fix: ensure bypassPermissions when custom CLI backend args override defaults (openclaw#61114)

* fix: ensure bypassPermissions on custom CLI backend args

When users override cliBackends.claude-cli.args (e.g. to add --verbose
or change --output-format), the override array replaces the default
entirely. The normalization step only re-added --permission-mode
bypassPermissions when the legacy --dangerously-skip-permissions flag
was present — if neither flag existed, it did nothing.

This causes cron and heartbeat runs to silently fail with "exec denied:
Cron runs cannot wait for interactive exec approval" because the CLI
subprocess launches in interactive permission mode.

Fix: always inject --permission-mode bypassPermissions when no explicit
permission-mode flag is found in the resolved args, regardless of
whether the legacy flag was present.

* test(anthropic): add claude-cli permission normalization coverage

* fix(test-utils): include video generation providers

* fix: preserve claude-cli bypassPermissions on custom args (openclaw#61114) (thanks @cathrynlavery)

---------

Co-authored-by: Shadow <hi@shadowing.dev>
Co-authored-by: Vincent Koc <vincentkoc@ieee.org>

Author: 3 people

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -116,6 +116,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - MS Teams: replace the deprecated Teams SDK HttpPlugin stub with `httpServerAdapter` so recurring gateway deprecation warnings stop firing and the Express 5 compatibility workaround stays on the supported SDK path. (#60939) Thanks @coolramukaka-sys.
 - CLI/Commander: preserve Commander-computed exit codes for argument and help-error paths, and cover the user-argv parse mode in the regression tests so invalid CLI invocations no longer report success when exits are intercepted. (#60923) Thanks @Linux2010.
 - Telegram/native command menu: trim long menu descriptions before dropping commands so sub-100 command sets can still fit Telegram's payload budget and keep more `/` entries visible. (#61129) Thanks @neeravmakwana.
+- Agents/Claude CLI: keep non-interactive `--permission-mode bypassPermissions` when custom `cliBackends.claude-cli.args` override defaults, so cron and heartbeat Claude CLI runs do not regress to interactive approval mode. (#61114) Thanks @cathrynlavery and @thewilloftheshadow.
 
 ## 2026.4.2
 

extensions/anthropic/cli-shared.test.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
+import { buildAnthropicCliBackend } from "./cli-backend.js";
+import { normalizeClaudeBackendConfig, normalizeClaudePermissionArgs } from "./cli-shared.js";
+
+describe("normalizeClaudePermissionArgs", () => {
+  it("injects bypassPermissions when args omit permission flags", () => {
+    expect(
+      normalizeClaudePermissionArgs(["-p", "--output-format", "stream-json", "--verbose"]),
+    ).toEqual([
+      "-p",
+      "--output-format",
+      "stream-json",
+      "--verbose",
+      "--permission-mode",
+      "bypassPermissions",
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it("removes legacy skip-permissions and injects bypassPermissions", () => {
+    expect(
+      normalizeClaudePermissionArgs(["-p", "--dangerously-skip-permissions", "--verbose"]),
+    ).toEqual(["-p", "--verbose", "--permission-mode", "bypassPermissions"]);
+  });
+
+  it("keeps explicit permission-mode overrides", () => {
+    expect(normalizeClaudePermissionArgs(["-p", "--permission-mode", "acceptEdits"])).toEqual([
+      "-p",
+      "--permission-mode",
+      "acceptEdits",
+    ]);
+    expect(normalizeClaudePermissionArgs(["-p", "--permission-mode=acceptEdits"])).toEqual([
+      "-p",
+      "--permission-mode=acceptEdits",
+    ]);
+  });
+});
+
+describe("normalizeClaudeBackendConfig", () => {
+  it("normalizes both args and resumeArgs for custom overrides", () => {
+    const normalized = normalizeClaudeBackendConfig({
+      command: "claude",
+      args: ["-p", "--output-format", "stream-json", "--verbose"],
+      resumeArgs: ["-p", "--output-format", "stream-json", "--verbose", "--resume", "{sessionId}"],
+    });
+
+    expect(normalized.args).toEqual([
+      "-p",
+      "--output-format",
+      "stream-json",
+      "--verbose",
+      "--permission-mode",
+      "bypassPermissions",
+    ]);
+    expect(normalized.resumeArgs).toEqual([
+      "-p",
+      "--output-format",
+      "stream-json",
+      "--verbose",
+      "--resume",
+      "{sessionId}",
+      "--permission-mode",
+      "bypassPermissions",
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it("is wired through the anthropic cli backend normalize hook", () => {
+    const backend = buildAnthropicCliBackend();
+    const normalizeConfig = backend.normalizeConfig;
+
+    expect(normalizeConfig).toBeTypeOf("function");
+
+    const normalized = normalizeConfig?.({
+      ...backend.config,
+      args: ["-p", "--output-format", "stream-json", "--verbose"],
+      resumeArgs: ["-p", "--output-format", "stream-json", "--verbose", "--resume", "{sessionId}"],
+    });
+
+    expect(normalized?.args).toContain("--permission-mode");
+    expect(normalized?.args).toContain("bypassPermissions");
+    expect(normalized?.resumeArgs).toContain("--permission-mode");
+    expect(normalized?.resumeArgs).toContain("bypassPermissions");
+  });
+});

