diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index d2d289d6e57..36e16ce91c7 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 
 ### Fixes
 
+- Windows/install: stop auto-installing `node-llama-cpp` during normal npm CLI installs so `openclaw@latest` no longer fails on Windows while building optional local-embedding dependencies.
 - Agents/text sanitization: strip leaked model control tokens (`<|...|>` and full-width `<｜...｜>` variants) from user-facing assistant text, preventing GLM-5 and DeepSeek internal delimiters from reaching end users. (#42173) Thanks @imwyvern.
 - iOS/gateway foreground recovery: reconnect immediately on foreground return after stale background sockets are torn down, so the app no longer stays disconnected until a later wake path happens. (#41384) Thanks @mbelinky.
 - Gateway/Control UI: keep dashboard auth tokens in session-scoped browser storage so same-tab refreshes preserve remote token auth without restoring long-lived localStorage token persistence, while scoping tokens to the selected gateway URL and fragment-only bootstrap flow. (#40892) thanks @velvet-shark.
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index b27e8247b5c..22f60579ef8 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -419,6 +419,11 @@
     "@napi-rs/canvas": "^0.1.89",
     "node-llama-cpp": "3.16.2"
   },
+  "peerDependenciesMeta": {
+    "node-llama-cpp": {
+      "optional": true
+    }
+  },
   "engines": {
     "node": ">=22.16.0"
   },
diff --git a/scripts/openclaw-npm-release-check.ts b/scripts/openclaw-npm-release-check.ts
index 267558a0d0d..fcd2dc8e7e1 100644
--- a/scripts/openclaw-npm-release-check.ts
+++ b/scripts/openclaw-npm-release-check.ts
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ type PackageJson = {
   license?: string;
   repository?: { url?: string } | string;
   bin?: Record<string, string>;
+  peerDependencies?: Record<string, string>;
+  peerDependenciesMeta?: Record<string, { optional?: boolean }>;
 };
 
 export type ParsedReleaseVersion = {
@@ -140,6 +142,16 @@ export function collectReleasePackageMetadataErrors(pkg: PackageJson): string[]
       `package.json bin.openclaw must be "openclaw.mjs"; found "${pkg.bin?.openclaw ?? ""}".`,
     );
   }
+  if (pkg.peerDependencies?.["node-llama-cpp"] !== "3.16.2") {
+    errors.push(
+      `package.json peerDependencies["node-llama-cpp"] must be "3.16.2"; found "${
+        pkg.peerDependencies?.["node-llama-cpp"] ?? ""
+      }".`,
+    );
+  }
+  if (pkg.peerDependenciesMeta?.["node-llama-cpp"]?.optional !== true) {
+    errors.push('package.json peerDependenciesMeta["node-llama-cpp"].optional must be true.');
+  }
 
   return errors;
 }
diff --git a/test/openclaw-npm-release-check.test.ts b/test/openclaw-npm-release-check.test.ts
index 50f4cb7a5ab..66cf7d9b5cf 100644
--- a/test/openclaw-npm-release-check.test.ts
+++ b/test/openclaw-npm-release-check.test.ts
@@ -86,7 +86,22 @@ describe("collectReleasePackageMetadataErrors", () => {
         license: "MIT",
         repository: { url: "git+https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw.git" },
         bin: { openclaw: "openclaw.mjs" },
+        peerDependencies: { "node-llama-cpp": "3.16.2" },
+        peerDependenciesMeta: { "node-llama-cpp": { optional: true } },
       }),
     ).toEqual([]);
   });
+
+  it("requires node-llama-cpp to stay an optional peer", () => {
+    expect(
+      collectReleasePackageMetadataErrors({
+        name: "openclaw",
+        description: "Multi-channel AI gateway with extensible messaging integrations",
+        license: "MIT",
+        repository: { url: "git+https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw.git" },
+        bin: { openclaw: "openclaw.mjs" },
+        peerDependencies: { "node-llama-cpp": "3.16.2" },
+      }),
+    ).toContain('package.json peerDependenciesMeta["node-llama-cpp"].optional must be true.');
+  });
 });