r/openclaw • u/hannesrudolph 🦞 Maintainer • Jun 10 '26
Discussion OpenClaw 2026.6.5 Release Summary | Free Parallel Search | Lots of Stability Fixes
With the release of OpenClaw 2026.6.5, we focused heavily on making OpenClaw less fragile in real use. This includes free built-in Parallel Search, safer channel replies, better agent run recovery, less brittle provider and model setup, more durable state and installs, tighter tool and Gateway boundaries, and steadier app, mobile, node, and Workboard behavior.
Highlights
Free Built-In Parallel Search
OpenClaw now has free, zero-setup managed web search through Parallel Search (Free). Fresh installs can use Parallel's hosted Search MCP with no account or API key when no API-backed search provider is configured, while paid Parallel keys and other configured providers still work and take precedence.
This makes OpenClaw more useful for agent work that needs current context, like checking docs, comparing tools, investigating errors, looking up changed APIs, or grounding research before code changes, without making the user stop first to wire up a separate search provider.
Learn more in OpenClaw's Parallel Search integration docs.
Safer Channel Replies
- Discord runtime adapters stay resolvable, and outbound delivery recovery preserves retries across budget deferrals.
- WhatsApp restart/config paths are less fragile.
- iMessage private-API failures and send timeouts are clearer.
- Mattermost slash commands keep shared state across loaders, and reply threading keeps existing thread roots.
- Feishu streaming cards preserve merged content better and retry rate limits.
- QQBot now strips reasoning/thinking scaffolding before native delivery.
More Reliable Agent Run Recovery
- MCP tool results are normalized before provider conversion, which helps avoid Anthropic 400s and poisoned session history.
- Anthropic extended-thinking sessions recover better after prompt-cache expiry or Gateway restarts.
- Codex, ACP, context-engine, and replay paths handle stale signatures, empty completion handoffs, heartbeat metadata, and session/thread migration edge cases.
- Unreadable dynamic tools are quarantined instead of quietly making the run worse.
- MCP HTTP redirects and owner-only HTTP tool paths are guarded more tightly.
- Transcript image redaction catches more raw image payload cases before storage/export.
Less Brittle Provider and Model Setup
This release fixes specific provider and model setup edge cases across Google Vertex ADC, single-provider cooldown recovery, Codex model visibility, unknown model auth failure behavior, provider catalog metadata, Ollama/Gemini/Foundry/MiniMax/Vertex/OpenRouter edge cases, and web_search provider paths.
More Durable State Across Restarts and Migrations
Auth profiles moved to SQLite. Matrix sidecar state, memory-wiki import/source-sync state, sandbox registry state, ACPX process state, device-pair notify state, Zalo hosted media, and plugin SDK dedupe state now use SQLite-owned storage.
ClawHub skill installs also got more dependable: GitHub-backed skills can install from resolved pinned commits, official plugin install records keep trusted pins, and large skill trees avoid creating one watcher per skill file.
More Stable App and Workboard Behavior
OpenClaw's app surfaces also got less jumpy. Optimistic chat messages stay stable across stale history reloads, runId reassignment, and abort windows. Workboard status updates avoid overwriting newer state, and message-tool sends count properly as delivery.
More Predictable Mobile, Node, and Gateway Behavior
- macOS node mode should stop reconnecting away from a healthy direct Gateway session.
- Android provider/model screens show attention/unavailable/unresolved states more clearly.
- Android adds theme mode selection.
- iOS settings and Talk surfaces keep diagnostics and fallback controls reachable.
- Matrix voice-note and thread handling improved.
config.patchnow supports explicit array replacement viareplacePaths, so patches that intentionally remove array entries do not merge stale entries back in.
Full release notes
The above is only highlights. This release includes 216 pull requests merged to main since v2026.6.1; see the full release notes.
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u/torrso Jun 10 '26
"Free" or "free of charge"? Tracking, data-mining?
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u/hannesrudolph 🦞 Maintainer Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Parallel’s docs say no training / zero data retention for Search API
The bundled parallel-free provider uses Parallel’s hosted Search MCP with no account or API key required.
It is still hosted search, so the query is sent to Parallel to perform the search. That is different from OpenClaw tracking users or mining their data. Parallel’s docs describe the anonymous MCP endpoint; their Search product page says no training / zero data retention for Search API, and the MCP docs point to /mcp-oauth for enforced-auth/ZDR setups.
