Skills & Tools

crewAI v1.13.0a3 introduces token usage tracking in LLM events and tool metadata publishing to AMP. The release includes bug fixes for GPT-5.x model compatibility, comprehensive documentation updates on SSO configuration and agent capabilities, and significant refactoring converting Flow and LLM classes to Pydantic BaseModel with improved type annotations.

OpenClaw v2026.3.31 is a major release introducing significant breaking changes to node execution, plugin SDK deprecations, and stricter security defaults for dangerous code scanning. Key improvements include a unified background task control plane, new channel integrations (QQ Bot), enhanced Matrix/MCP support, and security hardening across gateway authentication and node command execution. The release emphasizes safer defaults while expanding platform capabilities for agents, channels, and integrations.

OpenClaw v2026.3.31-beta.1 introduces significant breaking changes to node execution, plugin SDK deprecation, and stricter security defaults for plugin/skill installation. Key improvements include unified background task management with flow control, expanded channel support (QQ Bot), enhanced MCP capabilities with remote HTTP/SSE servers, and security hardening across gateway authentication, node commands, and event handling. Multiple channel-specific enhancements (Matrix, LINE, Teams, WhatsApp, Slack) and provider integrations (OpenAI Responses, Pi Codex, TTS diagnostics) round out the release.

This cookbook teaches context engineering strategies for long-running AI agents, focusing on three key techniques: compaction (summarizing context), tool-result clearing (removing re-fetchable tool outputs), and memory (persistent external storage). The guide addresses context rot—the degradation of model performance as context windows grow—and provides practical implementations using Claude's API. Through a research agent example, it demonstrates how to combine these strategies to manage token growth, maintain conversation continuity, and persist knowledge across sessions.

This guide teaches how to build knowledge graphs from unstructured text using Claude's structured outputs for entity extraction, relation mining, and entity resolution. Rather than training traditional NER and relation classifiers, Claude handles each stage via prompts, enabling multi-hop graph reasoning without a database. The approach uses Haiku for high-volume extraction and Sonnet for entity resolution, with techniques transferable to production databases like Neo4j or PostgreSQL.

Claude Code v2.1.88 is a maintenance release focused on stability, performance, and bug fixes across rendering, tool execution, and session management. Key improvements include flicker-free rendering, prompt cache fixes for long sessions, structured output schema reliability, and numerous UI/UX enhancements. The release addresses critical issues like memory leaks, file handling on Windows, voice mode permissions, and terminal compatibility across platforms.

Claude Code v2.1.86 is a maintenance release focused on stability, performance, and bug fixes. Key improvements include session tracking via headers, VCS exclusion enhancements, fixes for file operations outside project root, memory/performance optimizations, and corrections to UI interactions and plugin handling. The release also improves token efficiency through prompt caching and reduced overhead in file mentions.

OpenAI Agents Python v0.13.2 is a maintenance release focusing on bug fixes and security improvements. Key updates include fixing docstring parsing with griffelib, preventing private tool metadata leakage in persisted sessions, ensuring LiteLLM reasoning_effort portability across providers, and pinning LiteLLM to version 1.82.6 to mitigate supply chain risks. The release also adds external web access capability to WebSearchTool and updates default reasoning effort for newer models.

langchain-exa version 1.1.0 introduces a significant change to the default search type from neural to auto, along with dependency updates and maintenance improvements. The release includes bumps to core dependencies like langchain-core (minimum 1.2.21), requests, orjson, and langsmith, ensuring compatibility and security. Various CI/CD improvements and code quality enhancements were made, including typing targets and relative import restrictions across packages.

CrewAI 1.12.0 introduces significant enhancements including Qdrant Edge storage backend, native OpenAI-compatible provider support (OpenRouter, DeepSeek, Ollama, vLLM, Cerebras, Dashscope), agent skills implementation, and automatic root_scope for hierarchical memory isolation. The release adds Arabic language support, a new docs-check CLI command, logout functionality, and resolves multiple bugs across type checking, HITL flow system, and memory management. Documentation improvements include a new CONTRIBUTING.md guide and instructions for using CrewAI without LiteLLM.

Claude Code v2.1.84 introduces PowerShell tool support for Windows, enhanced environment variable controls for model configuration, new hooks for task and worktree creation, and numerous bug fixes and performance improvements. Key additions include idle timeout configuration, channel plugin allowlists, deep link improvements, and better MCP server handling. The release also addresses critical issues with voice input, workflow subagents, and terminal rendering while improving startup performance and prompt cache efficiency.

OpenClaw v2026.3.24 introduces significant enhancements across gateway compatibility, agent tooling, and platform integrations. Key updates include OpenAI API compatibility improvements, Microsoft Teams SDK migration with streaming support, skill installation recipes with one-click setup, and expanded platform support for Slack, Discord, Telegram, and WhatsApp. The release also addresses numerous security, sandbox, and reliability fixes across media dispatch, channel startup, and message routing.

CrewAI 1.12.0a1 introduces native OpenAI-compatible provider support (OpenRouter, DeepSeek, Ollama, vLLM, Cerebras, Dashscope), agent skills, and automatic hierarchical memory isolation via root_scope. The release includes Arabic language support for documentation and tooling, a new docs-check command, and significant refactoring to decouple from LiteLLM while resolving mypy type-checking errors across all packages.

OpenClaw v2026.3.24-beta.2 addresses critical fixes for media access policies, Node.js version compatibility, and CLI update workflows. The release aligns outbound media handling with configured filesystem policies, lowers the Node 22 support floor to 22.14+, and adds preflight checks for Node version requirements during updates. Security audit tests are now isolated to prevent interference from local skill installations.

OpenClaw v2026.3.24-beta.1 introduces significant enhancements across gateway compatibility, agent tooling, platform integrations, and UI improvements. Key additions include OpenAI API compatibility endpoints, Microsoft Teams SDK migration with streaming support, skill installation recipes, and Docker container command support. The release focuses on improving user experience through better tool visibility, rich interactive replies, and comprehensive bug fixes across Telegram, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, and other platforms.

OpenClaw v2026.3.23 is a maintenance release focused on stability and bug fixes across browser automation, authentication, plugins, channels, and gateway components. Key improvements include fixing Chrome MCP session handling, ClawHub macOS authentication, skill browsing token resolution, message tool schema validation, model pricing recursion, and numerous provider-specific issues. The release also addresses security concerns with exec approvals and improves gateway supervision and probe handling.

OpenClaw v2026.3.22-beta.1 introduces significant breaking changes including plugin SDK restructuring, removal of legacy Chrome extension relay, standardized image generation tools, and enhanced security measures. The release modernizes package management with ClawHub integration, adds marketplace support for Claude and Codex bundles, and implements new sandbox backends (OpenShell and SSH). Multiple security improvements address environment variable injection, webhook authentication, and contact search vulnerabilities.

OpenClaw v2026.3.22 is a major release with significant breaking changes focused on modernizing plugin architecture, standardizing tool paths, and improving security. Key updates include migrating from the legacy extension API to a new public plugin SDK, replacing the Chrome extension relay with native session management, standardizing image generation tools, and implementing stricter sandbox security controls. The release also introduces ClawHub integration for package management, new marketplace support, and enhanced plugin discovery mechanisms.

Claude Code v2.1.80 introduces rate limit visibility in statusline scripts, inline plugin marketplace sourcing via settings.json, and enhanced effort level control through frontmatter. The release fixes critical issues with parallel tool results restoration, voice mode WebSocket failures, and API proxy compatibility. Performance improvements include ~80 MB memory savings on large repositories and better responsiveness for file autocomplete and UI interactions.

Canary is an AI QA agent that analyzes pull requests by understanding codebases, identifying affected user workflows, and automatically generating and executing end-to-end tests. The platform connects to repositories, reads diffs to understand intent, runs tests against preview apps, and reports results directly on PRs with recordings. Beyond PR testing, it supports regression suites and continuous testing via plain English prompts, addressing the gap where modern AI tools accelerate development but lack comprehensive real-world behavior testing before merge.