fix(memory): discard stdout for qmd update/embed to prevent output cap failure (openclaw#28900) thanks @Glucksberg

Verified:
- pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
- pnpm build
- pnpm check
- pnpm test:macmini

Co-authored-by: Glucksberg <80581902+Glucksberg@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Tak Hoffman <781889+Takhoffman@users.noreply.github.com>

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -105,6 +105,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Slack/Socket Mode slash startup: treat `app.options()` registration as best-effort and fall back to static arg menus when listener registration fails, preventing Slack monitor startup crash loops on receiver init edge cases. (#21715)
 - Slack/Legacy streaming config: map boolean `channels.slack.streaming=false` to unified streaming mode `off` (with `nativeStreaming=false`) so legacy configs correctly disable draft preview/native streaming instead of defaulting to `partial`. (#25990) Thanks @chilu18.
 - Slack/Socket reconnect reliability: reconnect Socket Mode after disconnect/start failures using bounded exponential backoff with abort-aware waits, while preserving clean shutdown behavior and adding disconnect/error helper tests. (#27232) Thanks @pandego.
+- Memory/QMD update+embed output cap: discard captured stdout for `qmd update` and `qmd embed` runs (while keeping stderr diagnostics) so large index progress output no longer fails sync with `produced too much output` during boot/refresh. (#28900) Thanks @Glucksberg.
 - Onboarding/Custom providers: raise default custom-provider model context window to the runtime hard minimum (16k) and auto-heal existing custom model entries below that threshold during reconfiguration, preventing immediate `Model context window too small (4096 tokens)` failures. (#21653) Thanks @r4jiv007.
 - Web UI/Assistant text: strip internal `<relevant-memories>...</relevant-memories>` scaffolding from rendered assistant messages (while preserving code-fence literals), preventing memory-context leakage in chat output for models that echo internal blocks. (#29851) Thanks @Valkster70.
 - Dashboard/Sessions: allow authenticated Control UI clients to delete and patch sessions while still blocking regular webchat clients from session mutation RPCs, fixing Dashboard session delete failures. (#21264) Thanks @jskoiz.

src/memory/qmd-manager.test.ts

@@ -1761,6 +1761,25 @@ describe("QmdMemoryManager", () => {
     }
   });
 
+  it("succeeds on qmd update even when stdout exceeds the output cap", async () => {
+    // Regression test for #24966: large indexes produce >200K chars of stdout
+    // during `qmd update`, which used to fail with "produced too much output".
+    const largeOutput = "x".repeat(300_000);
+    spawnMock.mockImplementation((_cmd: string, args: string[]) => {
+      if (args[0] === "update") {
+        const child = createMockChild({ autoClose: false });
+        emitAndClose(child, "stdout", largeOutput);
+        return child;
+      }
+      return createMockChild();
+    });
+
+    const { manager } = await createManager({ mode: "status" });
+    // sync triggers runQmdUpdateOnce -> runQmd(["update"], { discardOutput: true })
+    await expect(manager.sync({ reason: "manual" })).resolves.toBeUndefined();
+    await manager.close();
+  });
+
   it("scopes by channel for agent-prefixed session keys", async () => {
     cfg = {
       ...cfg,

src/memory/qmd-manager.ts

@@ -886,7 +886,10 @@ export class QmdMemoryManager implements MemorySearchManager {
       if (this.shouldRunEmbed(force)) {
         try {
           await runWithQmdEmbedLock(async () => {
-            await this.runQmd(["embed"], { timeoutMs: this.qmd.update.embedTimeoutMs });
+            await this.runQmd(["embed"], {
+              timeoutMs: this.qmd.update.embedTimeoutMs,
+              discardOutput: true,
+            });
           });
           this.lastEmbedAt = Date.now();
           this.embedBackoffUntil = null;
@@ -926,12 +929,18 @@ export class QmdMemoryManager implements MemorySearchManager {
 
   private async runQmdUpdateOnce(reason: string): Promise<void> {
     try {
-      await this.runQmd(["update"], { timeoutMs: this.qmd.update.updateTimeoutMs });
+      await this.runQmd(["update"], {
+        timeoutMs: this.qmd.update.updateTimeoutMs,
+        discardOutput: true,
+      });
     } catch (err) {
       if (!(await this.tryRepairNullByteCollections(err, reason))) {
         throw err;
       }
-      await this.runQmd(["update"], { timeoutMs: this.qmd.update.updateTimeoutMs });
+      await this.runQmd(["update"], {
+        timeoutMs: this.qmd.update.updateTimeoutMs,
+        discardOutput: true,
+      });
     }
   }
 
@@ -1054,7 +1063,7 @@ export class QmdMemoryManager implements MemorySearchManager {
 
   private async runQmd(
     args: string[],
-    opts?: { timeoutMs?: number },
+    opts?: { timeoutMs?: number; discardOutput?: boolean },
   ): Promise<{ stdout: string; stderr: string }> {
     return await new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
       const child = spawn(resolveWindowsCommandShim(this.qmd.command), args, {
@@ -1065,6 +1074,10 @@ export class QmdMemoryManager implements MemorySearchManager {
       let stderr = "";
       let stdoutTruncated = false;
       let stderrTruncated = false;
+      // When discardOutput is set, skip stdout accumulation entirely and keep
+      // only a small stderr tail for diagnostics -- never fail on truncation.
+      // This prevents large `qmd update` runs from hitting the output cap.
+      const discard = opts?.discardOutput === true;
       const timer = opts?.timeoutMs
         ? setTimeout(() => {
             child.kill("SIGKILL");
@@ -1072,6 +1085,9 @@ export class QmdMemoryManager implements MemorySearchManager {
           }, opts.timeoutMs)
         : null;
       child.stdout.on("data", (data) => {
+        if (discard) {
+          return; // drain without accumulating
+        }
         const next = appendOutputWithCap(stdout, data.toString("utf8"), this.maxQmdOutputChars);
         stdout = next.text;
         stdoutTruncated = stdoutTruncated || next.truncated;
@@ -1091,7 +1107,7 @@ export class QmdMemoryManager implements MemorySearchManager {
         if (timer) {
           clearTimeout(timer);
         }
-        if (stdoutTruncated || stderrTruncated) {
+        if (!discard && (stdoutTruncated || stderrTruncated)) {
           reject(
             new Error(
               `qmd ${args.join(" ")} produced too much output (limit ${this.maxQmdOutputChars} chars)`,