docs(release): polish 2026.5.3 changelog

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -7,6 +7,11 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 ### Highlights
 
 - Plugins/file-transfer: add bundled file-transfer plugin with `file_fetch`, `dir_list`, `dir_fetch`, and `file_write` agent tools for binary file ops on paired nodes; default-deny per-node path policy under `plugins.entries.file-transfer.config.nodes` with operator approval, symlink traversal refused by default (opt-in `followSymlinks`), and a 16 MB byte ceiling per round-trip. (#74742) Thanks @omarshahine.
+- Plugins/install: harden official plugin install, uninstall, update, onboarding, ClawHub fallback, npm dependency-state reporting, and beta-channel update paths so externalized plugins behave like first-class package installs.
+- Gateway/performance: trim startup and Control UI hot paths by lazy-loading plugin/runtime discovery, cron, schema, shutdown, sessions, and model metadata work only when needed.
+- Channels/replies: improve Discord status reactions and degraded transport reporting, add WhatsApp Channel/Newsletter targets, and tighten Telegram, Feishu, Matrix, Microsoft Teams, and Slack delivery/recovery behavior.
+- Install/update: recover broken macOS LaunchAgent upgrades, reject source-only plugin packages before runtime load, and repair stale Gateway/plugin state during updates and doctor runs.
+- Agent/runtime reliability: preserve streamed provider replies, delayed A2A session replies, prompt/tool delivery, memory recall, web search provider discovery, and provider-specific thinking/model metadata across common edge cases.
 
 ### Changes
 
@@ -20,16 +25,18 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Gateway/performance: lazy-load early runtime discovery and shutdown-hook helpers, defer maintenance timers until after readiness, and trim duplicate plugin auto-enable work during Gateway startup.
 - QA/Mantis: add a `pnpm openclaw qa mantis discord-smoke` runner and manual GitHub workflow that verify the Mantis Discord bot can see the configured guild/channel, post a smoke message, add a reaction, and upload artifacts.
 - QA/Slack: add a Slack live transport QA runner with canary and mention-gating coverage for the private bot-to-bot harness. Thanks @vincentkoc.
-- Gateway/performance: lazy-load the heavy cron runtime after the rest of Gateway startup, defer restart-sentinel refresh after readiness, and let the Gateway startup benchmark write per-run V8 CPU profiles with `--cpu-prof-dir`.
-- Gateway/performance: keep raw channel-config schema parsing from discovering bundled plugin runtime metadata, and add `pnpm gateway:watch --benchmark-no-force` for profiling startup without the default port cleanup.
 - Plugins/onboarding: let Manual setup install optional official plugins, including ClawHub-backed diagnostics with npm fallback, and expose the external Codex plugin as a selectable provider setup choice. Thanks @vincentkoc.
-- Plugins/CLI: include package dependency install state in `openclaw plugins list --json` so scripts can spot missing plugin dependencies without runtime-loading plugins.
-- Discord/status: add degraded Discord transport and gateway event-loop starvation signals to `openclaw channels status`, `openclaw status --deep`, and fetch-timeout logs so intermittent socket resets do not look like a healthy running channel. (#76327) Thanks @joshavant.
-- Plugins/update: on the beta OpenClaw update channel, default-line npm and ClawHub plugin updates try `@beta` first and fall back to default/latest when no plugin beta release exists.
+- Plugins/CLI/update: include package dependency install state in `openclaw plugins list --json`, try plugin `@beta` updates first on the beta OpenClaw channel, and fall back to default/latest when no plugin beta release exists.
+- Plugins/ClawHub: annotate 429 errors with reset windows and unauthenticated higher-rate-limit hints, so operators can tell when downloads recover and when signing in helps. Thanks @romneyda.
+- Gateway/performance: lazy-load early runtime discovery, shutdown hooks, cron, channel-config schema metadata, restart sentinels, and maintenance timers after readiness; trim duplicate plugin auto-enable work and add startup CPU/profile controls.
+- Gateway/config: stop Gateway startup and hot reload from auto-restoring invalid config; invalid config now fails closed and `openclaw doctor --fix` owns last-known-good repair.
