From the source
2026.4.29 made it obvious.
Sorry.
We are making core smaller, moving optional stuff to ClawHub , and announcing LTS separately later in May.
The trouble started around 2026.4.24.
By 2026.4.29 it was obvious enough that nobody could pretend this was just a few weird installs.
Gateways got slower.
Some installs got stuck in plugin dependency repair loops.
Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp and other channels behaved worse than they should.
People downgraded.
People lost time.
This was not one bug.
Plugin dependency repair ran in startup and update paths, bundled and external plugins were half-split, ClawHub artifact metadata was still settling, and gateway cold paths did too much work.
That sucks.
I’m sorry.
We’ve been pushing OpenClaw to become smaller, safer and more infrastructure-grade.
That means less magic in core, fewer bundled dependencies, clearer plugin boundaries, better scanning, better release hygiene, better security posture.
All the boring stuff that matters once people run this as actual infrastructure and not just as my weird lobster playground.
Recent npm ecosystem supply-chain incidents made this feel a lot less theoretical.
…
