OpenClaw Test Heap Leaks

Use this skill for test-memory investigations. Do not guess from RSS alone when heap snapshots are available. Treat snapshot-name deltas as triage evidence, not proof, until retainers or dominators support the call.

Read ../openclaw-test-performance/SKILL.md first for the current test-performance commands and proof routing.

For runtime fixes (e.g., closure leaks in long-running services like the gateway), see Validating runtime fixes below — that uses a dedicated harness rather than the unit-test profiling workflow.

Workflow

1. Reproduce the failing shape first.

   • Match the real entrypoint and worker budget. For a broad unit-fast baseline with per-config max RSS and top-file timing, start with:

     pnpm test:perf:groups \
       --config test/vitest/vitest.unit-fast.config.ts \
       --allow-failures \
       --output .artifacts/test-perf/unit-fast-memory.json

   • For a suspected file, rerun that file with one worker and collect wall/RSS evidence: /usr/bin/time -l pnpm test <file> --maxWorkers=1 --reporter=verbose.
   • Current pnpm test execution is planned by scripts/test-projects.mts. Record the printed Vitest config or shard and preserve that shape when the report is configuration- or worker-budget-specific.
2. Collect the strongest available heap evidence.
   • Run pnpm test:perf:profile:runner -- --output-dir .artifacts/test-perf/vitest-runner-profile -- <file> for a CPU profile plus a sampling heap profile of the unit runner. Open the heap profile in DevTools and inspect the largest allocation families.
   • Sampling .heapprofile output is not a .heapsnapshot; do not pass it to the snapshot delta helper.
   • When a dedicated harness or another known producer emits repeated .heapsnapshot files, compare snapshots from the same PID with .agents/skills/openclaw-test-heap-leaks/scripts/heapsnapshot-delta.mjs.
   • If no snapshot or heap profile is available, RSS growth is useful triage evidence, but keep the leak classification inconclusive.
3. Classify the growth before choosing a fix.
   • If growth is dominated by Vite/Vitest transformed source strings, Module, system / Context, bytecode, descriptor arrays, or property maps, treat it as likely retained module graph growth in long-lived workers.
   • If growth is dominated by app objects, caches, buffers, server handles, timers, mock state, sqlite state, or similar runtime objects, treat it as a likely cleanup or lifecycle leak.
   • If the names are ambiguous, stop short of a confident label and inspect retainers/dominators in DevTools for the top deltas.
4. Fix the right layer.
   • For likely retained transformed-module growth in shared workers:
   • Inspect the owning Vitest config and the process chunking in scripts/test-projects.test-support.mjs. Fix process lifetime or project ownership there only when the same-shape evidence shows that shared-worker retention is the cause.
   • test/vitest/vitest.unit-fast-isolated.config.ts is for audited stateful tests that need a fresh module graph. Do not use it as a generic memory-hotspot list.
   • For real leaks:
   • Patch the implicated test or runtime cleanup path.
   • Look for missing afterEach/afterAll, module-reset gaps, retained global state, unreleased DB handles, or listeners/timers that survive the file.
5. Verify with the most direct proof.
   • Re-run the same grouped or scoped command and confirm the max-RSS trend or OOM is reduced.
   • When a dedicated producer emits heap profiles or snapshots, repeat the same producer and compare equivalent artifacts.
   • For routing or config changes, verify the expected Vitest config or shard starts and the affected tests complete.

Heuristics

• Do not call everything a leak. Growth in a non-isolated shared Vitest project can be a worker-lifetime problem rather than an application object leak.
• scripts/test-projects.mts, scripts/test-group-report.mts, and scripts/run-vitest-profile.mts are the current execution, grouped-RSS, and profile entrypoints.
• The [test] starting ... lines identify the Vitest config or shard to reproduce.
• .artifacts/vitest-shard-timings.json stores config/shard durations for scheduling. It is not a file-level memory-hotspot or behavior manifest.
• When the same retained object families grow across multiple intervals in the same worker PID, trust the snapshots over intuition, then confirm ambiguous calls with retainer evidence.

Snapshot Comparison

• Direct comparison:
  • node .agents/skills/openclaw-test-heap-leaks/scripts/heapsnapshot-delta.mjs before.heapsnapshot after.heapsnapshot
• Auto-select earliest/latest snapshots per PID within one lane:
  • node .agents/skills/openclaw-test-heap-leaks/scripts/heapsnapshot-delta.mjs --lane-dir <snapshot-directory>
• Useful flags:
  • --top 40
  • --min-kb 32
  • --pid 16133

Read the top positive deltas first. Large positive growth in module-transform artifacts points to shared-process lifetime or project ownership; large positive growth in runtime objects suggests a real leak. If the names alone do not settle it, open the same snapshot pair in DevTools and inspect retainers/dominators for the top rows before declaring root cause.

Validating runtime fixes (not test-memory)

The workflow above is for diagnosing Vitest worker memory growth. For validating that a runtime/closure fix actually releases captured state, use the dedicated harness:

• pnpm leak:embedded-run — runs scripts/embedded-run-abort-leak.ts. Loops N aborted runs in a function-shaped scope mimicking runEmbeddedAttempt, writes heap snapshots, and reports a PASS/FAIL verdict on retention growth using FinalizationRegistry for tracked-instance counting plus RSS delta.

Modes:

• closure-extracted (default) — production fix shape (helper at module scope).
• closure-inline — pre-fix shape (closure inside the runner scope). Use as a sensitivity check: if it passes you've broken the harness, not fixed a bug.
• synthetic-leak — deliberately retains via a module-level bucket. Use to confirm the harness can detect leaks before trusting a PASS on a real fix.

Snapshots land in .tmp/embedded-run-abort-leak/. Diff with the same script as above:

node .agents/skills/openclaw-test-heap-leaks/scripts/heapsnapshot-delta.mjs \
  .tmp/embedded-run-abort-leak/baseline-*.heapsnapshot \
  .tmp/embedded-run-abort-leak/batch-N-*.heapsnapshot --top 30

When fixing a different runtime leak, add a new harness alongside this one rather than retrofitting it. The fixture function should mimic the lexical scope of the function where the leak lives, not be a generic abort-loop.

Output Expectations

When using this skill, report:

• The exact reproduce command.
• Which Vitest config or target was reproduced, and which PID was compared when snapshots were available.
• The dominant retained object families from the heap profile or snapshot delta, when available.
• Whether the issue is a likely real leak or likely shared-worker retained module growth, plus whether retainers/dominators confirmed it.
• The concrete fix or impact-reduction patch.
• What you verified, and what snapshot overhead prevented you from verifying.