OpenClaw auto-update bug leaves orphaned preflight directories filling /tmp
Auto-update bug causes disk space issues
The OpenClaw auto-update mechanism creates a preflight copy of the repository in /tmp before applying changes. When an update fails—for example, due to local changes in extension files blocking checkout—the preflight directory remains in /tmp indefinitely.
One user discovered 9 orphaned preflight directories totaling 6.5GB on a 38GB Hetzner VPS, causing disk usage to reach 100%. This blocked updates and created a failure loop: the update process itself requires disk space to run, so each failed attempt left more orphaned directories behind.
Diagnosis and immediate fix
The issue was resolved by running:
rm -rf /tmp/openclaw-update-preflight-*However, the user noted that finding the root cause took longer than it should have, highlighting that self-hosting AI agents requires sysadmin attention. The bug would have "bricked" non-technical users' agents without any ability for them to diagnose it themselves.
Recommendations for small VPS deployments
- Monitor
/tmpsize regularly—OpenClaw isn't the only application that uses this directory, but it was the "biggest offender" on a dedicated instance - Use at least 4GB RAM and 40GB disk as a "comfortable minimum" specification
- Add a disk space check to your agent's heartbeat configuration to catch issues before they escalate
The user runs a managed OpenClaw hosting service (clawrapid) and maintains instances for non-technical users, noting this experience reinforced the value of managed services for those without technical expertise.
📖 Read the full source: r/openclaw
👀 See Also
Claude Opus 4.1 scores 17.75% on SWE-Bench Pro's private dataset, highlighting memorization vs. reasoning gap
Claude Opus 4.1 scored 80% on SWE-Bench Verified but dropped to 17.75% on SWE-Bench Pro's private dataset of 276 tasks from 18 proprietary startup codebases. Scale AI's analysis found models were navigating by memory rather than reasoning on familiar repositories.
Claude Projects File Upload and Indexing Issues Documented
Claude Projects has multiple confirmed backend issues: files get stuck indexing, RAG search mode activates prematurely at ~13 files regardless of token count, and cached content persists even after deletion and re-upload.
Claude Opus 4.6's effort=low parameter differs from other providers' low-reasoning modes
Claude Opus 4.6's effort=low parameter controls general behavioral effort, not just reasoning depth, unlike OpenAI's reasoning.effort=low or Gemini's thinking_level=low. This caused agents to make fewer tool calls, be less thorough in cross-referencing, and ignore parts of system prompts about web research.
Canvas LMS Assistant via OpenClaw and Composio
A teacher set up a bot that accesses their three Canvas courses through Composio CLI, letting it create Excel student lists, check for broken links, and track page views.