### Changes
- Highlight: External Secrets Management introduces a full `openclaw secrets` workflow (`audit`, `configure`, `apply`, `reload`) with runtime snapshot activation, strict `secrets apply` target-path validation, safer migration scrubbing, ref-only auth-profile support, and dedicated docs. (#26155) Thanks @joshavant.
- ACP/Thread-bound agents: make ACP agents first-class runtimes for thread sessions with `acp` spawn/send dispatch integration, acpx backend bridging, lifecycle controls, startup reconciliation, runtime cleanup, and coalesced thread replies. (#23580) thanks @osolmaz.
- Agents/Routing CLI: add `openclaw agents bindings`, `openclaw agents bind`, and `openclaw agents unbind` for account-scoped route management, including channel-only to account-scoped binding upgrades, role-aware binding identity handling, plugin-resolved binding account IDs, and optional account-binding prompts in `openclaw channels add`. (#27195) thanks @gumadeiras.
- Codex/WebSocket transport: make `openai-codex` WebSocket-first by default (`transport: "auto"` with SSE fallback), keep explicit per-model/runtime transport overrides, and add regression coverage + docs for transport selection.
- Onboarding/Plugins: let channel plugins own interactive onboarding flows with optional `configureInteractive` and `configureWhenConfigured` hooks while preserving the generic fallback path. (#27191) thanks @gumadeiras.
- Android/Nodes: add Android `device` capability plus `device.status` and `device.info` node commands, including runtime handler wiring and protocol/registry coverage for device status/info payloads. (#27664) Thanks @obviyus.
- Android/Nodes: add `notifications.list` support on Android nodes and expose `nodes notifications_list` in agent tooling for listing active device notifications. (#27344) thanks @obviyus.
- Docs/Contributing: add Nimrod Gutman to the maintainer roster in `CONTRIBUTING.md`. (#27840) Thanks @ngutman.
### Fixes
- Telegram/DM allowlist runtime inheritance: enforce `dmPolicy: "allowlist"` `allowFrom` requirements using effective account-plus-parent config across account-capable channels (Telegram, Discord, Slack, Signal, iMessage, IRC, BlueBubbles, WhatsApp), and align `openclaw doctor` checks to the same inheritance logic so DM traffic is not silently dropped after upgrades. (#27936) Thanks @widingmarcus-cyber.
- Delivery queue/recovery backoff: prevent retry starvation by persisting `lastAttemptAt` on failed sends and deferring recovery retries until each entry's `lastAttemptAt + backoff` window is eligible, while continuing to recover ready entries behind deferred ones. Landed from contributor PR #27710 by @Jimmy-xuzimo. Thanks @Jimmy-xuzimo.
- Google Chat/Lifecycle: keep Google Chat `startAccount` pending until abort in webhook mode so startup is no longer interpreted as immediate exit, preventing auto-restart loops and webhook-target churn. (#27384) thanks @junsuwhy.
- Temp dirs/Linux umask: force `0700` permissions after temp-dir creation and self-heal existing writable temp dirs before trust checks so `umask 0002` installs no longer crash-loop on startup. Landed from contributor PR #27860 by @stakeswky. (#27853) Thanks @stakeswky.
- Nextcloud Talk/Lifecycle: keep `startAccount` pending until abort and stop the webhook monitor on shutdown, preventing `EADDRINUSE` restart loops when the gateway manages account lifecycle. (#27897)
- Microsoft Teams/File uploads: acknowledge `fileConsent/invoke` immediately (`invokeResponse` before upload + file card send) so Teams no longer shows false "Something went wrong" timeout banners while upload completion continues asynchronously; includes updated async regression coverage. Landed from contributor PR #27641 by @scz2011.