+- Discord/status: let explicit reaction tool calls opt into tracking later tool progress with `trackToolCalls: true`, share tool display emoji mapping, and surface degraded Discord transport or gateway event-loop starvation in status output. (#76327) Thanks @joshavant.
 - Channels/WhatsApp: support explicit WhatsApp Channel/Newsletter `@newsletter` outbound message targets with channel session metadata instead of DM routing. Fixes #13417; carries forward the narrow outbound target idea from #13424. Thanks @vincentkoc and @agentz-manfred.
-- Exec approvals: add a tree-sitter-backed shell command explainer for future approval and command-review surfaces. (#75004) Thanks @jesse-merhi.
+- Agents/tools: skip optional media and PDF tool factories when the effective tool denylist already blocks them, avoiding unnecessary hot-path setup for tools that will be filtered out before model use. (#76773) Thanks @dorukardahan.
 - Agents/sandbox: store sandbox container and browser registry entries as per-runtime shard files, reducing unrelated session lock contention while `openclaw doctor --fix` migrates legacy monolithic registry files. (#74831) Thanks @luckylhb90.
-- Plugins/ClawHub: annotate 429 errors from ClawHub with the reset window from `RateLimit-Reset`/`Retry-After` and append a `Sign in for higher rate limits.` hint when the request was unauthenticated, so users can see when downloads will recover and how to lift the cap. Thanks @romneyda.
+- Tools/BTW: add `/side` as a text and native slash-command alias for `/btw` side questions.
+- Exec approvals: add a tree-sitter-backed shell command explainer for future approval and command-review surfaces. (#75004) Thanks @jesse-merhi.
+- QA/Mantis: add a `pnpm openclaw qa mantis discord-smoke` runner and manual GitHub workflow that verify the Mantis Discord bot can see the configured guild/channel, post a smoke message, add a reaction, and upload artifacts.
 
 ### Fixes
 
@@ -147,8 +154,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - CLI/onboarding: mask credential inputs (model-auth provider API keys, gateway tokens and passwords, web-search provider keys, and skill env-var values) in the interactive `openclaw onboard` wizard so pasted secrets no longer echo into terminal scrollback, `Start-Transcript` logs, or screenshots; existing tokens/passwords are preserved through a masked-preview confirm step before the sensitive prompt. Thanks @anurag-bg-neu.
 - Control UI/Talk: fix Talk (OpenAI Realtime WebRTC) CORS failure by stripping server-side-only attribution headers (`originator`, `version`, `User-Agent`) from browser offer headers; `api.openai.com/v1/realtime/calls` only allows `authorization` and `content-type` in its CORS preflight, so forwarding these headers caused the browser SDP exchange to fail. Fixes #76435. Thanks @hclsys.
 - Chat delivery: make `/verbose on|full|off` changes affect subsequent tool-use chat bubbles again, including channels with draft preview tool progress enabled, while preserving one-shot verbose directives.
-- CLI/logs: auto-reconnect `openclaw logs --follow` on transient gateway disconnects (WebSocket close, timeout, connection drop) with bounded exponential backoff (up to 8 retries, capped at 30 s) and stderr retry warnings, while still exiting immediately on non-recoverable auth or configuration errors. Fixes #74782. (#75059) Thanks @shashank-poola.
-- CLI/logs: announce `--follow` recovery with a `[logs] gateway reconnected` notice once a poll succeeds after a transient outage, and emit JSON `notice` records in `--json` mode for both the retry warning and the reconnect transition, so live monitoring scripts can react to the recovery. Carries forward #75059. (#75372) Thanks @romneyda.
+- CLI/logs: auto-reconnect `openclaw logs --follow` on transient gateway disconnects with bounded backoff, stderr retry warnings, `[logs] gateway reconnected` recovery notices, and JSON `notice` records while still exiting immediately on non-recoverable auth or configuration errors. Fixes #74782. (#75059, #75372) Thanks @shashank-poola and @romneyda.
 - Codex/WhatsApp: keep the `message` dynamic tool available when Codex source replies are configured for message-tool delivery, so coding-profile chat agents do not complete turns privately without a visible channel reply. Fixes #76660. (#76663) Thanks @VishalJ99.
