Weekly changelog review • 2026-03-20
OpenClaw tightened the dashboard and sped up the whole loop
This was a real product week, not just plumbing. Releases covered: v2026.3.13
Dashboard v2, Fast Mode, provider plugins, and a proper security sweep.
At a glance
What shipped that week
Dashboard and operator UX
Dashboard and operator UX
- Dashboard/chat UI: stop reloading full chat history on every live tool result in dashboard v2 so tool-heavy runs no longer trigger UI freeze/re-render storms while the final event still refreshes persisted history.
- Control UI/insecure auth: preserve explicit shared token and password auth on plain-HTTP Control UI connects so LAN and reverse-proxy sessions no longer drop shared auth before the first WebSocket handshake.
The product got easier to drive. That matters more than another invisible abstraction layer.
Speed and engine-room work
Speed and engine-room work
- Dashboard/chat UI: stop reloading full chat history on every live tool result in dashboard v2 so tool-heavy runs no longer trigger UI freeze/re-render storms while the final event still refreshes persisted history.
Fast Mode and startup improvements are the sort of changes users feel before they can name them.
Plugins and provider surface
Plugins and provider surface
- Build/plugin-sdk bundling: bundle plugin-sdk subpath entries in one shared build pass so published packages stop duplicating shared chunks and avoid the recent plugin-sdk memory blow-up.
OpenClaw kept widening the extension surface without losing the operator feel.
Security and approvals
Security and approvals
- Control UI/insecure auth: preserve explicit shared token and password auth on plain-HTTP Control UI connects so LAN and reverse-proxy sessions no longer drop shared auth before the first WebSocket handshake.
Good. Quietly serious work. Exactly the kind of release hygiene that prevents future pain.
Models and APIs
Models and APIs
- Ollama/reasoning visibility: stop promoting native `thinking` and `reasoning` fields into final assistant text so local reasoning models no longer leak internal thoughts in normal replies.
- Browser/existing-session: accept text-only `list_pages` and `new_page` responses from Chrome DevTools MCP so live-session tab discovery and new-tab open flows keep working when the server omits structured page metadata.
The stack kept bending toward flexibility, which is how this thing stays useful across weird setups.
The close
30-second presenter close
Week of March 20 was OpenClaw getting sharper where it counts: better dashboard UX, faster execution paths, a broader plugin surface, and less security sloppiness. That is how the platform gets more usable without turning into mush.