[Release] openclaw/openclaw v2026.5.4-beta.1: openclaw 2026.5.4-beta.1

OpenClaw v2026.5.4-beta.1 introduces a bundled file-transfer plugin for binary file operations, enhances Google Meet/Voice Call integration with Twilio's realtime Gemini voice bridge, and delivers significant performance improvements across the gateway startup, plugin loading, and UI rendering. The release includes numerous UX refinements for chat controls, streaming progress visualization, and agent command steering, plus expanded QA/testing capabilities for Discord and Slack integrations.

Key Points

• •New file-transfer plugin provides `file_fetch`, `dir_list`, `dir_fetch`, and `file_write` agent tools with default-deny per-node path policies, symlink traversal protection, and 16 MB per-round-trip byte ceiling
• •Google Meet/Voice Call now uses Twilio dial-in with realtime Gemini voice bridge featuring paced audio streaming, backpressure-aware buffering, and barge-in queue clearing for snappier voice agent interactions
• •Gateway startup performance optimized by lazy-loading model-catalog helpers, run-session lookup code, QR pairing helpers, and TypeBox schema construction out of hot import paths
• •Control UI improvements include collapsible New Job sidebar, agent-first chat session filter, responsive chat controls across device widths, and consecutive duplicate message collapsing
• •Unified `streaming.mode: "progress"` drafts with auto single-word status labels and shared progress configuration across Discord, Telegram, Matrix, Slack, and Microsoft Teams
• •New `/steer <message>` command enables queue-independent steering of active session runs without starting new turns when idle
• •Plugin loader now preserves real compiled module evaluation errors on native fast path instead of treating all thrown `.js` modules as source-transform fallback misses
• •Expanded QA/Mantis testing with Discord smoke runner, Slack desktop-browser smoke tests in Crabbox VNC, and Slack live transport QA with canary/mention-gating coverage
• •Doctor config tool (`doctor --fix`) now commits safe legacy migrations even when unrelated validation issues exist, ensuring cleanup of known-legacy keys
• •Plugin update system treats official externalized bundled npm migrations and ClawHub-to-npm fallbacks as trusted source-linked installs, enabling prerelease-only official plugin packages to migrate safely

Workflow Diagram

Concepts