 - Codex/heartbeat: send heartbeat-specific initiative guidance through Codex turn-scoped collaboration-mode instructions, keeping ordinary message-tool chat turns in Default mode without heartbeat prompt leakage. Thanks @pashpashpash.
 - Plugins/onboarding: trust optional official plugin and web-search installs selected from the official catalog so npm security scanning treats them like other source-linked official install paths. Thanks @vincentkoc.
@@ -168,10 +174,8 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - TUI/Control UI: fix `/think` command showing only base thinking levels when the active session uses a different model from the default, so provider-specific levels like DeepSeek V4 Pro's `xhigh` and `max` are now visible and selectable. Fixes #76482. Thanks @amknight.
 - CLI/sessions: keep intentional empty agent replies silent after tool-delivered channel output, instead of surfacing a misleading "No reply from agent." fallback. Thanks @vincentkoc.
 - Config/doctor: cap `.clobbered.*` forensic snapshots per config path and serialize snapshot writes so repeated `doctor --fix` recovery loops cannot flood the config directory. Fixes #76454; carries forward #65649. Thanks @JUSTICEESSIELP, @rsnow, and @vincentkoc.
-- Feishu: suppress duplicate text when replies send native voice media while preserving captions for ordinary audio files and falling back to text plus attachment links when voice uploads fail.
-- Feishu: send the skipped reply text when `audioAsVoice` falls back to a generic file attachment after transcode failure, so voice-intent replies do not lose their caption.
-- TTS/plugins: activate the configured speech provider plugin during Gateway startup, so Microsoft and Local CLI voice replies work immediately after selecting them instead of staying invisible in the startup plugin set. Fixes #76481. Thanks @amknight.
-- TTS/plugins: include speech providers selected through inherited agent, channel, and account TTS personas during Gateway startup, matching the runtime TTS config merge. Carries forward #76481. Thanks @amknight.
+- Feishu: suppress duplicate text when replies send native voice media, preserve captions for ordinary audio files, and send fallback text plus attachment links when `audioAsVoice` transcode/upload fallback produces a generic file.
+- TTS/plugins: activate configured and inherited speech provider plugins during Gateway startup, so Microsoft and Local CLI voice replies work immediately after persona selection instead of staying invisible in the startup plugin set. Fixes #76481. Thanks @amknight.
 - Feishu: keep packaged Feishu startup from bundling the Lark SDK's ESM `__dirname` path by loading the SDK as a plugin-local runtime dependency. Fixes #76291 and #76494. (#76392) Thanks @zqchris.
 - Plugins/npm: build package-local runtime dist files for publishable plugins and stop listing root-package-excluded plugin sidecars in the core package metadata, so npm plugin installs such as `@openclaw/diffs` and `@openclaw/discord` no longer publish source-only runtime payloads. Fixes #76426. Thanks @PrinceOfEgypt.
 - Channels/secrets: resolve SecretRef-backed channel credentials through external plugin secret contracts after the plugin split, covering runtime startup, target discovery, webhook auth, disabled-account enumeration, and late-bound web_search config. Fixes #76371. (#76449) Thanks @joshavant and @neeravmakwana.
@@ -185,22 +189,17 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Plugins/install: resolve bare official external plugin IDs such as `brave` through the official catalog when no bundled source is available, so packaged installs fetch the intended scoped npm package instead of an unrelated unscoped package. Fixes #76373. Thanks @bek91 and @vincentkoc.
 - Plugins/install: require OpenClaw-owned install provenance before granting official npm plugin scanner trust, so direct npm package names no longer bypass launch-code scanning while catalog, onboarding, and doctor installs stay trusted. Thanks @fede-kamel and @vincentkoc.
 - Network proxy: preserve target TLS hostname validation for Node HTTPS requests routed through the managed HTTP proxy, so Discord-style CONNECT traffic no longer validates certificates against the local proxy host. Fixes #74809. (#76442) Thanks @jesse-merhi and @abnershang.
-- Gateway/sessions: keep async `sessions.list` title and preview hydration bounded to transcript head/tail reads so Control UI polling cannot full-scan large session transcripts every refresh. Thanks @vincentkoc.
