UI dashboard server not starting when plugin loaded via kind: 'memory' on Windows

[yl11023]

Environment

• OpenClaw: 2026.4.2
• ClawXMemory: 0.1.4 (both npm and source build)
• OS: Windows 11 10.0.26200 x64
• Node: v24.14.0

Issue Description

The ClawXMemory plugin loads and functions correctly (memory indexing, retrieval, memory_overview all work), but the UI dashboard server on port 39393 never starts. The port shows no listener after a clean Gateway restart.

What Works

• Plugin loads: plugins inspect openbmb-clawxmemory shows Status: loaded
• Memory runtime healthy: memory_overview returns L0/L1/L2 data correctly
• SQLite database active at ~/.openclaw/clawxmemory/memory.sqlite with active writes
• UI assets present in dist/ui/ and ui-source/
• Config is correct: uiEnabled: true, uiPort: 39393, uiHost: 127.0.0.1, uiPathPrefix: /clawxmemory

What Does Not Work

• Port 39393: nothing listening (netstat -an | findstr 39393 returns nothing)
• http://127.0.0.1:39393/clawxmemory/ not accessible
• No [clawxmemory] dashboard ready log output during Gateway startup

Root Cause Analysis

After digging into the code, I believe this is a plugin API compatibility issue with kind: memory plugins.

The registerService callback is defined in src/index.ts:

api.registerService({
    id: openbmb-clawxmemory-runtime,
    start: () => {
        if (liveRuntimeEnabled) runtime.start();
    },
    stop: () => runtime.stop(),
});

The runtime.start() method calls this.uiServer?.start() which should listen on port 39393. However:

1. The Gateway does load the plugin core (hooks, tools, prompt section all work)
2. But the registerService → start() callback appears to never be invoked for kind: memory plugins
3. Built-in memory-core extension (also kind: memory) uses api.registerMemoryRuntime() instead of api.registerService() for its runtime initialization
4. Other plugins using api.registerService() successfully (e.g. acpx, browser) are NOT kind: memory

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install on Windows 11: npm install -g openbmb-clawxmemory
2. Configure in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json with uiEnabled: true
3. Restart Gateway: openclaw gateway stop then openclaw gateway start
4. Check port: netstat -an | findstr 39393 — nothing listening
5. Verify plugin loaded: openclaw plugins inspect openbmb-clawxmemory — shows Status: loaded

Workaround

Memory functionality (search, overview, flush) works fine. The only impact is the local dashboard UI being unavailable.

Expected Behavior

The dashboard should start on port 39393 and be accessible at http://127.0.0.1:39393/clawxmemory/ after Gateway restart.