- Queue/Drain/Cron reliability: harden lane draining with guaranteed `draining` flag reset on synchronous pump failures, reject new queue enqueues during gateway restart drain windows (instead of silently killing accepted tasks), add `/stop` queued-backlog cutoff metadata with stale-message skipping (while avoiding cross-session native-stop cutoff bleed), and raise isolated cron `agentTurn` outer safety timeout to avoid false 10-minute timeout races against longer agent session timeouts. (#27407, #27332, #27427)
- Typing/Main reply pipeline: always mark dispatch idle in `agent-runner` finalization so typing cleanup runs even when dispatcher `onIdle` does not fire, preventing stuck typing indicators after run completion. (#27250) Thanks @Sid-Qin.
- Typing/TTL safety net: add max-duration guardrails to shared typing callbacks so stuck lifecycle edges auto-stop typing indicators even when explicit idle/cleanup signals are missed. (#27428) Thanks @Crpdim.
- Typing/Cross-channel leakage: unify run-scoped typing suppression for cross-channel/internal-webchat routes, preserve current inbound origin as embedded run message channel context, harden shared typing keepalive with consecutive-failure circuit breaker edge-case handling, and enforce dispatcher completion/idle waits in extension dispatcher callsites (Feishu, Matrix, Mattermost, MSTeams) so typing indicators always clean up on success/error paths. Related: #27647, #27493, #27598. Supersedes/replaces draft PRs: #27640, #27593, #27540.
- Telegram/sendChatAction 401 handling: add bounded exponential backoff + temporary local typing suppression after repeated unauthorized failures to stop unbounded `sendChatAction` retry loops that can trigger Telegram abuse enforcement and bot deletion. (#27415) Thanks @widingmarcus-cyber.
- Telegram/Webhook startup: clarify webhook config guidance, allow `channels.telegram.webhookPort: 0` for ephemeral listener binding, and log both the local listener URL and Telegram-advertised webhook URL with the bound port. (#25732) thanks @huntharo.
- Browser/Chrome extension handshake: bind relay WS message handling before `onopen` and add non-blocking `connect.challenge` response handling for gateway-style handshake frames, avoiding stuck `…` badge states when challenge frames arrive immediately on connect. Landed from contributor PR #22571 by @pandego. (#22553)
- Browser/Extension relay init: dedupe concurrent same-port relay startup with shared in-flight initialization promises so callers await one startup lifecycle and receive consistent success/failure results. Landed from contributor PR #21277 by @HOYALIM. (Related #20688)
- Browser/Fill relay + CLI parity: accept `act.fill` fields without explicit `type` by defaulting missing/empty `type` to `text` in both browser relay route parsing and `openclaw browser fill` CLI field parsing, so relay calls no longer fail when the model omits field type metadata. Landed from contributor PR #27662 by @Uface11. (#27296) Thanks @Uface11.
- Feishu/Permission error dispatch: merge sender-name permission notices into the main inbound dispatch so one user message produces one agent turn/reply (instead of a duplicate permission-notice turn), with regression coverage. (#27381) thanks @byungsker.
- Agents/Canvas default node resolution: when multiple connected canvas-capable nodes exist and no single `mac-*` candidate is selected, default to the first connected candidate instead of failing with `node required` for implicit-node canvas tool calls. Landed from contributor PR #27444 by @carbaj03. Thanks @carbaj03.
- TUI/stream assembly: preserve streamed text across real tool-boundary drops without keeping stale streamed text when non-text blocks appear only in the final payload. Landed from contributor PR #27711 by @scz2011. (#27674)
- Hooks/Internal `message:sent`: forward `sessionKey` on outbound sends from agent delivery, cron isolated delivery, gateway receipt acks, heartbeat sends, session-maintenance warnings, and restart-sentinel recovery so internal `message:sent` hooks consistently dispatch with session context, including `openclaw agent --deliver` runs resumed via `--session-id` (without explicit `--session-key`). Landed from contributor PR #27584 by @qualiobra. Thanks @qualiobra.
