OpenClaw Had a Rough Week

a day ago

OpenClaw faced significant performance issues and bugs around late April 2026, leading to slower gateways, stuck plugin dependency repairs, and degraded channel functionality.
The problems stemmed from multiple factors, including plugin dependency repair processes, mixed plugin bundling, and heavy gateway operations.
To address these issues, the team is restructuring OpenClaw by moving optional components (channels, providers, tools) out of the core and into ClawHub, aiming to make it smaller, safer, and more infrastructure-grade.
Recent npm ecosystem supply-chain incidents highlighted risks in transitive dependencies, prompting a focus on reducing dependency graph complexity and improving security.
The restructuring proved challenging, temporarily causing a problematic middle state with too many plugins still affecting users directly.
OpenClaw is shifting from founder-driven operations to a team-based approach via the OpenClaw Foundation, with support from OpenAI, to enhance release, review, packaging, and support processes.
Future plans include changes to release processes and the announcement of an LTS (Long-Term Support) release alongside faster update cycles in May to improve reliability.

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