OpenClaw loader coordination (issue #1111)

This document tracks cross-repo behavior between openclaw-hybrid-memory and OpenClaw core for when the memory plugin loads and how heavy work runs.

What this plugin implements

registrationMode === "cli-metadata" — runMemoryHybridRegister exits early after registering CLI metadata for the hybrid-mem root command (no database or LanceDB initialization). OpenClaw uses this path in loadOpenClawPluginCliRegistry (bundled as loadOpenClawPluginCliRegistry in the openclaw package).
Full registration — unchanged for gateway, agents, and openclaw hybrid-mem … when the host performs a full plugin load with registrationMode === "full".
Deferred work — non-critical startup checks (e.g. Python document-bridge dependency probing) may run from the plugin service start() hook instead of synchronously during register(), where safe.

What belongs in OpenClaw core (upstream)

These items require changes or policy in the openclaw repository, not only in this plugin:

Empty onlyPluginIds scope — When ensurePluginRegistryLoaded({ scope: "channels" }) resolves to an empty channel plugin list, the loader should not treat that as “no filter.” Today, normalizing an empty list to undefined can cause all plugins (including the memory slot) to load for scoped CLI paths such as openclaw status / openclaw health. A core fix is to interpret “no channel plugins” as “load no channel plugins,” not “load everything.”
CLI bootstrap policy — Optionally load or activate memory-slot plugins only for gateway, agent/node runs, and explicit hybrid-mem (or equivalent), and not for unrelated operational CLI commands. This is a loader / CLI taxonomy decision.
activate: false — Core still invokes register() when building some reports; plugins should minimize work in register() for those paths, but cannot fully skip execution if core always imports and calls register().

Link the upstream issue or PR here when filed: (add URL).

References

Issue: CLI: load hybrid-memory only for gateway, agents, and hybrid-mem