- Pi image-token usage: stop re-injecting history image blocks each turn, process image references from the current prompt only, and prune already-answered user-image blocks in stored history to prevent runaway token growth. (#27602)
- BlueBubbles/SSRF: auto-allowlist the configured `serverUrl` hostname for attachment fetches so localhost/private-IP BlueBubbles setups are no longer false-blocked by default SSRF checks. Landed from contributor PR #27648 by @lailoo. (#27599) Thanks @taylorhou for reporting.
- Agents/Compaction + onboarding safety: prevent destructive double-compaction by stripping stale assistant usage around compaction boundaries, skipping post-compaction custom metadata writes in the same attempt, and cancelling safeguard compaction when there are no real conversation messages to summarize; harden workspace/bootstrap detection for memory-backed workspaces; and change `openclaw onboard --reset` default scope to `config+creds+sessions` (workspace deletion now requires `--reset-scope full`). (#26458, #27314) Thanks @jaden-clovervnd, @Sid-Qin, and @widingmarcus-cyber for fix direction in #26502, #26529, and #27492.
- NO_REPLY suppression: suppress `NO_REPLY` before Slack API send and in sub-agent announce completion flow so sentinel text no longer leaks into user channels. Landed from contributor PRs #27529 (by @Sid-Qin) and #27535 (rewritten minimal landing by maintainers). (#27387, #27531)
- Matrix/Group sender identity: preserve sender labels in Matrix group inbound prompt text (`BodyForAgent`) for both channel and threaded messages, and align group envelopes with shared inbound sender-prefix formatting so first-person requests resolve against the current sender. (#27401) thanks @koushikxd.
- Auto-reply/Streaming: suppress only exact `NO_REPLY` final replies while still filtering streaming partial sentinel fragments (`NO_`, `NO_RE`, `HEARTBEAT_...`) so substantive replies ending with `NO_REPLY` are delivered and partial silent tokens do not leak during streaming. (#19576) Thanks @aldoeliacim.
- Auto-reply/Inbound metadata: add a readable `timestamp` field to conversation info and ignore invalid/out-of-range timestamp values so prompt assembly never crashes on malformed timestamp inputs. (#17017) thanks @liuy.
- Typing/Run completion race: prevent post-run keepalive ticks from re-triggering typing callbacks by guarding `triggerTyping()` with `runComplete`, with regression coverage for no-restart behavior during run-complete/dispatch-idle boundaries. (#27413) Thanks @widingmarcus-cyber.
- Typing/Dispatch idle: force typing cleanup when `markDispatchIdle` never arrives after run completion, avoiding leaked typing keepalive loops in cron/announce edges. Landed from contributor PR #27541 by @Sid-Qin. (#27493)
- Telegram/Inline buttons: allow callback-query button handling in groups (including `/models` follow-up buttons) when group policy authorizes the sender, by removing the redundant callback allowlist gate that blocked open-policy groups. (#27343) Thanks @GodsBoy.
- Telegram/Streaming preview: when finalizing without an existing preview message, prime pending preview text with final answer before stop-flush so users do not briefly see stale 1-2 word fragments (for example `no` before `no problem`). (#27449) Thanks @emanuelst for the original fix direction in #19673.
- Browser/Extension relay CORS: handle `/json*` `OPTIONS` preflight before auth checks, allow Chrome extension origins, and return extension-origin CORS headers on relay HTTP responses so extension token validation no longer fails cross-origin. Landed from contributor PR #23962 by @miloudbelarebia. (#23842)
- Browser/Extension relay auth: allow `?token=` query-param auth on relay `/json*` endpoints (consistent with relay WebSocket auth) so curl/devtools-style `/json/version` and `/json/list` probes work without requiring custom headers. Landed from contributor PR #26015 by @Sid-Qin. (#25928)
- Browser/Extension relay shutdown: flush pending extension-request timers/rejections during relay `stop()` before socket/server teardown so in-flight extension waits do not survive shutdown windows. Landed from contributor PR #24142 by @kevinWangSheng.
- Browser/Extension relay reconnect resilience: keep CDP clients alive across brief MV3 extension disconnect windows, wait briefly for extension reconnect before failing in-flight CDP commands, and only tear down relay target/client state after reconnect grace expires. Landed from contributor PR #27617 by @davidemanuelDEV.
