OpenClaw 2026.1.15 — What Shipped (Operator Guide)

This post covers what shipped in v2026.1.15 and what it means for OpenClaw VPS operators.

What shipped

Highlights

• Plugins: add provider auth registry + clawdbot models auth login for plugin-driven OAuth/API key flows.
• Browser: improve remote CDP/Browserless support (auth passthrough, wss upgrade, timeouts, clearer errors).
• Heartbeat: per-agent configuration + 24h duplicate suppression. (#980) — thanks @voidserf.
• Security: audit warns on weak model tiers; app nodes store auth tokens encrypted (Keychain/SecurePrefs).

Breaking

• BREAKING: iOS minimum version is now 18.0 to support Textual markdown rendering in native chat. (#702)
• BREAKING: Microsoft Teams is now a plugin; install @clawdbot/msteams via clawdbot plugins install @clawdbot/msteams.

Changes

• CLI: set process titles to clawdbot-<command> for clearer process listings.
• CLI/macOS: sync remote SSH target/identity to config and let gateway status auto-infer SSH targets (ssh-config aware).
• Heartbeat: tighten prompt guidance + suppress duplicate alerts for 24h. (#980) — thanks @voidserf.
• Repo: ignore local identity files to avoid accidental commits. (#1001) — thanks @gerardward2007.
• Sessions/Security: add session.dmScope for multi-user DM isolation and audit warnings. (#948) — thanks @Alphonse-arianee.
• Plugins: add provider auth registry + clawdbot models auth login for plugin-driven OAuth/API key flows.
• Onboarding: switch channels setup to a single-select loop with per-channel actions and disabled hints in the picker.
• TUI: show provider/model labels for the active session and default model.
• Heartbeat: add per-agent heartbeat configuration and multi-agent docs example.
• UI: show gateway auth guidance + doc link on unauthorized Control UI connections.
• Security: warn on weak model tiers (Haiku, below GPT-5, below Claude 4.5) in clawdbot security audit.
• Apps: store node auth tokens encrypted (Keychain/SecurePrefs).
• Daemon: share profile/state-dir resolution across service helpers and honor CLAWDBOTSTATEDIR for Windows task scripts.
• Docs: clarify multi-gateway rescue bot guidance. (#969) — thanks @bjesuiter.
• Agents: add Current Date & Time system prompt section with configurable time format (auto/12/24).
• Tools: normalize Slack/Discord message timestamps with timestampMs/timestampUtc while keeping raw provider fields.
• macOS: add system.which for prompt-free remote skill discovery (with gateway fallback to system.run).
• Docs: add Date & Time guide and update prompt/timezone configuration docs.
• Messages: debounce rapid inbound messages across channels with per-connector overrides. (#971) — thanks @juanpablodlc.
• Messages: allow media-only sends (CLI/tool) and show Telegram voice recording status for voice notes. (#957) — thanks @rdev.
• Auth/Status: keep auth profiles sticky per session (rotate on compaction/new), surface provider usage headers in /status and clawdbot models status, and update docs.
• CLI: add --json output for clawdbot daemon lifecycle/install commands.
• Memory: make node-llama-cpp an optional dependency (avoid Node 25 install failures) and improve local-embeddings fallback/errors.
• Browser: add snapshot refs=aria (Playwright aria-ref ids) for self-resolving refs across snapshot → act.
• Browser: profile="chrome" now defaults to host control and returns clearer “attach a tab” errors.
• Browser: prefer stable Chrome for auto-detect, with Brave/Edge fallbacks and updated docs. (#983) — thanks @cpojer.
• Browser: increase remote CDP reachability timeouts + add remoteCdpTimeoutMs/remoteCdpHandshakeTimeoutMs.
• Browser: preserve auth/query tokens for remote CDP endpoints and pass Basic auth for CDP HTTP/WS. (#895) — thanks @mukhtharcm.
• Telegram: add bidirectional reaction support with configurable notifications and agent guidance. (#964) — thanks @bohdanpodvirnyi.
• Telegram: allow custom commands in the bot menu (merged with native; conflicts ignored). (#860) — thanks @nachoiacovino.
• Discord: allow allowlisted guilds without channel lists to receive messages when groupPolicy="allowlist". — thanks @thewilloftheshadow.
• Discord: allow emoji/sticker uploads + channel actions in config defaults. (#870) — thanks @JDIVE.

Fixes

• Fix: list model picker entries as provider/model pairs for explicit selection. (#970) — thanks @mcinteerj.
• Fix: align OpenAI image-gen defaults with DALL-E 3 standard quality and document output formats. (#880) — thanks @mkbehr.
• Fix: persist gateway.mode=local after selecting Local run mode in clawdbot configure, even if no other sections are chosen.
• Daemon: fix profile-aware service label resolution (env-driven) and add coverage for launchd/systemd/schtasks. (#969) — thanks @bjesuiter.
• Agents: avoid false positives when logging unsupported Google tool schema keywords.
• Agents: skip Gemini history downgrades for google-antigravity to preserve tool calls. (#894) — thanks @mukhtharcm.
• Status: restore usage summary line for current provider when no OAuth profiles exist.
• Fix: guard model fallback against undefined provider/model values. (#954) — thanks @roshanasingh4.
• Fix: refactor session store updates, add chat.inject, and harden subagent cleanup flow. (#944) — thanks @tyler6204.
• Fix: clean up suspended CLI processes across backends. (#978) — thanks @Nachx639.
• Fix: support MiniMax coding plan usage responses with modelremains/currentinterval_* payloads.
• Fix: suppress WhatsApp pairing replies for historical catch-up DMs on initial link. (#904)
• Browser: extension mode recovers when only one tab is attached (stale targetId fallback).
• Browser: fix tab not found for extension relay snapshots/actions when Playwright blocks newCDPSession (use the single available Page).
• Browser: upgrade ws → wss when remote CDP uses https (fixes Browserless handshake).
• Telegram: skip messagethreadid=1 for General topic sends while keeping typing indicators. (#848) — thanks @azade-c.
• Fix: sanitize user-facing error text + strip <final> tags across reply pipelines. (#975) — thanks @ThomsenDrake.
• Fix: normalize pairing CLI aliases, allow extension channels, and harden Zalo webhook payload parsing. (#991) — thanks @longmaba.
• Fix: allow local Tailscale Serve hostnames without treating tailnet clients as direct. (#885) — thanks @oswalpalash.
• Fix: reset sessions after role-ordering conflicts to recover from consecutive user turns. (#998)

What matters for hosted operators

• Validate channel delivery behavior (web chat + Telegram).
• Verify model/provider settings and fallback behavior.
• Run a smoke test after deploy: message flow, tool call, and response quality.

Post-upgrade checklist

1. Send/receive test messages in active channels.
2. Confirm bot settings and auth paths still behave as expected.
3. Check billing/usage visibility and dashboard status.
4. Log regressions immediately and keep rollback notes.

Related reading

• OpenClaw Release Notes Hub (2026)
• Best OpenClaw Hosting in 2026
• Pricing · Why OpenClaw VPS · FAQ

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Source

• https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/releases/tag/v2026.1.15