OpenClaw 2026.3.7 — Context Engine Plugins, ACP Bindings, and Container Updates

OpenClaw 2026.3.7 is a broad platform release with notable upgrades for plugin extensibility, channel routing, and deployment ergonomics.

What was included

Major platform changes

• Context Engine plugin interface with full lifecycle hooks (bootstrap, ingest, assemble, compact, afterTurn, subagent hooks).
• Durable ACP channel bindings for Discord channels and Telegram topics, so bindings survive restarts.
• Telegram ACP/topic routing improvements, including topic thread binding options and topic-level routing.
• SecretRef support for gateway auth token and related auth-mode guardrails.
• Provider/configure updates for web search onboarding with broader provider selection and SecretRef-friendly flow.

Plugin and prompt behavior

• new plugin system context fields (prependSystemContext, appendSystemContext) for cheaper repeat prompts via caching-friendly placement.
• hook policy controls for prompt injection behavior and validation hardening.
• compaction lifecycle hook events and compaction post-context configurability.

Deployment/runtime improvements

• Docker multi-stage runtime image improvements plus optional slim variant.
• OPENCLAW_EXTENSIONS support for preinstalling extension dependencies in container builds.
• Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite support updates.

Breaking change

• If both gateway.auth.token and gateway.auth.password are configured, gateway.auth.mode must now be explicitly set (token or password).

Reliability/security fixes (selected)

• fail-closed config loading behavior on validation/read errors
• stale-socket restart guard improvements
• onboarding/local profile default corrections
• memory search ranking correctness fix

Why this matters for OpenClaw VPS

For hosted OpenClaw operations, 2026.3.7 improves:

1. extensibility (context-engine plugin lane),
2. cross-channel ACP consistency,
3. container reproducibility and startup reliability.

Source

Official OpenClaw release notes: v2026.3.7 on GitHub Releases.