- Browser/Route decode hardening: guard malformed percent-encoding in relay target action routes and browser route-param decoding so crafted `%` paths return `400` instead of crashing/unhandled URI decode failures. Landed from contributor PR #11880 by @Yida-Dev.
- Feishu/Inbound message metadata: include inbound `message_id` in `BodyForAgent` on a dedicated metadata line so agents can reliably correlate and act on media/message operations that require message IDs, with regression coverage. (#27253) thanks @xss925175263.
- Feishu/Doc tools: route `feishu_doc` and `feishu_app_scopes` through the active agent account context (with explicit `accountId` override support) so multi-account agents no longer default to the first configured app, with regression coverage for context routing and explicit override behavior. (#27338) thanks @AaronL725.
- LINE/Inline directives auth: gate directive parsing (`/model`, `/think`, `/verbose`, `/reasoning`, `/queue`) on resolved authorization (`command.isAuthorizedSender`) so `commands.allowFrom`-authorized LINE senders are not silently stripped when raw `CommandAuthorized` is unset. Landed from contributor PR #27248 by @kevinWangSheng. (#27240)
- Onboarding/Gateway: seed default Control UI `allowedOrigins` for non-loopback binds during onboarding (`localhost`/`127.0.0.1` plus custom bind host) so fresh non-loopback setups do not fail startup due to missing origin policy. (#26157) thanks @stakeswky.
- Docker/GCP onboarding: reduce first-build OOM risk by capping Node heap during `pnpm install`, reuse existing gateway token during `docker-setup.sh` reruns so `.env` stays aligned with config, auto-bootstrap Control UI allowed origins for non-loopback Docker binds, and add GCP docs guidance for tokenized dashboard links + pairing recovery commands. (#26253) Thanks @pandego.
- CLI/Gateway `--force` in non-root Docker: recover from `lsof` permission failures (`EACCES`/`EPERM`) by falling back to `fuser` kill + probe-based port checks, so `openclaw gateway --force` works for default container `node` user flows. (#27941)
- Gateway/Bind visibility: emit a startup warning when binding to non-loopback addresses so operators get explicit exposure guidance in runtime logs. (#25397) thanks @let5sne.
- Sessions cleanup/Doctor: add `openclaw sessions cleanup --fix-missing` to prune store entries whose transcript files are missing, including doctor guidance and CLI coverage. Landed from contributor PR #27508 by @Sid-Qin. (#27422)
- Doctor/State integrity: ignore metadata-only slash routing sessions when checking recent missing transcripts so `openclaw doctor` no longer reports false-positive transcript-missing warnings for `*:slash:*` keys. (#27375) thanks @gumadeiras.
- CLI/Gateway status: force local `gateway status` probe host to `127.0.0.1` for `bind=lan` so co-located probes do not trip non-loopback plaintext WebSocket checks. (#26997) thanks @chikko80.
- CLI/Gateway auth: align `gateway run --auth` parsing/help text with supported gateway auth modes by accepting `none` and `trusted-proxy` (in addition to `token`/`password`) for CLI overrides. (#27469) thanks @s1korrrr.
- CLI/Daemon status TLS probe: use `wss://` and forward local TLS certificate fingerprint for TLS-enabled gateway daemon probes so `openclaw daemon status` works with `gateway.bind=lan` + `gateway.tls.enabled=true`. (#24234) thanks @liuy.
- Podman/Default bind: change `run-openclaw-podman.sh` default gateway bind from `lan` to `loopback` and document explicit LAN opt-in with Control UI origin configuration. (#27491) thanks @robbyczgw-cla.
- Daemon/macOS launchd: forward proxy env vars into supervised service environments, keep LaunchAgent `KeepAlive=true` semantics, and harden restart sequencing to `print -> bootout -> wait old pid exit -> bootstrap -> kickstart`. (#27276) thanks @frankekn.
