OpenClaw 2026.4.21 introduces the Skill Workshop, defaults to GPT-Image-2, and delivers dramatic plugin startup speed improvements.
Highlights
🛠️ Skill Workshop Plugin
The new Skill Workshop captures reusable workflow corrections as pending or auto-applied workspace skills. It runs threshold-based reviewer passes for stronger completion bias, quarantines unsafe proposals, and refreshes skill availability after safe writes. Your agent literally gets better at its job over time.
🎨 GPT-Image-2 Default
The bundled image-generation provider and media tests now default to GPT-Image-2 with 2K/4K size hints in tool metadata. Better images, bigger canvases.
⚡ 98% Faster Plugin Startup
Discord plugin registration time dropped by ~98% through lazy-loading Carbon UI and narrow sidecar loading. Telegram registration dropped by ~14 seconds. Matrix cold registration is ~1.8 seconds faster. Your gateway starts dramatically faster.
📺 Tool Progress Streaming
Discord, Slack, and Telegram now show live tool-progress updates in preview messages. You can see what your agent is doing in real-time before the final reply.
Security Fixes
- Stripped LLM chat-template special tokens (Qwen, Llama, Gemma, Mistral, Phi, GPT-OSS) from external content
- Owner-only commands now require genuine owner identity
- Control UI CSP tightened — no more arbitrary remote image fetches
- Synology Chat outbound webhook URLs validated against SSRF policy
- Gateway MCP loopback owner access derived from authenticated bearers
How to Update
npm install -g openclaw@latest
openclaw gateway restart
