fix(uninstall): exit nonzero when the gateway registration cannot be removed

src/lib/actions/uninstall/run-plan-gateway-segregation.test.ts

@@ -250,7 +250,7 @@ describe("uninstall gateway-port segregation (#3053)", () => {
       },
     );
 
-    expect(result.exitCode).toBe(0);
+    expect(result.exitCode).toBe(1);
     const openshellCalls = calls
       .filter(({ command }) => command === "openshell")
       .map(({ args }) => args);
@@ -341,13 +341,59 @@ describe("uninstall gateway-port segregation (#3053)", () => {
       },
     );
 
-    expect(result.exitCode).toBe(0);
+    expect(result.exitCode).toBe(1);
     const openshellCalls = calls
       .filter(({ command }) => command === "openshell")
       .map(({ args }) => args);
     expect(openshellCalls).toContainEqual(["gateway", "remove", "nemoclaw"]);
     expect(openshellCalls.some((args) => args[1] === "destroy")).toBe(false);
-    expect(warnings.join("\n")).toContain("Gateway 'nemoclaw' already removed or unreachable");
+    expect(warnings.join("\n")).toContain(
+      "Could not remove gateway registration 'nemoclaw': openshell gateway remove failed (exit 1).",
+    );
+  });
+
+  it("exits nonzero and preserves cleanup state when gateway registration removal fails (#9859)", () => {
+    const warnings: string[] = [];
+    const logs: string[] = [];
+    const rmSync = vi.fn();
+    const result = runUninstallPlan(
+      { assumeYes: true, deleteModels: false, keepOpenShell: false },
+      {
+        commandExists: () => true,
+        env: { HOME: "/tmp/nemoclaw-uninstall-test-gateway-remove" } as NodeJS.ProcessEnv,
+        error: (line: string) => warnings.push(line),
+        existsSync: () => false,
+        hasPortableRuntimeCleanup: () => false,
+        isTty: false,
+        kill: () => true,
+        log: (line) => logs.push(line),
+        rmSync,
+        run: (command: string, args: string[]) =>
+          command === "openshell" && args[0] === "gateway" && args[1] === "remove"
+            ? {
+                status: 1,
+                stdout: "",
+                stderr: "connection refused; OPENAI_API_KEY=must-not-be-logged",
+              }
+            : command === "openshell" && args[0] === "gateway" && args[1] === "list"
+              ? ok(JSON.stringify([{ name: "nemoclaw" }]))
+              : ok(),
+        runDocker: () => ok(),
+      },
+    );
+
+    expect(result.exitCode).toBe(1);
+    expect(warnings).toContain(
+      "Could not remove gateway registration 'nemoclaw': openshell gateway remove failed (connection refused; exit 1).",
+    );
+    expect(warnings.join("\n")).not.toContain("must-not-be-logged");
+    expect(warnings).not.toContain("Gateway 'nemoclaw' already removed or unreachable");
+    expect(warnings).toContain(
+      "Uninstall completed with errors. Some state may remain on disk; see warnings above.",
+    );
+    expect(rmSync).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(logs).not.toContain("[3/6] NemoClaw CLI");
+    expect(logs).not.toContain("Claws retracted. Until next time.");
   });
 
   it("preserves the gateways/ subtree so uninstalling one environment leaves the others", () => {

src/lib/actions/uninstall/run-plan-preserved-registry.test.ts

@@ -115,8 +115,10 @@ describe("uninstall messaging for a preserved-but-orphaned sandbox registry (#65
         run: (command, args) =>
           command === "openshell" && args[0] === "gateway" && args[1] === "list"
             ? ok(JSON.stringify([{ name: "nemoclaw" }]))
-            : command === "openshell"
-              ? notFound()
+            : command === "openshell" && args[0] === "gateway" && args[1] === "remove"
+              ? { status: 1, stdout: "", stderr: "gateway not found" }
+              : command === "openshell"
+                ? notFound()
               : args[0] === "-c"
                 ? ok("/fake/bin/tool\n")
                 : ok(),

src/lib/actions/uninstall/run-plan.test.ts

@@ -1494,4 +1494,5 @@ describe("uninstall run plan", () => {
     expect(killed).toContain(9999887);
     expect(logs).toContain("Stopped host openshell-gateway process 9999887");
   });
+
 });

src/lib/actions/uninstall/run-plan.ts

@@ -906,11 +906,45 @@ function deletePortableOpenShellSandbox(
   return false;
 }
 
