OpenClaw 2026.8.1

2026.8.1

2026.8.1 release notes

Update help: If the automatic update fails, use a local coding harness to help complete the update, diagnose any migration errors, and verify that the Gateway starts correctly. Back up your configuration and state before making changes.

Highlights

• Find past conversations: search visible conversation text by exact words or phrases and reopen the surrounding messages from a matching result. (#105057, #105635, #105585) Thanks @hercial61.
• Sessions beyond your Gateway: run work on paired devices or cloud workers, move the session workspace with it, and reuse warm machines and project seeds for later cloud sessions. (#123280, #127752, #131744, #132374)
• Follow work as it happens: keep a durable session progress card through reloads and follow subagent activity and accumulating edits across web and native chat. (#125125, #125438, #125442, #125444, #121549, #121840, #121815, #121813)
• Answer clearly: respond to structured agent questions through web and native cards, messaging buttons, or plain text, with free-text alternatives and an explicit Skip path. (#109922, #110372, #130262) Thanks @obviyus.
• Interactive results and dashboards: use widgets in chat, pin them to session dashboards, grant specific actions or network origins, and export rendered views as images. (#101840, #108983, #110960, #127315) Thanks @100yenadmin and @hannesrudolph.
• Private credential requests: let your agent request a credential through a masked prompt without putting its value in chat or model context, and use an opt-in proxy to limit protected-secret substitution to approved destinations. (#129670, #123216, #132122)
• Approve recurring work once: grant an automation permission for an exact operation, inspect or revoke that permission later, and require a fresh approval when the job or operation changes. (#129526, #131602)
• Richer audio and video: keep media attached to the conversation across uploads, generated replies, playback, and reloads, with native playback controls and video uploads on Apple and Android clients. (#115842, #116051, #116037)