- Gateway/macOS restart-loop hardening: detect OpenClaw-managed supervisor markers during SIGUSR1 restart handoff, clean stale gateway PIDs before `/restart` launchctl/systemctl triggers, and set LaunchAgent `ThrottleInterval=60` to bound launchd retry storms during lock-release races. Landed from contributor PRs #27655 (@taw0002), #27448 (@Sid-Qin), and #27650 (@kevinWangSheng). (#27605, #27590, #26904, #26736)
- Models/MiniMax auth header defaults: set `authHeader: true` for both onboarding-generated MiniMax API providers and implicit built-in MiniMax (`minimax`, `minimax-portal`) provider templates so first requests no longer fail with MiniMax `401 authentication_error` due to missing `Authorization` header. Landed from contributor PRs #27622 by @riccoyuanft and #27631 by @kevinWangSheng. (#27600, #15303)
- Auth/Auth profiles: normalize `auth-profiles.json` alias fields (`mode -> type`, `apiKey -> key`) before credential validation so entries copied from `openclaw.json` auth examples are no longer silently dropped. (#26950) thanks @byungsker.
- Models/Profile suffix parsing: centralize trailing `@profile` parsing and only treat `@` as a profile separator when it appears after the final `/`, preserving model IDs like `openai/@cf/...` and `openrouter/@preset/...` across `/model` directive parsing and allowlist model resolution, with regression coverage.
- Models/OpenAI Codex config schema parity: accept `openai-codex-responses` in the config model API schema and TypeScript `ModelApi` union, with regression coverage for config validation. Landed from contributor PR #27501 by @AytuncYildizli. Thanks @AytuncYildizli.
- Agents/Models config: preserve agent-level provider `apiKey` and `baseUrl` during merge-mode `models.json` updates when agent values are present. (#27293) thanks @Sid-Qin.
- Azure OpenAI Responses: force `store=true` for `azure-openai-responses` direct responses API calls to avoid multi-turn 400 failures. Landed from contributor PR #27499 by @polarbear-Yang. (#27497)
- Security/Node exec approvals: require structured `commandArgv` approvals for `host=node`, enforce versioned `systemRunBindingV1` matching for argv/cwd/session/agent/env context with fail-closed behavior on missing/mismatched bindings, and add `GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF` to blocked host env keys. This ships in the next npm release (`2026.2.26`). Thanks @tdjackey for reporting.
- Security/Plugin channel HTTP auth: normalize protected `/api/channels` path checks against canonicalized request paths (case + percent-decoding + slash normalization), resolve encoded dot-segment traversal variants, and fail closed on malformed `%`-encoded channel prefixes so alternate-path variants cannot bypass gateway auth. This ships in the next npm release (`2026.2.26`). Thanks @zpbrent for reporting.
- Security/Gateway node pairing: pin paired-device `platform`/`deviceFamily` metadata across reconnects and bind those fields into device-auth signatures, so reconnect metadata spoofing cannot expand node command allowlists without explicit repair pairing. This ships in the next npm release (`2026.2.26`). Thanks @76embiid21 for reporting.
- Security/Sandbox path alias guard: reject broken symlink targets by resolving through existing ancestors and failing closed on out-of-root targets, preventing workspace-only `apply_patch` writes from escaping sandbox/workspace boundaries via dangling symlinks. This ships in the next npm release (`2026.2.26`). Thanks @tdjackey for reporting.
- Security/Workspace FS boundary aliases: harden canonical boundary resolution for non-existent-leaf symlink aliases while preserving valid in-root aliases, preventing first-write workspace escapes via out-of-root symlink targets. This ships in the next npm release (`2026.2.26`). Thanks @tdjackey for reporting.
- Security/Config includes: harden `$include` file loading with verified-open reads, reject hardlinked include aliases, and enforce include file-size guardrails so config include resolution remains bounded to trusted in-root files. This ships in the next npm release (`2026.2.26`). Thanks @zpbrent for reporting.
