[Release] openclaw/openclaw v2026.5.4-beta.3: openclaw 2026.5.4-beta.3

OpenClaw v2026.5.4-beta.3 introduces significant improvements to voice call handling through Twilio/Gemini integration with paced audio streaming and backpressure management, enhances plugin performance by reusing workspace-scoped metadata snapshots to avoid cold scans, and delivers numerous stability fixes across gateway startup, secrets management, and channel resolution. The release includes performance optimizations for control UI chat interactions, improved diagnostics for slow gateway operations, and expanded QA tooling for desktop-based testing. Key fixes address Windows loopback binding, external plugin contract resolution, and session-store channel ID validation.

Key Points

• •Implement Twilio dial-in voice bridge with Gemini realtime integration using paced audio streaming, backpressure-aware buffering, and barge-in queue clearing for improved voice agent responsiveness
• •Optimize plugin metadata loading by passing resolved workspace through model generation and setup to reuse workspace-scoped snapshots instead of repeated cold scans
• •Fix Windows gateway loopback binding to 127.0.0.1 only to prevent IPv6 dual-stack behavior from blocking localhost HTTP requests
• •Resolve external plugin contract discovery by checking dist/ directory for npm-published channel plugins, enabling proper SecretRef resolution at gateway startup
• •Improve plugin auto-allowlisting to prefer claiming plugin manifest ID over built-in channel aliases for proper WeCom/Yuanbao-style resolution
• •Enhance session-store channel resolution by skipping entries with ':' characters to prevent QQ c2c agent IDs and scoped conversation IDs from crashing recall runs
• •Defer non-readiness sidecars and avoid hot-path imports during gateway startup to reduce plugin-load time and memory pressure
• •Add `openclaw models auth list` command with optional provider filtering and JSON output for inspecting per-agent auth profiles without exposing secrets
• •Implement compact progress rendering for Slack Block Kit with structured progress line data and automatic trimming to prevent jumpy reflow
• •Expand QA/Mantis tooling with desktop-browser Crabbox support, Slack desktop screenshots, and Blacksmith Testbox lease ID acceptance for improved maintainer diagnostics

Workflow Diagram

Concepts

Artifacts (4)

openclaw models auth list [--provider <id>] [--json]

streaming:
  progress:
    render: "rich"

agents:
  defaults:
    toolProgressDetail: "raw"

pnpm openclaw qa mantis slack-desktop-smoke