP address is allowed in the security group. The CloudShell proxy IP address varies depending on the region. The actual proxy IP address will be displayed on the CloudShell configuration page.

      • If the port is not allowed, perform 1.e and then click Connect.
      • If the port is allowed, click Connect. After the connection is successful, go to 1.f.

      

      For more information about CloudShell login, see Logging In to a Linux FlexusL Instance Using CloudShell.

   5. On the target resource card, choose > Configure Security Group Rule. In the displayed dialog box, click Add Rule to allow the traffic from the CloudShell proxy IP address to pass through port 22.

      

   6. Compress the workspace directory and back it up to the /srv/workspace directory.

      sudo bash -c '[ -d "/home/openclaw" ] && SOURCE_DIR="/home/openclaw/.openclaw" || SOURCE_DIR="/root/.openclaw"; if ! command -v zip >/dev/null 2>&1; then echo "Installing zip..."; apt-get update -qq && apt-get install -y -qq zip || { echo "ERROR: Failed to install zip."; exit 1; }; fi; if [ -d "$SOURCE_DIR" ]; then echo "Source directory found: $SOURCE_DIR"; sudo mkdir -p /srv/workspace; sudo rm -rf /srv/workspace/*; for dir in "$SOURCE_DIR/workspace"*; do [ -d "$dir" ] && sudo cp -r "$dir" /srv/workspace/; done; if [ -d "/srv/workspace" ] && [ "$(ls -A /srv/workspace)" ]; then cd /srv && zip -r workspace.zip workspace && echo "Backup completed: /srv/workspace.zip"; else echo "No workspace directories found to backup."; exit 1; fi; else echo "Source directory not found: $SOURCE_DIR"; exit 1; fi'

      

      If your file directory is not the default OpenClaw image directory, modify the command above as required.

   7. In the navigation pane on the left, select the srv directory, right-click workspace.zip, and click Download to save the backup files to a local path.

      

   8. In the browser download list, view the downloaded backup files.

      

2. Save the bot aliases for future configuration after the OS is reinstalled. If the bots do not have aliases, skip this step.
   1. Log in to the FlexusL console.
   2. Click Configure Now on the target FlexusL instance card. The Application Details page is displayed.

      If Configure Now is not displayed, click the resource card to go to the resource details page and choose Application Management from the left navigation pane.

   3. In the channel configuration area, save the aliases of all configured bots.

3. Reinstall the OS of the FlexusL instance.
   1. Log in to the FlexusL console.
   2. On the resource card, choose > Reinstall OS. In the displayed dialog box, select Stop server and set login credentials. Read and agree to the disclaimer and click OK.

      

   3. When the FlexusL instance is running again, the OS reinstallation is complete. In the Application Management card, when the OpenClaw gateway status is Running, check that the current OpenClaw version has been upgraded to the latest.

      

   4. Reconfigure models and channels by referring to Configuring the OpenClaw Application.
      

      If a bot has an alias before the OS is reinstalled, the new bot alias must be the same as the original one. Otherwise, the memory will fail to be restored.

4. Restore the OpenClaw memory data.
   1. Log in to the FlexusL instance via CloudShell again.
   2. In the navigation pane on the left, select the srv directory, right-click Upload Files, and upload the backup files saved in 1.g to the srv directory.

      

   3. Replace the empty workspace directory of the new OpenClaw version with the backup workspace directory.

      sudo bash -c 'if ! command -v unzip >/dev/null 2>&1; then echo "Installing unzip..."; apt-get update -qq && apt-get install -y -qq unzip || { echo "ERROR: Failed to install unzip."; exit 1; }; fi; if [ ! -f "/srv/workspace.zip" ]; then echo "Error: /srv/workspace.zip not found."; exit 1; fi; echo "Extracting workspace.zip..."; mkdir -p /tmp/workspace-extract && unzip -q "/srv/workspace.zip" -d "/tmp/workspace-extract" || { echo "ERROR: Failed to extract workspace.zip."; exit 1; }; if [ ! -d "/tmp/workspace-extract/workspace" ]; then echo "Warning: No 'workspace' directory found in archive."; exit 1; fi; SOURCE_DIR="/tmp/workspace-extract/workspace"; TARGET_DIR="/home/openclaw/.openclaw"; if [ ! -d "$TARGET_DIR" ]; then echo "Target directory does not exist: $TARGET_DIR"; exit 1; fi; echo "Replacing workspace directories in $TARGET_DIR..."; for dir in $SOURCE_DIR/workspace*; do [ -d "$dir" ] && { echo "Copying $dir to $TARGET_DIR"; sudo cp -r "$dir" "$TARGET_DIR" --remove-destination; }; done; echo "All workspace directories replaced successfully."; rm -rf "/tmp/workspace-extract"'

      

      If your file directory is not the default OpenClaw image directory, modify the command above as required.

   4. Return to the Application Management page of the FlexusL console and restart the gateway to reload the workspace directory.

      The memory is restored when the gateway status changes to Running again.

      

5. Verify memory restoration.

   Ask a question based on the chat history in the chat box. If the bot answers correctly, the memory has been restored successfully.

Troubleshooting

• During the automatic version upgrade, an error message is displayed indicating that the upgrade failed and roll back was successful.

  If the automatic version upgrade fails, the system will automatically roll back to the original version. You can remotely log in to the FlexusL instance and run the following command to view the upgrade logs and identify the failure cause:

  vi /var/log/openclaw-upgrade.log

  If the rollback fails, OpenClaw will be unavailable. In this case, upgrade manually by referring to Manual Version Upgrade or submit a service ticket.

• During the automatic version upgrade, an error message is displayed indicating that the backup failed before the upgrade.

  The .openclaw file fails to be backed up during the version upgrade. This may be caused by insufficient system disk capacity. You can expand the system disk capacity by upgrading the specifications and then upgrade the version again.

• During the automatic version upgrade, an error message is displayed indicating that the upgrade tool pnpm failed to be installed.

  During the version upgrade, the pnpm tool is missing and failed to be installed. In this case, you can remotely log in to the FlexusL instance and run the command below to view the upgrade logs and identify the failure cause. Alternatively, submit a service ticket.

  vi /var/log/openclaw-upgrade.log

• A FlexusL instance does not have an initial password. After creating a FlexusL instance, you need to set a password before logging in to it. For details, see Resetting the Password for a FlexusL Instance.
• For details about how to log in to a FlexusL instance, see Login Modes.