- Security/Node exec approvals hardening: freeze immutable approval-time execution plans (`argv`/`cwd`/`agentId`/`sessionKey`) via `system.run.prepare`, enforce those canonical plan values during approval forwarding/execution, and reject mutable parent-symlink cwd paths during approval-plan building to prevent approval bypass via symlink rebind. This ships in the next npm release (`2026.2.26`). Thanks @tdjackey for reporting.
- Security/Microsoft Teams media fetch: route Graph message/hosted-content/attachment fetches and auth-scope fallback attachment downloads through shared SSRF-guarded fetch paths, and centralize hostname-suffix allowlist policy helpers in the plugin SDK to remove channel/plugin drift. This ships in the next npm release (`2026.2.26`). Thanks @tdjackey for reporting.
- Security/Voice Call (Twilio): bind webhook replay + manager dedupe identity to authenticated request material, remove unsigned `i-twilio-idempotency-token` trust from replay/dedupe keys, and thread verified request identity through provider parse flow to harden cross-provider event dedupe. This ships in the next npm release (`2026.2.26`). Thanks @tdjackey for reporting.
- Security/Exec approvals forwarding: prefer turn-source channel/account/thread metadata when resolving approval delivery targets so stale session routes do not misroute approval prompts.
- Security/Pairing multi-account isolation: enforce account-scoped pairing allowlists and pending-request storage across core + extension message channels while preserving channel-scoped defaults for the default account. This ships in the next npm release (`2026.2.26`). Thanks @tdjackey for reporting and @gumadeiras for implementation.
- Config/Plugins entries: treat unknown `plugins.entries.*` ids as startup warnings (ignored stale keys) instead of hard validation failures that can crash-loop gateway boot. Landed from contributor PR #27506 by @Sid-Qin. (#27455)
- Telegram native commands: degrade command registration on `BOT_COMMANDS_TOO_MUCH` by retrying with fewer commands instead of crash-looping startup sync. Landed from contributor PR #27512 by @Sid-Qin. (#27456)
- Web tools/Proxy: route `web_search` provider HTTP calls (Brave, Perplexity, xAI, Gemini, Kimi), redirect resolution, and `web_fetch` through a shared proxy-aware SSRF guard path so gateway installs behind `HTTP_PROXY`/`HTTPS_PROXY`/`ALL_PROXY` no longer fail with transport `fetch failed` errors. (#27430) thanks @kevinWangSheng.
- Android/Node invoke: remove native gateway WebSocket `Origin` header to avoid false origin rejections, unify invoke command registry/policy/error parsing paths, and keep command availability checks centralized to reduce dispatcher/advertisement drift. (#27257) Thanks @obviyus.
- Gateway shared-auth scopes: preserve requested operator scopes for shared-token clients when device identity is unavailable, instead of clearing scopes during auth handling. Landed from contributor PR #27498 by @kevinWangSheng. (#27494)
- Cron/Hooks isolated routing: preserve canonical `agent:*` session keys in isolated runs so already-qualified keys are not double-prefixed (for example `agent:main:main` no longer becomes `agent:main:agent:main:main`). Landed from contributor PR #27333 by @MaheshBhushan. (#27289, #27282)
- Channels/Multi-account config: when adding a non-default channel account to a single-account top-level channel setup, move existing account-scoped top-level single-account values into `channels.<channel>.accounts.default` before writing the new account so the original account keeps working without duplicated account values at channel root; `openclaw doctor --fix` now repairs previously mixed channel account shapes the same way. (#27334) thanks @gumadeiras.
- iOS/Talk mode: stop injecting the voice directive hint into iOS Talk prompts and remove the Voice Directive Hint setting, reducing model bias toward tool-style TTS directives and keeping relay responses text-first by default. (#27543) thanks @ngutman.
- CI/Windows: shard the Windows `checks-windows` test lane into two matrix jobs and honor explicit shard index overrides in `scripts/test-parallel.mjs` to reduce CI critical-path wall time. (#27234) Thanks @joshavant.