OpenClaw Changelog: Every Version and Release Note [2026]

How to Use This Changelog

This page is a living document. Every time OpenClaw releases a new version, we update this changelog with the key features, breaking changes, known issues, and upgrade instructions. Bookmark this page and check back before any upgrade.

Each version entry includes:

• Release date — When the version was published
• Key features — What is new or improved
• Breaking changes — What will break if you upgrade without making configuration changes
• Bug fixes — Notable fixes included in the release
• Upgrade notes — Step-by-step instructions for upgrading from the previous version

Versions are listed newest first. If you are upgrading across multiple versions (for example, from 3.10 to 3.23), read every entry between your current version and your target version. Breaking changes accumulate — you need to apply all of them, not just the latest.

For operators who do not want to deal with version management at all, Remote OpenClaw managed hosting handles this automatically. We test every release against our deployment configurations before rolling it out to managed clients. You never need to read a changelog or worry about breaking changes.

Version 3.23 — March 23, 2026

Release type: Feature release
Risk level: Low — no breaking changes

Key features:

• Qwen API provider support: Native integration with Alibaba's Qwen models. Configure with QWEN_API_KEY environment variable. Supports Qwen-Max, Qwen-Plus, and Qwen-Turbo model variants. This is significant for operators in Asia or those wanting a cost-effective alternative to Western model providers.
• CSP security improvements: Content Security Policy headers now use proper inline script hashing instead of unsafe-inline. This closes a potential XSS vector in the web management UI. All inline scripts are now cryptographically hashed and whitelisted.
• Improved error handling for model failover: When the primary model provider returns an error, the failover to secondary models is now faster and more reliable. Previously, some edge cases could cause a 30-second timeout before failover triggered.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed memory leak in long-running WhatsApp sessions that could cause gradual RAM increase over 72+ hours
• Fixed Telegram media download failures for files larger than 20MB
• Fixed Docker health check endpoint returning 200 even when the agent was in an error state

Upgrade notes:

This is a straightforward upgrade with no breaking changes. Pull the latest Docker image or update via npm. If you use a reverse proxy with custom CSP headers, update them to match the new hashing approach — check the updated docker-compose.yml example in the repository.

Version 3.22 — March 23, 2026

Release type: Major feature release
Risk level: High — contains breaking changes

This is the biggest OpenClaw release of 2026 so far. It introduces three major features and several breaking changes that require configuration updates before upgrading.

Key features:

• ClawHub integration: Browse and install community skills directly from the command line. Run openclaw hub search "email automation" to find skills, and openclaw hub install skill-name to add them to your agent. No more manually downloading SKILL.md files. The ClawHub marketplace now has over 13,000 community-built skills.
• Matrix messaging support: Full integration with the Matrix protocol, including end-to-end encrypted rooms. This is a major addition for privacy-focused operators and organizations that use Element or other Matrix clients. Configure with the new MATRIX_HOMESERVER, MATRIX_USER_ID, and MATRIX_ACCESS_TOKEN environment variables.
• SSH-based sandbox backends: Code execution sandboxing can now use SSH connections to remote machines instead of local Docker containers. This allows operators to run untrusted code on isolated VMs or dedicated sandbox servers, improving security for production deployments.
• Status Reactions for Feishu/Lark: Added support for message status reactions in the Feishu (Lark) integration (GitHub issue #53887). Your agent can now react to messages with status indicators, improving visibility in enterprise Feishu workflows.
• Improved skill validation: The skill loading system now validates SKILL.md files more strictly, catching common formatting errors before they cause runtime failures.

Breaking changes:

• Environment variable rename: OC_MODEL is now OPENCLAW_MODEL. The old name still works but logs a deprecation warning. It will be removed in version 4.0.
• Configuration format change: The integrations section of config.json now uses a nested structure. Old flat-format configs will not load. Run openclaw migrate-config to automatically convert your configuration.
• Node.js minimum version: Now requires Node.js 20.11 or later. Node.js 18 is no longer supported.
• Docker base image change: The official Docker image now uses Alpine instead of Debian slim. If you have custom Dockerfile extensions that install Debian packages, you will need to switch to Alpine package equivalents.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed race condition in multi-model routing that could send the same message to two models simultaneously
• Fixed memory persistence failure when conversation history exceeded 100,000 tokens
• Fixed web UI session timeout not refreshing properly, causing false logouts

Upgrade notes:

1. Back up your config.json and .env files before upgrading
2. Run openclaw migrate-config after updating to convert your configuration to the new format
3. Update OC_MODEL to OPENCLAW_MODEL in your environment variables
4. Ensure your server has Node.js 20.11+ if not using Docker
5. If using a custom Dockerfile, update package installation commands for Alpine
6. Test in a staging environment before upgrading production

Version 3.13 — March 14, 2026

Release type: Recovery/stability release
Risk level: Low — no breaking changes, strongly recommended update

Version 3.13 was a focused stability release addressing critical issues discovered after the 3.12 release. If you are on 3.12, upgrading to 3.13 is strongly recommended.

Key fixes:

• Critical: Fixed database corruption on unexpected shutdown. A bug in 3.12 could cause the SQLite conversation database to become corrupted if the process was killed during a write operation. This manifested as "database disk image is malformed" errors on restart.
• Fixed WhatsApp QR code re-authentication loop. Some users reported needing to re-scan the WhatsApp QR code every 24-48 hours. This was caused by a session token refresh timing issue.
• Fixed Telegram webhook registration failure. When running behind certain reverse proxies (Caddy with specific TLS configurations), the Telegram webhook registration would silently fail. The agent appeared connected but never received messages.
• Fixed memory consumption spike during skill installation. Installing skills with large dependency trees could temporarily spike RAM usage by 500MB+, causing out-of-memory crashes on 2GB VPS instances.

