OpenClaw v2026.5.20

Security Hardening, Discord Voice & Policy Plugin

May 21, 2026 · Stable Release

At a Glance

17K+
Changelog chars
3
Releases (2 betas + stable)
Major
Security overhaul

Top Highlights

🔊 Discord Voice Tracking

Voice sessions now follow configured Discord users into voice channels with allowed-channel checks, multi-user handoff, bounded reconciliation, and DAVE recovery preservation.

🛡️ Policy Plugin

New bundled Policy plugin for policy-backed channel conformance checks, doctor lint findings, and opt-in workspace repair.

🔐 Security Hardening

Removed legacy exec approval compatibility path; restored fail-closed secret file symlink rejection; doctor warns on plaintext API keys in config.

Provider Updates

xAI Device-Code OAuth

Remote and headless setups can now authorize xAI without requiring a localhost browser callback. Critical for server deployments.

OpenRouter Routing

Honors provider-level params.provider routing policy for OpenRouter requests, with model and agent params overriding defaults.

Codex Harness 0.132.0

Bumped bundled Codex harness to @openai/codex 0.132.0 with refreshed app-server model-list docs.

Developer Experience

Per-Agent Lean Mode

agents.list[].experimental.localModelLean allows lean local-model mode per agent instead of globally.

Status Improvements

Status command now shows configured default, session-selected model, reason, clear hint, and docs link when pinned to a different model.

Cron Reliability

Delivers preferred final assistant output for successful scheduled runs even when trailing plain tool warnings remain in diagnostics.

Security Deep Dive

Exec Approvals Hardened Removed legacy cat SKILL.md compatibility path
Secret Files Fail-closed Restored symlink rejection for credential loaders
Config Scanning Warns Doctor detects plaintext API keys in openclaw.json
Browser Images Sanitized Screenshots follow configured image sanitization limits

Migration Guide

Upgrade Steps

  1. Run openclaw update or pull latest Docker image
  2. Run openclaw doctor --fix to clean stale thinkingFormat values
  3. Review exec approvals — legacy SKILL.md cat paths are removed
  4. Verify secret files are not symlinks (Telegram, LINE, Zalo, IRC, Nextcloud)
  5. Check openclaw.json for plaintext API keys and move to secrets

Final Verdict

✅
Security
✅
Voice
✅
DevEx

OpenClaw v2026.5.20 is a recommended upgrade for all users, especially those running Discord voice integrations or remote xAI deployments.

Resources