OpenClaw 2026.1.22 — What Shipped (Operator Guide)

This post covers what shipped in v2026.1.22 and what it means for OpenClaw VPS operators.

What shipped

Changes

• Highlight: Compaction safeguard now uses adaptive chunking, progressive fallback, and UI status + retries. (#1466) Thanks @dlauer.
• Providers: add Antigravity usage tracking to status output. (#1490) Thanks @patelhiren.
• Slack: add chat-type reply threading overrides via replyToModeByChatType. (#1442) Thanks @stefangalescu.
• BlueBubbles: add asVoice support for MP3/CAF voice memos in sendAttachment. (#1477, #1482) Thanks @Nicell.
• Onboarding: add hatch choice (TUI/Web/Later), token explainer, background dashboard seed on macOS, and showcase link.

Fixes

• BlueBubbles: stop typing indicator on idle/no-reply. (#1439) Thanks @Nicell.
• Message tool: keep path/filePath as-is for send; hydrate buffers only for sendAttachment. (#1444) Thanks @hopyky.
• Auto-reply: only report a model switch when session state is available. (#1465) Thanks @robbyczgw-cla.
• Control UI: resolve local avatar URLs with basePath across injection + identity RPC. (#1457) Thanks @dlauer.
• Agents: sanitize assistant history text to strip tool-call markers. (#1456) Thanks @zerone0x.
• Discord: clarify Message Content Intent onboarding hint. (#1487) Thanks @kyleok.
• Gateway: stop the service before uninstalling and fail if it remains loaded.
• Agents: surface concrete API error details instead of generic AI service errors.
• Exec: fall back to non-PTY when PTY spawn fails (EBADF). (#1484)
• Exec approvals: allow per-segment allowlists for chained shell commands on gateway + node hosts. (#1458) Thanks @czekaj.
• Agents: make OpenAI sessions image-sanitize-only; gate tool-id/repair sanitization by provider.
• Doctor: honor CLAWDBOTGATEWAYTOKEN for auth checks and security audit token reuse. (#1448) Thanks @azade-c.
• Agents: make tool summaries more readable and only show optional params when set.
• Agents: honor SOUL.md guidance even when the file is nested or path-qualified. (#1434) Thanks @neooriginal.
• Matrix (plugin): persist m.direct for resolved DMs and harden room fallback. (#1436, #1486) Thanks @sibbl.
• CLI: prefer ~ for home paths in output.
• Mattermost (plugin): enforce pairing/allowlist gating, keep @username targets, and clarify plugin-only docs. (#1428) Thanks @damoahdominic.
• Agents: centralize transcript sanitization in the runner; keep <final> tags and error turns intact.
• Auth: skip auth profiles in cooldown during initial selection and rotation. (#1316) Thanks @odrobnik.
• Agents/TUI: honor user-pinned auth profiles during cooldown and preserve search picker ranking. (#1432) Thanks @tobiasbischoff.
• Docs: fix gog auth services example to include docs scope. (#1454) Thanks @zerone0x.
• Slack: reduce WebClient retries to avoid duplicate sends. (#1481)
• Slack: read thread replies for message reads when threadId is provided (replies-only). (#1450) Thanks @rodrigouroz.
• macOS: prefer linked channels in gateway summary to avoid false “not linked” status.
• macOS/tests: fix gateway summary lookup after guard unwrap; prevent browser opens during tests. (ECID-1483)

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/v2026.1.22