From 73d30f46491ac1e387fdc1c2cda414e8d8b87356 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Rui Luo <ruluo@nvidia.com>
Date: Wed, 20 May 2026 20:59:28 +0800
Subject: [PATCH] fix(plugin): tolerate empty/malformed onboard config.json

---
 Dockerfile                          |  2 +-
 nemoclaw/src/onboard/config.test.ts | 26 ++++++++++++++++++++++++--
 nemoclaw/src/onboard/config.ts      | 11 ++++++++---
 3 files changed, 33 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index cba29fb48d0..adcc66abafc 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -630,7 +630,7 @@ RUN chown root:root /sandbox/.nemoclaw \
     && chmod -R 755 /sandbox/.nemoclaw/blueprints \
     && mkdir -p /sandbox/.nemoclaw/state /sandbox/.nemoclaw/migration /sandbox/.nemoclaw/snapshots /sandbox/.nemoclaw/staging \
     && chown sandbox:sandbox /sandbox/.nemoclaw/state /sandbox/.nemoclaw/migration /sandbox/.nemoclaw/snapshots /sandbox/.nemoclaw/staging \
-    && touch /sandbox/.nemoclaw/config.json \
+    && printf '%s' '{}' > /sandbox/.nemoclaw/config.json \
     && chown sandbox:sandbox /sandbox/.nemoclaw/config.json
 
 # OpenShell 0.0.37's macOS VM backend currently remaps rootfs ownership to the
diff --git a/nemoclaw/src/onboard/config.test.ts b/nemoclaw/src/onboard/config.test.ts
index bb0b8627209..9eed8ca7f2b 100644
--- a/nemoclaw/src/onboard/config.test.ts
+++ b/nemoclaw/src/onboard/config.test.ts
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 
 import { describe, it, expect, beforeEach, vi } from "vitest";
 import { homedir } from "node:os";
+import { join } from "node:path";
 import {
   describeOnboardEndpoint,
   describeOnboardProvider,
@@ -145,16 +146,37 @@ describe("onboard/config", () => {
 
     it("returns parsed config when file exists", () => {
       const config = makeConfig();
-      const configPath = `${homedir()}/.nemoclaw/config.json`;
+      const configPath = join(homedir(), ".nemoclaw", "config.json");
       store.set(configPath, JSON.stringify(config));
       expect(loadOnboardConfig()).toEqual(config);
     });
 
     it("returns null when the parsed JSON root is not a valid onboard config", () => {
-      const configPath = `${homedir()}/.nemoclaw/config.json`;
+      const configPath = join(homedir(), ".nemoclaw", "config.json");
       store.set(configPath, JSON.stringify({ endpointType: "bogus" }));
       expect(loadOnboardConfig()).toBeNull();
     });
+
+    it("returns null without throwing for an empty (0-byte) config file", () => {
+      const configPath = join(homedir(), ".nemoclaw", "config.json");
+      store.set(configPath, "");
+      expect(() => loadOnboardConfig()).not.toThrow();
+      expect(loadOnboardConfig()).toBeNull();
+    });
+
+    it("returns null without throwing for a whitespace-only config file", () => {
+      const configPath = join(homedir(), ".nemoclaw", "config.json");
+      store.set(configPath, "  \n\t  ");
+      expect(() => loadOnboardConfig()).not.toThrow();
+      expect(loadOnboardConfig()).toBeNull();
+    });
+
+    it("returns null without throwing for malformed JSON", () => {
+      const configPath = join(homedir(), ".nemoclaw", "config.json");
+      store.set(configPath, "{ not json");
+      expect(() => loadOnboardConfig()).not.toThrow();
+      expect(loadOnboardConfig()).toBeNull();
+    });
   });
 
   describe("saveOnboardConfig", () => {
diff --git a/nemoclaw/src/onboard/config.ts b/nemoclaw/src/onboard/config.ts
index ac59a05eebe..ffccc423424 100644
--- a/nemoclaw/src/onboard/config.ts
+++ b/nemoclaw/src/onboard/config.ts
@@ -161,9 +161,14 @@ export function loadOnboardConfig(): NemoClawOnboardConfig | null {
   if (!existsSync(path)) {
     return null;
   }
-  const parsed: unknown = JSON.parse(readFileSync(path, "utf-8"));
-  const parsedObject = typeof parsed === "object" && parsed !== null ? parsed : null;
-  return isOnboardConfig(parsedObject) ? parsedObject : null;
+  // Treat unreadable config as "no config" so plugin register doesn't abort.
+  try {
+    const parsed: unknown = JSON.parse(readFileSync(path, "utf-8"));
+    const parsedObject = typeof parsed === "object" && parsed !== null ? parsed : null;
+    return isOnboardConfig(parsedObject) ? parsedObject : null;
+  } catch {
+    return null;
+  }
 }
 
 export function saveOnboardConfig(config: NemoClawOnboardConfig): void {