diff --git a/kubernetes/personal/openclaw/openclaw-instance.yaml b/kubernetes/personal/openclaw/openclaw-instance.yaml
index 79bd776..a5b6df7 100644
--- a/kubernetes/personal/openclaw/openclaw-instance.yaml
+++ b/kubernetes/personal/openclaw/openclaw-instance.yaml
@@ -3,6 +3,35 @@ kind: OpenClawInstance
 metadata:
   name: openclaw
 spec:
+  # Pin the gateway image to an immutable version tag. Running `latest` with
+  # pullPolicy=IfNotPresent let a stale node-cached image (old build, state
+  # schema v1) fight the PVC's DB migrated by a newer build (schema v15),
+  # crash-looping the container. Bump this tag alongside upstream releases.
+  image:
+    repository: ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw
+    tag: "2026.9.3"
+  # Workaround for paperclipinc/openclaw-operator#607: the operator mounts the
+  # PVC root directly at /home/openclaw/.openclaw and only fsGroup is applied,
+  # so the mount root stays owned by root. OpenClaw >= 2026.9 fchmods its config
+  # dir when writing openclaw.json, which fails with EPERM for a non-owner.
+  # This one-shot init container chowns the mount root to the pod UID.
+  initContainers:
+    - name: fix-data-owner
+      image: docker.io/library/busybox:1.37
+      command: ["sh", "-c", "chown 1000:1000 /data && ls -ld /data"]
+      securityContext:
+        runAsUser: 0
+        runAsNonRoot: false
+        allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
+        readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
+        capabilities:
+          drop: ["ALL"]
+          add: ["CHOWN"]
+        seccompProfile:
+          type: RuntimeDefault
+      volumeMounts:
+        - name: data
+          mountPath: /data
   # Provider API keys come from the SOPS-encrypted Secret below.
   # The gateway token is auto-generated by the operator (no mDNS pairing in k8s).
   envFrom: