This week OpenClaw became a platform, not just a project

Releases covered: v2026.3.22, v2026.3.23, and v2026.3.24. The theme was platform maturity: ClawHub skills ecosystem, plugin SDK cleanup, OpenAI compatibility layer, and massive legacy removal.

ClawHub skills OpenAI compat API Plugin SDK v2 Legacy cleanup MS Teams overhaul

This felt like an "upgrade from side project to real infrastructure" week. Lots of breaking changes, lots of cleanup, lots of platform-thinking.

OpenClaw

The releases at a glance

What shipped in the official changelog

v2026.3.22 — The Big One

ClawHub native skill install/update
Plugin SDK rewrite (openclaw/plugin-sdk/*)
Chrome extension relay removed
Legacy .moltbot and CLAWDBOT_* env removed
Matrix plugin rewritten with official SDK
OpenAI default model switched to gpt-5.4

v2026.3.23 — Stabilization

Qwen/Alibaba Cloud Model Studio support
UI/UX polish across Control UI
CSP hardening for inline scripts
Auth and credential handling fixes
Bundled plugin runtime fixes

v2026.3.24 — Polish + OpenAI API

Gateway exposes /v1/models, /v1/embeddings, /v1/chat/completions
MS Teams SDK migration with AI-agent UX patterns
Skills got one-click install recipes
Slack interactive replies restored
Discord auto-thread naming via LLM

OpenClaw

Biggest ecosystem win

ClawHub is now the default skills source

openclaw skills search|install|update now hits ClawHub first
Skills get tracked update metadata and gateway-side install support
This moves OpenClaw from "configure everything yourself" to "install what you need"

ClawHub becoming the primary install source is a platform move. It means skills can be discovered, shared, and updated without manual config surgery.

OpenClaw

Integration story

OpenClaw gateway now speaks OpenAI API

Gateway exposes /v1/models, /v1/embeddings, /v1/chat/completions, /v1/responses
Explicit model overrides forwarded correctly
Better compatibility with RAG tools and other OpenAI-expecting clients

If you want to point third-party tools at OpenClaw as if it were an OpenAI endpoint, this is the release that makes it real.

OpenClaw

Developer-facing

The plugin SDK got a real public surface

What changed

New public SDK: openclaw/plugin-sdk/*
Old openclaw/extension-api removed
Message discovery via describeMessageTool(...)
Bundled plugins use injected runtime

Why it matters

Cleaner plugin authoring
Less internal leakage
Stable surface for external contributors
Migration guide in docs

This is the "stop building on internal surfaces" cleanup that real platforms do before they scale plugin ecosystems.

OpenClaw

Cleanup theme

Legacy baggage got removed

What's gone

Chrome extension relay and driver: "extension"
CLAWDBOT_* and MOLTBOT_* env names
~/.moltbot state dir migration
nano-banana-pro skill wrapper
Old openclaw/extension-api

Why this matters

Smaller attack surface
Less config confusion
Simpler onboarding for new users
Signals commitment to not accruing debt

Removing legacy cruft is unglamorous work, but it's how you keep a fast-moving project from collapsing under its own history.

OpenClaw

Channel + UX polish

MS Teams, Slack, Discord all got better

MS Teams: migrated to official SDK, streaming replies, welcome cards, AI labeling
Slack: interactive replies restored, Block Kit improved
Discord: auto-thread naming via LLM
Control UI: skills status tabs, click-to-detail dialogs, /tools shows available tools

Security hardening continued

CSP hardening for inline scripts in Control UI
Exec sandbox blocks more dangerous env vars
Gateway channel startup isolates failures per-channel
Auth token handling fixed to stop reverting to stale credentials

OpenClaw

The real news

30-second close you can use verbatim

The big story this week is that OpenClaw started acting like a real platform. ClawHub is now the default skills source. The gateway speaks OpenAI API. The plugin SDK got a proper public surface. MS Teams got a native-feeling SDK migration. And a bunch of legacy config and extension baggage got removed. The project is not just getting more features — it's getting more coherent, more integrable, and more serious about long-term maintainability.

Official source: GitHub releases for v2026.3.22, v2026.3.23, and v2026.3.24.

Next week: We'll see what lands. The pace hasn't slowed.