-const GATEWAY_ALREADY_ABSENT =
-  /gateway[^\n]*(?:does not exist|not found)|No (?:active )?gateway|No gateway metadata found/i;
 const GATEWAY_REMOVE_UNSUPPORTED =
   /unrecognized subcommand ['"]remove['"]|unknown command ['"]remove['"]/i;
 
+function isExplicitGatewayRegistrationAbsence(output: string, gatewayLabel: string): boolean {
+  const clean = output.replace(/\x1B\[[0-?]*[ -/]*[@-~]/gu, "");
+  const escapedLabel = gatewayLabel.replace(/[.*+?^${}()|[\]\\]/gu, "\\$&");
+  const namedGateway = `(?:['"]${escapedLabel}['"]|${escapedLabel})`;
+  if (
+    clean.includes(`No gateway metadata found for '${gatewayLabel}'.`) ||
+    clean.includes(`No gateway metadata found for \"${gatewayLabel}\".`) ||
+    clean.includes(`No gateway metadata found for ${gatewayLabel}.`)
+  ) {
+    return true;
+  }
+  return clean.split(/\r?\n/u).some((rawLine) => {
+    const line = rawLine
+      .trim()
+      .replace(/^Error:\s*/iu, "")
+      .replace(/^×\s*/u, "");
+    return (
+      /^gateway not found\.?$/iu.test(line) ||
+      new RegExp(`^No gateway metadata found for ${namedGateway}\\.?$`, "iu").test(line) ||
+      new RegExp(`^gateway\\s+${namedGateway}\\s+(?:does not exist|not found)\\.?$`, "iu").test(line) ||
+      new RegExp(`^status:\\s*NotFound,\\s*message:\\s*['"]gateway\\s+${escapedLabel}\\s+(?:does not exist|not found)['"]\\.?$`, "iu").test(line)
+    );
+  });
+}
+
+function gatewayRegistrationRemovalFailureMessage(
+  gatewayLabel: string,
+  operation: "destroy" | "remove",
+  result: RunResult,
+): string {
+  const output = `${result.stdout}\n${result.stderr}`;
+  const cause = /connection refused/iu.test(output) ? "connection refused; " : "";
+  const status = result.status === null ? "no exit status" : `exit ${String(result.status)}`;
+  return `Could not remove gateway registration '${gatewayLabel}': openshell gateway ${operation} failed (${cause}${status}).`;
+}
+
 function removeGatewayRegistration(
   runtime: UninstallRuntime,
   gatewayLabel: string,
@@ -925,12 +959,15 @@ function removeGatewayRegistration(
   }
 
   const removeOutput = `${removeResult.stdout}\n${removeResult.stderr}`;
-  if (GATEWAY_ALREADY_ABSENT.test(removeOutput)) {
+  if (
+    isExplicitGatewayRegistrationAbsence(removeOutput, gatewayLabel) ||
+    (/No gateway metadata found for/iu.test(removeOutput) && removeOutput.includes(gatewayLabel))
+  ) {
     runtime.warn(gatewayDestroySkipMessage(gatewayLabel));
     return true;
   }
   if (!GATEWAY_REMOVE_UNSUPPORTED.test(removeOutput)) {
-    runtime.warn(gatewayDestroySkipMessage(gatewayLabel));
+    runtime.warn(gatewayRegistrationRemovalFailureMessage(gatewayLabel, "remove", removeResult));
     return false;
   }
   if (!allowLegacyDestroy) {
@@ -951,11 +988,16 @@ function removeGatewayRegistration(
     runtime.log(`Destroyed legacy gateway '${gatewayLabel}'`);
     return true;
   }
-  if (GATEWAY_ALREADY_ABSENT.test(`${destroyResult.stdout}\n${destroyResult.stderr}`)) {
+  if (
+    isExplicitGatewayRegistrationAbsence(
+      `${destroyResult.stdout}\n${destroyResult.stderr}`,
+      gatewayLabel,
+    )
+  ) {
     runtime.warn(gatewayDestroySkipMessage(gatewayLabel));
     return true;
   }
-  runtime.warn(gatewayDestroySkipMessage(gatewayLabel));
+  runtime.warn(gatewayRegistrationRemovalFailureMessage(gatewayLabel, "destroy", destroyResult));
   return false;
 }
 
@@ -1614,8 +1656,7 @@ function removeOpenShellResources(
       { onSkip: providerDeleteSkipMessage(provider) },
     );
   }
-  removeGatewayRegistration(runtime, gatewayLabel, !externallySupervised);
-  return true;
+  return removeGatewayRegistration(runtime, gatewayLabel, !externallySupervised);
 }
 
 function normalizeGatewayProcessExecutable(