-- Gateway/sessions: cache manifest model-id normalization and bundled setup CLI fallback metadata against the active plugin metadata snapshot, so Control UI `sessions.list` polling avoids repeated plugin manifest scans while still refreshing after plugin reloads. Thanks @rolandrscheel.
+- Gateway/sessions: keep `sessions.list` rows lightweight by bounding title/preview hydration to transcript head/tail reads and caching manifest model-id normalization plus setup fallback metadata against the active plugin snapshot. Thanks @vincentkoc and @rolandrscheel.
 - Gateway/performance: cache per-run verbose-level session reads, skip a redundant `lsof` scan in `gateway --force` when no listener was killed, and make the Gateway startup benchmark print usage for `--help`.
-- Gateway/sessions: keep agent runtime metadata on lightweight `sessions.list` rows so model-only session patches do not make Control UI lose runtime identity. Thanks @vincentkoc.
-- Gateway/sessions: keep bulk `sessions.list` rows lightweight by skipping per-row transcript usage fallback, display model inference, and plugin projection, avoiding event-loop stalls in large session stores. Thanks @Marvinthebored and @vincentkoc.
-- Gateway/models: keep read-only `models.list` fallbacks on persisted/current metadata and configured rows while using static auth checks, so missing `models.json` files no longer runtime-load provider discovery or stall gateway after restart. Fixes #76382; refs #76360 and #75707. Thanks @trojy13, @RayWoo, @AnathemaOfficial, and @vincentkoc.
-- Gateway/models: keep agent image attachment capability checks on the full catalog while preserving the read-only `models.list` path, so image sends are not rejected after static catalog fallback.
+- Gateway/sessions: keep agent runtime metadata on lightweight `sessions.list` rows and skip per-row transcript usage fallback, display model inference, and plugin projection, avoiding identity loss and event-loop stalls in large session stores. Thanks @Marvinthebored and @vincentkoc.
+- Gateway/models: keep read-only `models.list` fallbacks on persisted/current metadata, configured rows, registry-compatible fallbacks, and static auth checks while preserving full-catalog image attachment capability checks. Fixes #76382; refs #76360 and #75707. Thanks @trojy13, @RayWoo, @AnathemaOfficial, @Marvinthebored, and @vincentkoc.
 - CLI/plugins: reject missing plugin ids before config writes in `plugins enable` and `plugins disable` so a typo no longer persists a stale config entry. (#73554) Thanks @ai-hpc.
 - Agents/sessions: preserve delivered trailing assistant replies during session-file repair so Telegram/WebChat history is not rewritten to drop already-delivered responses. Fixes #76329. Thanks @obviyus.
 - Gateway/chat history: preserve oversized transcript turns as explicit omitted-message placeholders while avoiding large JSONL parse stalls. Thanks @Marvinthebored and @vincentkoc.
-- Gateway/models: keep read-only model-list responses on registry-compatible fallbacks and metadata defaults, so empty or minimal persisted model files do not hide built-ins or custom model capabilities. Thanks @Marvinthebored.
 - CLI/doctor: load the configured memory-slot plugin when resolving memory diagnostics so bundled `memory-core` no longer triggers a false “no active memory plugin” warning on standalone `doctor` / `status` runs. Fixes #76367. Thanks @neeravmakwana.
 - Gateway: preserve stack diagnostics when `chat.send` or agent attachment parsing/staging fails, improving image-send failure triage. Refs #63432. (#75135) Thanks @keen0206.
 - Agents/idle-timeout: add a cost-runaway breaker to the outer embedded-run retry loop that halts further attempts after 5 consecutive idle timeouts without completed model progress, so a wedged provider can no longer fan paid model calls out across the same run; completed text or tool-call progress resets the breaker, but partial tool-argument token dribbles do not. Fixes #76293. Thanks @ThePuma312.
-- Heartbeats/Codex: stop sending the legacy `HEARTBEAT_OK` prompt instruction when heartbeat turns have the structured `heartbeat_respond` tool, while keeping the text sentinel for legacy automatic heartbeat replies. Thanks @pashpashpash.