Changes

• OpenProse migration (breaking): remove the bundled OpenProse plugin and /prose command; run openclaw doctor --fix to clean stale configuration and follow the upstream Agent Skill migration, keeping existing .prose source files. (#128494) Thanks @obviyus and @vincentkoc.
• OpenAI route migration (breaking): use openclaw doctor --fix to migrate shipped codex/* and openai-codex/* model refs, provider config, stored sessions, and automation routes to openai/*, retaining Codex runtime intent and flagging conflicts for operator repair. Thanks @vincentkoc.
• Upcoming deprecations (2026-09-01): external plugins should migrate ahead of the SDK removal gate: plugin-sdk-config-runtime-subpath moves to api.pluginConfig and the focused openclaw/plugin-sdk/config-mutation, openclaw/plugin-sdk/runtime-config-snapshot, or openclaw/plugin-sdk/config-contracts imports; plugin-sdk-channel-reply-pipeline-subpath and plugin-sdk-channel-lifecycle-subpath move to openclaw/plugin-sdk/channel-outbound; plugin-sdk-channel-message-subpath moves to openclaw/plugin-sdk/channel-outbound and openclaw/plugin-sdk/channel-inbound; plugin-sdk-infra-runtime-subpath moves to focused openclaw/plugin-sdk/ imports such as delivery-queue-runtime, diagnostic-runtime, error-runtime, exec-approvals-runtime, fetch-runtime, and ssrf-runtime, according to the helper used. These are upcoming gates, not removals in this release; see the SDK migration guide for per-helper mappings and remaining compatibility limits.
• Official provider packages: install BytePlus, ComfyUI, Mistral, NovitaAI, OpenCode, Synthetic, Volcengine, Vydra, and Xiaomi as needed through onboarding. Recover missing configured packages with openclaw update repair or openclaw doctor --fix; complete requested capability review and restart the Gateway after explicit installation. OpenCode Go remains bundled. (#116866, #116888, #116919, #117007, #117035, #116720, #116854, #116813, #116861) Thanks @vincentkoc.
• Additional official packages: install Cohere and Meta providers, DuckDuckGo search, Voyage embeddings, and iMessage messaging as separate official plugins when needed; configured missing owners use the same explicit update, doctor, or install recovery flow. (#116662, #116740, #116785, #117101) Thanks @vincentkoc.
• OpenAI long-context opt-in: make expanded active-input context an explicit model configuration choice, keeping the runtime budget distinct from the model's native capacity and preserving configured overrides. (#112916)
• Personal conversation recall: with Active Memory enabled, retrieve bounded same-agent private conversation context by default on personal installs without configured DM isolation; explicit controls can disable recall, and groups and channels remain excluded. (#110597)
• Grounded dreaming: enable model-backed background memory consolidation by default, promoting provenance-qualified material into long-term memory with a Dream Diary and an explicit disable control. (#114819)
• Automatic self-learning: capture strong reusable lessons and automatically apply scanner-approved new or Workshop-owned skills by default, while leaving user-authored skill changes pending and preserving explicit off or propose settings. (#115576)
• Session reset default: keep conversations across idle periods and day boundaries when no reset policy is configured; retain explicit daily or idle policies and manual /new or /reset. (#111140)
• CPU-scaled foreground concurrency: size default top-level agent concurrency from available CPU parallelism, bounded between 8 and 16 simultaneous runs, while preserving explicit operator limits. (#114047)
• Explicit model allowlists: separate aliases and per-model settings from explicit modelPolicy.allow restrictions, with per-agent policies and provider wildcards; doctor migrates valid legacy restrictions without silently opening access when migration is incomplete. (#110888) Thanks @vincentkoc.
• Remembered model selection and explicit scopes: choose whether a model change affects this session, its agent, or the shared default; preserve existing surface behavior when no scope is set, including session-only Telegram callback picks and local TUI selection. (#115717, #127813) Thanks @Marvinthebored and @Peetiegonzalez.
• Conversation-bound automations and loops: default new agent-turn automations to their originating conversation when creation has session context. Owner-only /loop supports fixed-interval or self-paced checks; context-free CLI/API creation stays isolated. (#114328)
• Owner-directed ambient heartbeat: send ambient heartbeat alerts to a resolvable owner DM by default and skip unroutable ambient polls; configure an owner or explicit target instead of relying on a previous group conversation. (#121988) Thanks @obviyus.
• Named agent setup: choose the first agent name during interactive onboarding or with --agent-name, migrate legacy main-session history to its clear owner, and reuse main as an ordinary agent ID after required doctor repairs. (#123521, #123609, #123424, #123349)
• Clearer plugin trust: review an external plugin's capabilities, source, version, and exact artifact before install or enablement, while keeping the previous plugin unchanged if you decline an update. (#130168) Thanks @vincentkoc.
• Plugin install provenance warnings: require --force for arbitrary executable plugin sources in CLI/chat installs. Trusted ClawHub, bundled, official-catalog, and tracked-update sources skip that provenance warning, but retain capability consent. Crestodian installs require trusted sources. (#102197) Thanks @jesse-merhi.
• Session permission modes: choose an explicit session permission mode and keep restricted filesystem access anchored to its recorded workspace or worktree, while newly created worktrees inherit configured policy unless a mode is selected. (#124909, #131547, #132989)
