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Abasiodiong Udofia
Abasiodiong Udofia

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Why OpenClaw Still Worked After I Uninstalled It

#openclaw #debugging #node #bash

Table of Contents


I removed it.
I followed the docs.
I deleted everything.

Why is openclaw still responding?

If you’re here, you’re probably in the same situation I was in. You run openclaw and instead of command not found, you get the full usage manual printed back at you, even after following the official uninstall instructions.

📘 The Setup

I installed OpenClaw using the official documentation from openclaw.ai. When I wanted to remove it, I followed their uninstall instructions carefully:

  • Used the built-in openclaw uninstall
  • Stopped the gateway service
  • Removed state directories
  • Removed global npm install
  • Checked systemd/launchctl/scheduled tasks

Still… openclaw lived.

🤯 The “Wait… What?” Moment

I verified everything:

View terminal checks 

bash
systemctl list-units | grep openclaw
# Nothing.

dpkg -l | grep openclaw
# Nothing.

npm list -g | grep openclaw
# Nothing.
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At this point, it feels like malware.
The good thing is, it’s not.

🔍 The “Oh… There It Is” Moment

The turning point was running these two commands:

Terminal output showing the word hashed in the command path

That one word explains everything: hashed

🧠 What Was Actually Happening

I use NVM (Node Version Manager). That means:

  • Every Node version has its own global npm packages.
  • I had previously installed openclaw while using Node v22.14.0.
  • I later switched to Node v25.
  • But the old Node v22 bin directory was still in my $PATH.
  • Bash had cached (hashed) the command location.
  • Even after uninstalling in my current Node version, the old binary still existed in the v22 folder ~/.nvm/versions/node/v22.14.0/bin/openclaw , and Bash kept running it from its cache.

🛠️ The Real Fix

Two commands solved everything:

1. Remove the actual binary

rm -f ~/.nvm/versions/node/v22.14.0/bin/openclaw

2. Clear Bash’s hash cache

hash -r

Then:

which openclaw

Finally returned:
openclaw not found

Gone. For real.

💬 Final Thoughts

OpenClaw’s documentation was correct.

The issue wasn’t the tool.

It was my environment.

If this saved you hours of confusion, share it.

Because someone else right now is typing:

openclaw

And wondering why it refuses to uninstall.

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