BUG: reports wrong for date-based versions (2026.6.11 vs 2026.7.1)

[vikasagarwal101]

Description

npm outdated -g --json reports a latest field that does not match the actual dist-tags.latest from the registry. This causes downstream tools (like my update planner sysupdate) to incorrectly flag packages as needing a "downgrade".

Steps to Reproduce

# Install the package at its latest version
npm install -g openclaw@2026.7.1

# Check what npm outdated reports
npm outdated -g --json | jq ".openclaw"

Expected Behavior

npm outdated should report latest: "2026.7.1" since that is the current dist-tags.latest on the registry.

Actual Behavior

{
  "current": "2026.7.1",
  "wanted": "2026.6.11",
  "latest": "2026.6.11",
  "dependent": "global",
  "location": "/home/vikas/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw"
}

latest is "2026.6.11" — incorrect.

Verification

# Registry says latest is 2026.7.1
npm view openclaw dist-tags
# → { latest: "2026.7.1", beta: "2026.7.2-beta.1", alpha: "2026.5.19-alpha.1" }

npm view openclaw version
# → 2026.7.1

npm view openclaw@latest version
# → 2026.7.1

Environment

• npm version: 11.8.0
• Node version: (fnm-managed)
• OS: Linux
• Package: openclaw (uses date-based versioning: YYYY.M.D)

Hypothesis

The package uses date-based versions (2026.7.1, 2026.6.11). npm may be incorrectly sorting or resolving these when determining the latest version in the outdated command — possibly treating the minor segment as a semver minor where 6.11 > 7.1 numerically at the patch level, or confusing wanted with latest.

[ljharb]

in semver, 6.11 is always < 7.1, so that openclaw is using an absurd versioning system shouldn't be relevant - the way they're using it, the only breaking changes are on the changeover of a calendar year.

That said, because global installs don't have a package.json (one of many reasons you shouldn't be installing anything globally - always use npx instead), there's no semver range, so it might say that "wanted" is the same as the installed version.

I assume this is due to some kind of caching issue.