OpenClaw 2026.1.9 — What Shipped (Operator Guide)

This post covers what shipped in v2026.1.9 and what it means for OpenClaw VPS operators.

What shipped

Highlights

• Microsoft Teams provider: polling, attachments, outbound CLI send, per-channel policy.
• Models/Auth expansion: OpenCode Zen + MiniMax API onboarding; token auth profiles + auth order; OAuth health in doctor/status.
• CLI/Gateway UX: message subcommands, gateway discover/status/SSH, /config + /debug, sandbox CLI.
• Provider reliability sweep: WhatsApp contact cards/targets, Telegram audio-as-voice + streaming, Signal reactions, Slack threading, Discord stability.
• Auto-reply + status: block-streaming controls, reasoning handling, usage/cost reporting.
• Control UI/TUI: queued messages, session links, reasoning view, mobile polish, logs UX.

Breaking

• CLI: clawdbot message now subcommands (message send|poll|...) and requires --provider unless only one provider configured.
• Commands/Tools: /restart and gateway restart tool disabled by default; enable with commands.restart=true.

New Features and Changes

• Models/Auth: OpenCode Zen onboarding (#623) — thanks @magimetal; MiniMax Anthropic-compatible API + hosted onboarding (#590, #495) — thanks @mneves75, @tobiasbischoff.
• Models/Auth: setup-token + token auth profiles; clawdbot models auth order {get,set,clear}; per-agent auth candidates in /model status; OAuth expiry checks in doctor/status.
• Agent/System: claude-cli runner; session_status tool (and sandbox allow); adaptive context pruning default; system prompt messaging guidance + no auto self-update; eligible skills list injection; sub-agent context trimmed.
• Commands: /commands list; /models alias; /usage alias; /debug runtime overrides + effective config view; /config chat updates + /config get; config --section.
• CLI/Gateway: unified message tool + message subcommands; gateway discover (local + wide-area DNS-SD) with JSON/timeout; gateway status human-readable + JSON + SSH loopback; wide-area records include gatewayPort/sshPort/cliPath + tailnet DNS fallback.
• CLI UX: logs output modes (pretty/plain/JSONL) + colorized health/daemon output; global --no-color; lobster palette in onboarding/config.
• Dev ergonomics: gateway --dev/--reset + dev profile auto-config; C-3PO dev templates; dev gateway/TUI helper scripts.
• Sandbox/Workspace: sandbox list/recreate commands; sync skills into sandbox workspace; sandbox browser auto-start.
• Config/Onboarding: inline env vars; OpenAI API key flow to shared ~/.clawdbot/.env; Opus 4.5 default prompt for Anthropic auth; QuickStart auto-install gateway (Node-only) + provider picker tweaks + skip-systemd flags; TUI bootstrap prompt (tui --message); remove Bun runtime choice.
• Providers: Microsoft Teams provider (polling, attachments, outbound sends, requireMention, config reload/DM policy). (#404) — thanks @onutc
• Providers: WhatsApp broadcast groups for multi-agent replies (#547) — thanks @pasogott; inbound media size cap configurable (#505) — thanks @koala73; identity-based message prefixes (#578) — thanks @p6l-richard.
• Providers: Telegram inline keyboard buttons + callback payload routing (#491) — thanks @azade-c; cron topic delivery targets (#474/#478) — thanks @mitschabaude-bot, @nachoiacovino; [[audioasvoice]] tag support (#490) — thanks @jarvis-medmatic.
• Providers: Signal reactions + notifications with allowlist support.
• Status/Usage: /status cost reporting + /cost lines; auth profile snippet; provider usage windows.
• Control UI: mobile responsiveness (#558) — thanks @carlulsoe; queued messages + Enter-to-send (#527) — thanks @YuriNachos; session links (#471) — thanks @HazAT; reasoning view; skill install feedback (#445) — thanks @pkrmf; chat layout refresh (#475) — thanks @rahthakor; docs link + new session button; drop explicit ui:install.
• TUI: agent picker + agents list RPC; improved status line.
• Doctor/Daemon: audit/repair flows, permissions checks, supervisor config audits; provider status probes + warnings for Discord intents and Telegram privacy; last activity timestamps; gateway restart guidance.
• Docs: Hetzner Docker VPS guide + cross-links (#556/#592) — thanks @Iamadig; Ansible guide (#545) — thanks @pasogott; provider troubleshooting index; hook parameter expansion (#532) — thanks @mcinteerj; model allowlist notes; OAuth deep dive; showcase refresh.
• Apps/Branding: refreshed iOS/Android/macOS icons (#521) — thanks @fishfisher.

