fix: resolve Control UI assets for global installs (#4909) (thanks @YuriNachos)

Co-authored-by: YuriNachos <YuriNachos@users.noreply.github.com>

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ Status: stable.
 - **BREAKING:** Gateway auth mode "none" is removed; gateway now requires token/password (Tailscale Serve identity still allowed).
 
 ### Fixes
+- Infra: resolve Control UI assets for npm global installs. (#4909) Thanks @YuriNachos.
 - Gateway: prevent blank token prompts from storing "undefined". (#4873) Thanks @Hisleren.
 - Telegram: use undici fetch for per-account proxy dispatcher. (#4456) Thanks @spiceoogway.
 - Telegram: fix HTML nesting for overlapping styles and links. (#4578) Thanks @ThanhNguyxn.

src/infra/control-ui-assets.test.ts

@@ -37,11 +37,46 @@ describe("control UI assets helpers", () => {
     }
   });
 
-  it("resolves dist control-ui index path for dist argv1", () => {
+  it("resolves dist control-ui index path for dist argv1", async () => {
     const argv1 = path.resolve("/tmp", "pkg", "dist", "index.js");
     const distDir = path.dirname(argv1);
-    expect(resolveControlUiDistIndexPath(argv1)).toBe(
+    expect(await resolveControlUiDistIndexPath(argv1)).toBe(
       path.join(distDir, "control-ui", "index.html"),
     );
   });
+
+  it("resolves dist control-ui index path from package root argv1", async () => {
+    const tmp = await fs.mkdtemp(path.join(os.tmpdir(), "openclaw-ui-"));
+    try {
+      await fs.writeFile(path.join(tmp, "package.json"), JSON.stringify({ name: "openclaw" }));
+      await fs.writeFile(path.join(tmp, "openclaw.mjs"), "export {};\n");
+      await fs.mkdir(path.join(tmp, "dist", "control-ui"), { recursive: true });
+      await fs.writeFile(path.join(tmp, "dist", "control-ui", "index.html"), "<html></html>\n");
+
+      expect(await resolveControlUiDistIndexPath(path.join(tmp, "openclaw.mjs"))).toBe(
+        path.join(tmp, "dist", "control-ui", "index.html"),
+      );
+    } finally {
+      await fs.rm(tmp, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    }
+  });
+
+  it("resolves dist control-ui index path from .bin argv1", async () => {
+    const tmp = await fs.mkdtemp(path.join(os.tmpdir(), "openclaw-ui-"));
+    try {
+      const binDir = path.join(tmp, "node_modules", ".bin");
+      const pkgRoot = path.join(tmp, "node_modules", "openclaw");
+      await fs.mkdir(binDir, { recursive: true });
+      await fs.mkdir(path.join(pkgRoot, "dist", "control-ui"), { recursive: true });
+      await fs.writeFile(path.join(binDir, "openclaw"), "#!/usr/bin/env node\n");
+      await fs.writeFile(path.join(pkgRoot, "package.json"), JSON.stringify({ name: "openclaw" }));
+      await fs.writeFile(path.join(pkgRoot, "dist", "control-ui", "index.html"), "<html></html>\n");
+
+      expect(await resolveControlUiDistIndexPath(path.join(binDir, "openclaw"))).toBe(
+        path.join(pkgRoot, "dist", "control-ui", "index.html"),
+      );
+    } finally {
+      await fs.rm(tmp, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    }
+  });
 });

src/infra/control-ui-assets.ts

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import path from "node:path";
 
 import { runCommandWithTimeout } from "../process/exec.js";
 import { defaultRuntime, type RuntimeEnv } from "../runtime.js";
+import { resolveOpenClawPackageRoot } from "./openclaw-root.js";
 
 export function resolveControlUiRepoRoot(
   argv1: string | undefined = process.argv[1],
@@ -32,14 +33,21 @@ export function resolveControlUiRepoRoot(
   return null;
 }
 
-export function resolveControlUiDistIndexPath(
+export async function resolveControlUiDistIndexPath(
   argv1: string | undefined = process.argv[1],
-): string | null {
+): Promise<string | null> {
   if (!argv1) return null;
   const normalized = path.resolve(argv1);
+
+  // Case 1: entrypoint is directly inside dist/ (e.g., dist/entry.js)
   const distDir = path.dirname(normalized);
-  if (path.basename(distDir) !== "dist") return null;
-  return path.join(distDir, "control-ui", "index.html");
+  if (path.basename(distDir) === "dist") {
+    return path.join(distDir, "control-ui", "index.html");
+  }
+
+  const packageRoot = await resolveOpenClawPackageRoot({ argv1: normalized });
+  if (!packageRoot) return null;
+  return path.join(packageRoot, "dist", "control-ui", "index.html");
 }
 
 export type EnsureControlUiAssetsResult = {
@@ -63,7 +71,7 @@ export async function ensureControlUiAssetsBuilt(
   runtime: RuntimeEnv = defaultRuntime,
   opts?: { timeoutMs?: number },
 ): Promise<EnsureControlUiAssetsResult> {
-  const indexFromDist = resolveControlUiDistIndexPath(process.argv[1]);
+  const indexFromDist = await resolveControlUiDistIndexPath(process.argv[1]);
   if (indexFromDist && fs.existsSync(indexFromDist)) {
     return { ok: true, built: false };
   }