Install plan
OS: linux
Install method: npm
Requested version: latest
[1/3] Preparing environment
· Node.js not found, installing it now
· Installing Node.js via NodeSource
· Installing Linux build tools (make/g++/cmake/python3)
! Could not detect package manager for auto-installing build tools
! Continuing without auto-installing build tools
✗ Could not detect package manager
Please install Node.js 22+ manually: https://nodejs.org
The thing is, I already have Node.js 22.x installed. I also installed Node.js 24.x just in case and tried again but the same error message.
My KDE Linux OS version:
Operating System: KDE Linux 2026-02-19
KDE Plasma Version: 6.6.80
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.24.0
Qt Version: 6.10.2
Kernel Version: 6.18.9-zen1-2-zen (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
If you setup npm to install work out of your home directory vs your system, it should drop these into ~/.npm-global/bin instead of polluting your system install outside the distribution packages (and immutable weirdness).
That said, you really should install openclaw into a docker container or vm and keep it isolated. It’s a security nightmare right now, and you really don’t want it running bare and loose in your main os.
I’m tinkering with it in docker on arch and have it working, but it was rather cantankerous to set it up a few weeks ago to work around their odd and sometimes misguided concepts of security and “pairing” to even get my browser authorized to the container. I gave up on it as I couldn’t make it work with ollama at the time, but yesterday I updated as they had new features specifically for ollama, and it works now and seems improved in general, so ymmv, but at least it seems to be getting less rough around the edges.
This would suggest your Node.js install isn’t visible to the OpenClaw installer. Either it’s installed in a nonstandard place not exposed to any of the standard library locations, or else the OpenClaw installer is buggy and is rigidly looking for it in only a specific systemwide location.
Regardless, I would suggest doing what others have already mentioned, and installing it in a container of some kind.