Fixes

• Packaging: include MS Teams send module in npm tarball.
• Sandbox/Browser: auto-start CDP endpoint; proxy CDP out of container for attachOnly; relax Bun fetch typing; align sandbox list output with config images.
• Agents/Runtime: gate heartbeat prompt to default sessions; /stop aborts between tool calls; require explicit system-event session keys; guard small context windows; fix model fallback stringification; sessions_spawn inherits provider; failover on billing/credits; respect auth cooldown ordering; restore Anthropic OAuth tool dispatch + tool-name bypass; avoid OpenAI invalid reasoning replay; harden Gmail hook model defaults.
• Agent history/schema: strip/skip empty assistant/error blocks to prevent session corruption/Claude 400s; scrub unsupported JSON Schema keywords + sanitize tool call IDs for Cloud Code Assist; simplify Gemini-compatible tool/session schemas; require raw for config.apply.
• Auto-reply/Streaming: default audioAsVoice false; preserve audioasvoice propagation + buffer audio blocks + guard voice notes; block reply ordering (timeout) + forced-block fence-safe; avoid chunk splits inside parentheses + fence-close breaks + invalid UTF-16 truncation; preserve inline directive spacing + allow whitespace in reply tags; filter NO_REPLY prefixes + normalize routed replies; suppress <think> leakage with separate Reasoning; block streaming defaults (off by default, minChars/idle tuning) + coalesced blocks; dedupe followup queue; restore explicit responsePrefix default.
• Status/Commands: provider prefix in /status model display; usage filtering + provider mapping; auth label + usage snapshots (claude-cli fallback + optional claude.ai); show Verbose/Elevated only when enabled; compact usage/cost line + restore emoji-rich status; /status in directive-only + multi-directive handling; mention-bypass elevated handling; surface provider usage errors; wire /usage to /status; restore hidden gateway-daemon alias; fallback /model list when catalog unavailable.
• WhatsApp: vCard/contact cards (prefer FN, include numbers, show all contacts, keep summary counts, better empty summaries); preserve group JIDs + normalize targets; resolve @lid mappings/JIDs (Baileys/auth-dir) + inbound mapping; route queued replies to sender; improve web listener errors + remove provider name from errors; record outbound activity account id; fix web media fetch errors; broadcast group history consistency.
• Telegram: keep streamMode draft-only; long-poll conflict retries + update dedupe; grammY fetch mismatch fixes + restrict native fetch to Bun; suppress getUpdates stack traces; include user id in pairing; audioasvoice handling fixes.
• Discord/Slack: thread context helpers + forum thread starters; avoid category parent overrides; gateway reconnect logs + HELLO timeout + stop provider after reconnect exhaustion; DM recipient parsing for numeric IDs; remove incorrect limited warning; reply threading + mrkdwn edge cases; remove ack reactions after reply; gateway debug event visibility.
• Signal: reaction handling safety; own-reaction matching (uuid+phone); UUID-only senders accepted; ignore reaction-only messages.
• MS Teams: download image attachments reliably; fix top-level replies; stop on shutdown + honor chunk limits; normalize poll providers/deps; pairing label fixes.
• iMessage: isolate group-ish threads by chat_id.
• Gateway/Daemon/Doctor: atomic config writes; repair gateway service entrypoint + install switches; non-interactive legacy migrations; systemd unit alignment + KillMode=process; node bridge keepalive/pings; Launch at Login persistence; bundle ClawdbotKit resources + Swift 6.2 compat dylib; relay version check + remove smoke test; regen Swift GatewayModels + keep agent provider string; cron jobId alias + channel alias migration + main session key normalization; heartbeat Telegram accountId resolution; avoid WhatsApp fallback for internal runs; gateway listener error wording; serveBaseUrl param; honor gateway --dev; fix wide-area discovery updates; align agents.defaults schema; provider account metadata in daemon status; refresh Carbon patch for gateway fixes; restore doctor prompter initialValue handling.
• Control UI/TUI: persist per-session verbose off + hide tool cards; logs tab opens at bottom; relative asset paths + landing cleanup; session labels lookup/persistence; stop pinning main session in recents; start logs at bottom; TUI status bar refresh + timeout handling + hide reasoning label when off.
• Onboarding/Configure: QuickStart single-select provider picker; avoid Codex CLI false-expiry warnings; clarify WhatsApp owner prompt; fix Minimax hosted onboarding (agents.defaults + msteams heartbeat target); remove configure Control UI prompt; honor gateway --dev flag.

Maintenance

• Dependencies: bump pi-* stack to 0.42.2.
• Dependencies: Pi 0.40.0 bump (#543) — thanks @mcinteerj.
• Build: Docker build cache layer (#605) — thanks @zknicker.

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/v2026.1.9