-- Heartbeats/Codex: keep structured heartbeat prompts aligned with actual `heartbeat_respond` tool availability and keep tool-disabled commitment check-ins on the legacy ack path. Thanks @pashpashpash and @vincentkoc.
+- Heartbeats/Codex: align structured heartbeat prompts with actual `heartbeat_respond` tool availability, stop sending legacy `HEARTBEAT_OK` when the tool exists, and keep tool-disabled commitment check-ins on the legacy ack path. Thanks @pashpashpash and @vincentkoc.
 - Agent runtimes: fail explicit plugin runtime selections honestly when the requested harness is unavailable instead of silently falling back to the embedded PI runtime. Thanks @pashpashpash.
 - Maintainer workflow: push prepared PR heads through GitHub's verified commit API by default and require an explicit override before git-protocol pushes can publish unsigned commits. Thanks @BunsDev.
 - Feishu: resolve setup/status probes through the selected/default account so multi-account configs with account-scoped app credentials show as configured and probeable. Fixes #72930. Thanks @brokemac79.
@@ -215,8 +214,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Cron: preserve manual `cron.run` IDs in `cron.runs` history so manual run acknowledgements can be correlated with finished run records. Fixes #76276.
 - CLI/devices: request `operator.admin` for `openclaw devices approve <requestId>` only when the exact pending device request would mint or inherit admin-scoped operator access, while keeping lower-scope approvals on the pairing scope.
 - Memory/embedding: broaden the embedding reindex retry classifier to include transient socket-layer errors (`fetch failed`, `ECONNRESET`, `socket hang up`, `UND_ERR_*`, `closed`) so memory reindex survives provider network hiccups instead of aborting mid-run. Related #56815, #44166. (#76311) Thanks @buyitsydney.
-- Memory/sessions: keep rotated and deleted session transcripts (`.jsonl.reset.<iso>` / `.jsonl.deleted.<iso>`) searchable end-to-end by indexing their real content in `buildSessionEntry` instead of short-circuiting to empty entries, and by mapping archive hit paths back to their live transcript stem during `memory_search` visibility filtering so hits are no longer dropped at the guard. `.jsonl.bak.<iso>` backups and compaction checkpoints remain opaque. Refs #56131. Thanks @buyitsydney.
-- Memory/sessions: emit a `sessionTranscriptUpdate` event when `archiveFileOnDisk` rotates a live session transcript into `.jsonl.reset.<iso>` / `.jsonl.deleted.<iso>` / `.jsonl.bak.<iso>`, and bypass the delta-bytes / delta-messages threshold gate in `processSessionDeltaBatch` for usage-counted archive paths (`.jsonl.reset.<iso>` and `.jsonl.deleted.<iso>`). Without the bypass the archive event was forwarded to the listener but dropped at the threshold check, because an archive is a one-shot file-rename mutation rather than an incremental append and would typically land below the default `deltaBytes: 100000` / `deltaMessages: 50` reindex thresholds. Archives now feed the memory sync incremental path the same way `appendMessage` / compaction / tool-result rewrite / chat inject / command execution events already do. Refs #56131. Thanks @buyitsydney.
+- Memory/sessions: keep rotated and deleted transcripts (`.jsonl.reset.<iso>` / `.jsonl.deleted.<iso>`) searchable by indexing archive content, mapping archive hits back to live transcript stems, emitting transcript update events on archive rotation, and bypassing incremental delta thresholds for one-shot archive mutations while keeping backups and compaction checkpoints opaque. Refs #56131. Thanks @buyitsydney.
 - Memory/search: keep sqlite-vec optional in packaged installs and point missing-extension recovery at the valid `agents.defaults.memorySearch.store.vector.extensionPath` setting. Thanks @willemsej and @vincentkoc.
 - Gateway: keep directly requested plugin tools invokable under restrictive tool profiles while preserving explicit deny lists and the HTTP safety deny list, preventing catalog/invoke mismatches that surface as "Tool not available". Thanks @BunsDev.
 - Gateway/update: allow beta binaries to refresh gateway services when the config was last written by the matching stable release version, avoiding false newer-config downgrade blocks during beta channel updates.