extensions/anthropic/cli-shared.ts

@@ -46,12 +46,10 @@ export function normalizeClaudePermissionArgs(args?: string[]): string[] | undef
     return args;
   }
   const normalized: string[] = [];
-  let sawLegacySkip = false;
   let hasPermissionMode = false;
   for (let i = 0; i < args.length; i += 1) {
     const arg = args[i];
     if (arg === CLAUDE_LEGACY_SKIP_PERMISSIONS_ARG) {
-      sawLegacySkip = true;
       continue;
     }
     if (arg === CLAUDE_PERMISSION_MODE_ARG) {
@@ -69,7 +67,7 @@ export function normalizeClaudePermissionArgs(args?: string[]): string[] | undef
     }
     normalized.push(arg);
   }
-  if (sawLegacySkip && !hasPermissionMode) {
+  if (!hasPermissionMode) {
     normalized.push(CLAUDE_PERMISSION_MODE_ARG, CLAUDE_BYPASS_PERMISSIONS_MODE);
   }
   return normalized;

src/agents/cli-backends.test.ts

@@ -300,6 +300,37 @@ describe("resolveCliBackendConfig claude-cli defaults", () => {
     expect(resolved?.config.resumeArgs).not.toContain("bypassPermissions");
   });
 
+  it("injects bypassPermissions when custom args omit any permission flag", () => {
+    const cfg = {
+      agents: {
+        defaults: {
+          cliBackends: {
+            "claude-cli": {
+              command: "claude",
+              args: ["-p", "--output-format", "stream-json", "--verbose"],
+              resumeArgs: [
+                "-p",
+                "--output-format",
+                "stream-json",
+                "--verbose",
+                "--resume",
+                "{sessionId}",
+              ],
+            },
+          },
+        },
+      },
+    } satisfies OpenClawConfig;
+
+    const resolved = resolveCliBackendConfig("claude-cli", cfg);
+
+    expect(resolved).not.toBeNull();
+    expect(resolved?.config.args).toContain("--permission-mode");
+    expect(resolved?.config.args).toContain("bypassPermissions");
+    expect(resolved?.config.resumeArgs).toContain("--permission-mode");
+    expect(resolved?.config.resumeArgs).toContain("bypassPermissions");
+  });
+
   it("keeps bundle MCP enabled for override-only claude-cli config when the plugin registry is absent", () => {
     const registry = createEmptyPluginRegistry();
     setActivePluginRegistry(registry);