OpenClaw 3.7

Next-Gen AI Agent Platform

Context Engines, ACP Bindings, GPT-5.4 Support

📊 What's New in 3.7

Major release with extensibility and model support

Major Features

20+

Improvements

Breaking Change

March 2026

Released

🧠 Context Engine Plugin Interface

Extensible context management strategies

Full Lifecycle Hooks

bootstrap, ingest, assemble, compact, afterTurn — complete control over context flow

Enables Lossless-Claw

Alternative context strategies like lossless-claw plugin for zero-loss context management

Zero Behavior Change

Opt-in system — default behavior unchanged when not configured

{
  "contextEngine": {
    "plugin": "lossless-claw",
    "config": { "strategy": "semantic" }
  }
}

🔗 ACP Persistent Channel Bindings

Durable agent sessions across restarts

Persistent Storage

Discord channel & Telegram topic bindings survive restarts

Better Routing

Improved routing resolution for multi-agent setups

CLI Support

Manage bindings via CLI and documentation

Thread Continuity

Agents remember their assigned channels permanently

🤖 Model Support

Latest frontier models integrated

GPT-5.4

OpenAI's Latest (Announced by Founder)

Gemini Flash 3.1

Google's High-Performance Model

Flash-Lite 3.1

First-Class Support

Enhanced

Cross-Provider Compatibility

💬 Telegram Enhancements

Per-topic agent routing and better UX

Per-Topic Agent Routing

Dedicated agents per topic — each topic gets its own persistent agent session

ACP Topic Bindings

Approval buttons for binding agents to topics with persistent storage

Mac Unicode Dash Support

Fixed Unicode dash handling on macOS for better compatibility

Pin Confirmations

Successful bind confirmations are pinned for easy reference

🔍 Web Search Improvements

Perplexity Search API integration

Search API

Switched to Perplexity Search API for better results

Structured Results

Clean, structured search results with better formatting

Advanced Filters

Language, region, and time filters for precise searches

Provider Selection

Choose search provider during onboarding setup

Plugin System Enhancements

More control over system context and hooks

📝

System Context Injection

New prependSystemContext and appendSystemContext hooks let plugins inject content before or after core system prompt.

🔒

Hook Policy Control

allowPromptInjection policy flag controls whether plugins can modify prompts. Safer defaults for production.

🗜️

Compaction Lifecycle

Plugins now receive compaction lifecycle events. Build context-aware compression strategies.

📚

Static Guidance

Plugin guidance automatically included in system prompt. No manual configuration needed.

Plugins are now first-class citizens with full lifecycle control. Build custom context strategies without forking core.

Gateway & Auth Improvements

Better security with SecretRef support

🔑

SecretRef Support

gateway.auth.token now accepts SecretRef. Keep tokens out of config files.

🛡️

Auth-Mode Guardrails

Improved validation and error messages. Catches misconfigurations before they cause issues.

{
  "gateway": {
    "auth": {
      "mode": "token",
      "token": {
        "type": "secretRef",
        "key": "GATEWAY_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

Secrets belong in environment variables, not config files. SecretRef makes this pattern easy and secure.

Docker & Container Improvements

Faster builds, smaller images, better reproducibility

Multi-Stage

Minimal Runtime Image

OPENCLAW_EXTENSIONS

Preinstall Deps

Depim Variant

Dependency Isolation

Multi-stage builds separate build-time dependencies from runtime. OPENCLAW_EXTENSIONS env var lets you preinstall extensions during image build. Depim variant support means better dependency isolation. Result: faster deployments, smaller images, more reproducible builds.

⚠️ Breaking Changes

Action required before upgrading

Gateway auth mode is now required.

You must set gateway.auth.mode to either "token" or "password" in your config before upgrading to 3.7.

Without this setting, the gateway will fail to start after upgrade.

{
  "gateway": {
    "auth": {
      "mode": "token",
      "token": "your-secure-token-here"
    }
  }
}

This change improves security by making authentication explicit. No more accidentally running unauthenticated gateways.

Other Improvements

Quality of life updates across the platform

🇪🇸

Spanish i18n

Control UI now supports Spanish localization. More languages coming soon.

✂️

Tool Result Truncation

Head+tail truncation for large tool outputs. See beginning and end without context overflow.

💬

Slack DM Typing

Typing indicators now work in Slack direct messages. Better feedback during long operations.

🤖

Discord Bot Gating

allowBots mention gating prevents bot-to-bot loops. Safer multi-bot channels.

🔊

TTS Compatibility

OpenAI-compatible TTS endpoints. Use any OpenAI-compatible voice provider.

Community Response

Industry coverage and user feedback

@steipete

Founder Announcement

Phemex

Exchange Coverage

MEXC

Platform Feature

@steipete (391K followers)

"OpenClaw 3.7 brings significant updates for user experience. GPT-5.4 and Gemini Flash 3.1 support are game-changers for multi-model workflows."

Focus on GPT-5.4 and Gemini Flash 3.1 resonated with the community. Context Engine plugins and ACP persistent bindings praised by power users. Breaking change well-communicated in advance.

Getting Started with 3.7

Upgrade in minutes

Step 1: Configure gateway auth
Add gateway.auth.mode to your config before upgrading.

Step 2: Upgrade OpenClaw
npm install -g openclaw@latest

Step 3: Restart gateway
openclaw gateway restart

Step 4: Explore new features
Try Context Engine plugins, ACP bindings, GPT-5.4, and Gemini Flash 3.1.

Need help? Check the migration guide at docs/migration/3.7.md or join the Discord community.