Upgrade notes:

Straightforward upgrade. Pull the latest image and restart. If you experienced database corruption on 3.12, version 3.13 includes an automatic repair routine that runs on first startup.

Version 3.12 — March 8, 2026

Release type: Feature release
Risk level: Medium — one breaking change

Key features:

• Scheduled task improvements: Cron-style scheduling now supports timezone-aware expressions. Previously, all scheduled tasks used UTC. You can now set OPENCLAW_TIMEZONE to your local timezone and write schedules in local time.
• Conversation export: New openclaw export command lets you export conversation history as JSON, CSV, or Markdown. Useful for compliance, backup, and analysis.
• Improved Slack thread handling: The Slack integration now properly tracks and responds within threads instead of posting to the channel root. Thread context is maintained across multiple exchanges.

Breaking changes:

• Skill file format version bump: SKILL.md files now require a version: 2 header. Skills without this header will log a warning and may not load in future versions. Run openclaw skills migrate to update your local skills.

Upgrade notes:

Update your skills after upgrading using openclaw skills migrate. Note: version 3.12 has a known database corruption issue that was fixed in 3.13. We recommend upgrading directly to 3.13 or later.

Version 3.11 — February 28, 2026

Release type: Feature release
Risk level: Low — no breaking changes

Key features:

• Multi-model cost tracking: The web UI now displays per-model cost breakdowns. See exactly how much each model is costing you per day, per week, and per month. Helps operators optimize their model routing rules for cost efficiency.
• Discord slash commands: OpenClaw agents can now register and respond to Discord slash commands, not just message content. This provides a cleaner interaction model in Discord servers.
• Improved Docker health checks: The health check endpoint now reports detailed status including model connectivity, messaging channel status, and memory system health.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed email SMTP authentication failure with Office 365 accounts using modern authentication
• Fixed web UI not loading on Safari 17 due to unsupported CSS feature
• Fixed skill hot-reload not detecting changes to nested include files

Version 3.10 — February 20, 2026

Release type: Major feature release
Risk level: Medium — one breaking change

Key features:

• Ollama integration improvements: Native support for Ollama's latest API changes, including model pulling from within OpenClaw. Run openclaw ollama pull llama3 to download models directly.
• Web UI redesign: The management dashboard received a significant visual refresh with improved navigation, real-time conversation monitoring, and a new dark mode.
• Webhook middleware: Custom webhook endpoints can now include middleware functions for authentication, rate limiting, and request transformation. This makes it easier to integrate OpenClaw with external services that require specific authentication headers.

Breaking changes:

• Ollama configuration change: The OLLAMA_HOST variable now expects a full URL (e.g., http://localhost:11434) instead of just a hostname. Update your environment variables if you use local models.

Version 3.9 — February 10, 2026

Release type: Feature release
Risk level: Low — no breaking changes

Key features:

• Google Calendar two-way sync: The calendar integration now supports two-way synchronization. Changes made in Google Calendar are reflected in OpenClaw and vice versa. Previously, OpenClaw could only read calendar events.
• Notion database integration: Read and write to Notion databases directly. Your agent can query Notion databases, create new entries, and update existing records.
• Improved conversation memory: The vector-based memory system now uses a more efficient embedding model, reducing memory usage by 40% while improving retrieval accuracy.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed WhatsApp group message handling incorrectly attributing messages to the group instead of the sender
• Fixed scheduled tasks running twice during daylight saving time transitions
• Fixed API rate limiting not properly tracking per-model limits

Earlier Versions

OpenClaw versions before 3.9 were released during the transition period from ClawdBot to OpenClaw. The rebranding happened in early 2026, and versions 3.0 through 3.8 focused primarily on stabilizing the new codebase, renaming internal references, and migrating the plugin ecosystem from the ClawdBot format to the new SKILL.md standard.

If you are still running a version earlier than 3.9, we strongly recommend upgrading. Versions before 3.9 have known security vulnerabilities that have been patched in later releases. The upgrade path from 3.0+ to the latest version is documented in the Complete Guide to OpenClaw.

For historical reference, the original MoltBot project (before the ClawdBot fork and subsequent OpenClaw rebrand) maintained its own changelog on GitHub. Those versions are not covered here as they represent a different codebase.

How to Update OpenClaw

Docker (recommended):

# Pull the latest image
docker pull openclawai/openclaw:latest

# Or pin a specific version
docker pull openclawai/openclaw:3.23

# Restart your container
docker compose down && docker compose up -d

npm:

# Update to latest
npm update -g openclaw

# Or install a specific version
npm install -g openclaw@3.23

Before any upgrade:

1. Read the changelog entries for every version between your current version and the target version
2. Back up your configuration files (config.json, .env, skill files)
3. Back up your conversation database
4. Test the upgrade in a staging environment if possible
5. Apply any breaking changes noted in the changelog
6. Monitor logs after the upgrade for deprecation warnings or errors

Staying Current Without the Hassle

Keeping up with OpenClaw releases is important for security and stability, but it can be time-consuming. Every major release requires reading changelogs, checking for breaking changes, testing the upgrade, and potentially updating your configuration.

This is one of the core benefits of Remote OpenClaw managed hosting. When you are a managed client, we handle all of this for you. Every new release goes through our testing pipeline before we deploy it to managed instances. If a release has breaking changes, we update your configuration as part of the deployment. If a release introduces bugs (like the database corruption issue in 3.12), we catch it in testing and wait for the fix before deploying.

You get the latest features and security patches without lifting a finger. No changelogs to read, no configurations to update, no risk of a botched upgrade taking your agent offline.