• Team operator roles: assign verified users named roles that limit accessible agents, other people's sessions, and operator scopes, and optionally require sandboxed execution for newly created sessions; these are collaboration controls, not hostile-tenant isolation. (#128548, #129926)
• Shared credential store: manage team-scoped secret and environment entries in SQLite through the CLI and Settings; keep secret values write-only, bind protected egress to declared hosts, and distinguish readable environment values from secrets. (#121559, #121724, #126088)
• Optional 1Password broker: resolve curated SecretRefs or read selected 1Password fields with service-account auth, per-secret approval, and value-free audit. Agent-tool reads expose the selected value to the model for that execution. (#106133)
• Usage statistics controls: offer opt-in feature statistics with the daily version check. Inspect payloads with openclaw telemetry show; disable statistics or all automatic update requests. Feature statistics default off. (#128476)
• Incognito threads: keep Control UI conversation transcripts and compaction state in Gateway memory until restart, with memory flush off. Provider processing, diagnostic logs, and explicit tool writes retain their own behavior. (#113006) Thanks @vincentkoc.
• Guided onboarding: guide first-run setup through Custodian with structured option cards and native setup controls. (#109841, #110141, #114631) Thanks @jesse-merhi.
• Local model setup: offer model-download actions in web and macOS onboarding, prefer stronger available local models during detection, and provide lean mode for local runtimes. (#113476, #109250, #110596)
• Quick Chat and desktop setup: add macOS dictation, paste-to-app and model controls, Linux agent switching and per-agent routing, and a more complete Linux onboarding flow. (#110994, #110285, #129815)
• Cloud setup: select project-specific cloud worker defaults and see the active service, profile, machine resources, and worker-slot availability in placement controls. (#126238, #125696, #132405, #132394)
• Cloud worker bootstrap: use the running Gateway's verified runtime artifact for cloud nodes, aligning source builds and worker packages. Images need supported Node.js, npm, and registry access; reverse proxies must forward the authenticated bootstrap-artifact route. (#133037)
• External supervision: set OPENCLAW_SUPERVISOR_MODE=external to let an external supervisor own Gateway restarts, service lifecycle, and updates without competing native service changes. (#109162, #119846, #121069) Thanks @shakkernerd and @vincentkoc.
• ClickClack setup and commands: connect ClickClack with a one-use expiring setup code, verify the account immediately, and publish native command menus at Gateway startup when the token has commands:write. (#107907, #109398) Thanks @shakkernerd.
• Memory migration: offer detected Claude Code, Codex, and Hermes memory imports during CLI, macOS, and Linux onboarding. (#108977)
• Plugin uninstall cleanup: remove exact recorded install paths from plugins.load.paths for marketplace, npm, and other managed installs while preserving parent, child, prefix, and unrelated paths. (#118930) Thanks @vincentkoc.
• Recoverable backups: schedule recorded database backups, keep versioned snapshots in an operator-owned Git repository, and restore a verified full archive into a fresh staging directory. (#122485, #122750)
• Shared Gateway profiles: manage display names and avatars, see who is online, and retain session-creator attribution with person filters. (#111224, #111421, #111501, #112658) Thanks @joshavant.
• Cloud lifecycle: suspend idle cloud workers after a configured interval and provision a replacement on the next message, preserving the session and reconciled workspace. (#130242)
• Development previews: expose agent-run development servers through authenticated Portals, including supported node-backed cloud workers, without manually opening inbound worker ports. (#122536, #130105)
• Device hosting: opt paired machines into session hosting with one-paste onboarding and enable native session hosting from the macOS app. (#122499, #131717)
• Daytona sandboxes: add a Daytona backend plugin for isolated cloud execution. (#121554) Thanks @mislavivanda and @Patrick-Erichsen.
• Task suggestions: name the suggestion-card tool suggest_task so agents can propose follow-up work without implying that it has started, with doctor migration for persisted references to the old name. (#121694)
• Goals: create and manage goals from the Control UI without entering slash commands. (#131370)
• Workboard: link boards to owning automations, run attached automations when linked sessions finish, and show complete boards on session dashboards. (#125076, #125170, #125094) Thanks @vincentkoc.
• Agent interoperability: add an opt-in A2A 1.0 channel plugin for authenticated text tasks, task polling, and messages to configured peer agents. (#130008)
• Email triggers: start agent work from configured inbound IMAP mailboxes through a new plugin. (#130230)
• Approval surfaces: show typed operation-scope summaries on channel cards, add native Teams approve/deny controls, and deliver opted-in PWA approval notifications. (#130116, #129997, #129348) Thanks @Takhoffman.
• Session organization: carry session colors across web and native apps, group the web sidebar by project, and search sessions and connected catalogs from the command palette. (#132570, #131543, #128356) Thanks @VACInc.
• Safer startup repair: apply safe doctor configuration migrations at Gateway startup before normal operation. (#132135)