Node + tsx "__name is not a function" crash

Status

Resolved. This crash does not reproduce on the current tsx version pinned in package.json (4.22.3) or on current Node releases. Kept here in case a future tsx/esbuild upgrade reintroduces it.

Original symptom

Running OpenClaw dev scripts through tsx failed at startup with:

[openclaw] Failed to start CLI: TypeError: __name is not a function
    at createSubsystemLogger (src/logging/subsystem.ts)
    at <caller> (src/agents/auth-profiles/constants.ts)

Line numbers are omitted; both files have changed since the original crash and the specific lines no longer match.

This appeared after dev scripts switched from Bun to tsx (2871657e, 2026-01-06) to make Bun optional. The equivalent Bun-based path did not crash. It was originally observed on Node v25.3.0 on macOS; other platforms that run Node 25 were considered likely to be affected too.

Cause

tsx transforms TS/ESM through esbuild with keepNames: true hardcoded in its transform options. That setting makes esbuild wrap named function/class declarations in a call to a __name helper so fn.name survives minification and bundling. The crash means the helper was missing or shadowed at the call site for that module in the affected tsx/Node combination, so __name(...) threw instead of returning the wrapped value.

Current repro check

node --version
pnpm install
node --import tsx src/entry.ts status

Minimal isolated repro (loads only the module from the original stack trace):

node --import tsx scripts/repro/tsx-name-repro.ts

Both commands currently exit cleanly. If either throws __name is not a function again, capture the exact Node version, tsx version (node_modules/tsx/package.json), and full stack trace before filing upstream.

Workarounds (if the crash returns)

Run dev scripts with Bun instead of node --import tsx.
Run pnpm tsgo for type checking, then run the built output instead of the source through tsx:
```
pnpm tsgo
node openclaw.mjs status
```
Try a different tsx version (pnpm add -D tsx@<version> is a dependency change and needs approval per repo policy) to bisect whether the esbuild version it bundles reintroduced the bug.
Test on a different Node major/minor to see whether the failure is version specific.

References

Source: docs/debug/node-issue.md