v2026.4.26 — Cerebras + Hermes/Claude Migration + Compaction Preflight
Released: April 26, 2026 Theme: Provider expansion + cross-agent migration + compaction logic upgrade Breaking Changes: None
Core Highlights
1. Cerebras Joins Bundled Providers
New Cerebras bundled plugin:
- Onboarding
- Static model catalog
- Docs
- Manifest-owned endpoint metadata
2. openclaw migrate Cross-Agent Import
New openclaw migrate command imports from other agent systems into OpenClaw:
- Claude import: bundled Claude importer previews and applies Claude Code, Claude Desktop instructions, MCP servers, skills, command prompts, safe archive / manual-review state
- Hermes import: bundled Hermes importer handles config, memory / plugin hints, model providers, MCP servers, skills, supported credentials
- Includes plan, dry-run, JSON, pre-migration backup, onboarding detection, archive-only report copies
3. Talk Mode Google Live
Control UI / Talk adds:
- Generic browser realtime transport contract
- Google Live browser Talk sessions (constrained ephemeral tokens)
- Gateway relay for backend-only realtime voice plugins
4. Compaction Preflight Trigger
New opt-in agents.defaults.compaction.maxActiveTranscriptBytes:
- Runs normal local compaction when active JSONL grows too large
- Requires transcript rotation so successful compaction moves future turns onto a smaller successor file
- No more crude byte-splitting of history
5. Memory / Embedding Endpoint Hardening
OpenAI-compatible memory adds memorySearch.inputType, queryInputType, documentInputType:
- For asymmetric embedding endpoints
- Includes direct query embeddings and provider batch indexing
Ollama memory query prefixes:
- Model-specific retrieval query prefixes for
nomic-embed-text,qwen3-embedding,mxbai-embed-large - Document batches unchanged
6. Matrix E2EE One-Shot Setup
New openclaw matrix encryption setup:
- Single setup flow handles Matrix encryption enable, recovery bootstrap, verification status
- Previously required multiple steps
7. Control UI Raw Config Editing Improvements
- Pending-changes raw config diff panel
- Parses JSON5
- Sensitive values redacted until reveal
- Opening the panel doesn’t trigger fake raw-edit callbacks
8. Big Gateway / Plugin Stability Batch
- Gateway startup:
hello-okincludes connecting client and fresh presence version, no follow-up event needed - Gateway treats broken-pipe stream errors (like
EPIPE) as non-fatal — Discord delivery or closed pipes no longer crash gateway after reply ready - CLI/update: npm global updates install into a verified temporary prefix before swapping the package tree (no mixed old/new installs)
- Plugins startup: reuse canonical realpath — Windows npm-global startups no longer repeat expensive path resolution
- Plugins install:
OPENCLAW_PLUGIN_STAGE_DIRcan hold layered runtime-dep roots (read-only preinstalled deps before writable root) - Gateway starts in degraded mode when a single plugin entry has invalid schema config (
openclaw doctor --fixquarantines that plugin config — no more crash-loop on every channel) - Bonjour mDNS advertisements default to system hostname when DNS-safe, avoiding
openclaw.localprobing conflicts and gateway restart loops
9. Channel Fixes
- Discord: thread sessions inherit parent channel’s
/modeloverride without inheriting parent transcript - WhatsApp: QR-login WebSocket connections honor
HTTPS_PROXY/HTTP_PROXY(also respectingNO_PROXY) - Channels/message tool: Discord, Slack, Mattermost
user:/channel:target syntax surfaces in shared message target schema - Feishu/Windows: bundled channel sidecar loads no longer fail with raw
C:ESM loader errors on Windows
10. Model / Reasoning Fixes
- Anthropic: trailing assistant prefill removed when extended thinking enabled (Opus 4.7 / Sonnet 4.6 no longer fail user-final-turn validation)
- Reasoning: Groq and LM Studio can declare provider-native reasoning effort values (no more hardcoded
low/medium) - Local models: custom providers with only
baseUrldefault to Chat Completions adapter, loopback auto-trusted - Ollama/WSL2: warns when GPU + autostart
ollama.service+Restart=alwayscombine (with systemd /.wslconfig/ keep-alive mitigations)
11. Reasoning Output Sanitization
- Orphan closing reasoning tags with following answer text treated as privacy boundary (delivery, history, streaming, Control UI sanitizers all enforce)
- Closed reasoning blocks keep strict stripping
Upgrade Recommendations
- Customers migrating from other agent systems (Claude, Hermes): use
openclaw migrate - Cerebras users: upgrade and use
- Heavy long-conversation users: compaction preflight prevents runaway
- Matrix users: E2EE setup vastly simplified
- Windows deployments: multiple Windows path fixes
- WhatsApp behind proxy: QR login finally goes through proxy