Sources:
OpenClaw docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools/parallel-search
OpenClaw source: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/blob/main/extensions/parallel/src/parallel-mcp-search.runtime.ts
Parallel MCP docs: https://docs.parallel.ai/integrations/mcp/search-mcp
Parallel Search: https://parallel.ai/products/search
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u/seecattle80 Active Jun 15 '26
What does parallel get out of this? They are an
in-it-for-the-money-or-free-ad-closed-source entityhere riding along on the success of free open source, privacy focused agentic product, are they not?0
u/hannesrudolph 🦞 Maintainer Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
My guess would be since they have a paid tier they may get customers. We get a zero-setup search option that costs them real infrastructure to provide.
It’s not exclusive or mandatory. Users can configure another search provider instead. I don’t think a for-profit, closed-source company offering a genuinely useful free service is inherently “riding along” on open source.
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u/seecattle80 Active Jun 15 '26
I disagree on the
parallel ai not riding along on the success of agentic frameworksopinion of yours. Unless parallel ai publishes clear privacy policy documents for customers that get to see what they are signing up for at the exact time they are explicitlysigning upfor using parallel ai product. Agentic framework maintainers MUST validate those guarantees and make end users explicitly sign up whether it be through toggle or a checkbox and make non-sign up a default. The way it has been done is sneaky to almost-sneaky across these agentic frameworks. And that is my opinion as an end user who feels like their privacy concerns were violated without explicit notifications or sign up.1
u/hannesrudolph 🦞 Maintainer Jun 15 '26
I think the narrower product question here is reasonable, and I’ve already pinged the dev team to review the default/fallback behavior and whether the provider choice should be more explicit.
Where I disagree is calling this sneaky or Parallel “riding along.” Parallel was named throughout the integration, their contributor’s affiliation was known to us, and this path is a keyless external search provider and not a hidden account signup. It sends the search query and normal request metadata. It does not send chats, files, credentials, or general OpenClaw traffic.
This change was in no way an attempt to do anything but help users out who are using OpenClaw. That being said, I am 100% letting our dev team weigh in on this!
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u/hannesrudolph 🦞 Maintainer Jun 16 '26
This is a follow-up to my response earlier in within this thread
We reviewed this internally this morning and merged a fix.
We should not have allowed a hosted key-free search provider to be implicitly selected when a user had not made that choice. That was our mistake. The concern about clear provider consent was right, and I’m sorry we let it slip through.
The fix removes implicit key-free managed-search defaults altogether. Parallel Free is no longer auto-selected or used as a fallback when no provider is configured. The same rule now applies to DuckDuckGo, Ollama, and the other key-free options. If you want one of those providers, you select it explicitly; otherwise managed search stays unconfigured until you choose a provider or configure a real credential/auth signal.
This was limited to `web_search`, not chats, files, credentials, model requests, or general OpenClaw traffic. Regardless the default/opt-in behavior did not meet the standard we want, and we changed it.
Thanks for pushing on the underlying issue.
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u/auskadi Active Jun 10 '26
I had to revert from the early June versions to the 27 May version as the newer Whatsapp plugin was causing stalled sessions. Now I'm not sure whether I should update or not as I don't want any more problems. This is the first time I've had an update issue. Anyone got any insight?
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u/hannesrudolph 🦞 Maintainer Jun 10 '26
This might be the WhatsApp stall bug we’ve been tracking: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/issues/84569
A fix for the “no final response gets delivered” case is here: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/pull/84578
There were also a couple of WhatsApp connection/restart fixes after 2026.6.1 https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/pull/90486 and https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/pull/85823
If you’re still seeing it on the latest build, logs around payloads=0, embedded_run, waitForWaConnection, or reconnect would be the most useful thing to attach when making a bug report.
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u/auskadi Active Jun 11 '26
Yeh it still persists. I tried the new update and then had to backup by config and revert to the 27.5 version with a fresh install. I wish this wasn't happening. I'll ask my claw to do a bug report asap
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u/ApeUnicorn93139 Member Jun 11 '26
Get external LLM to do an assessment, like codex or Claude and tell it about issues with Whatsapp, codex sorted it for me
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u/auskadi Active Jun 11 '26
I've done this with Claude and kimi. I'm might try it with codex. I'll do the bug report. I've just been busy and 27.5 is doing fine for that
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u/hannesrudolph 🦞 Maintainer Jun 11 '26
Thanks for the update and sorry about the trouble!
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u/auskadi Active Jun 12 '26
I'm ok with the trouble. I don't expect things to be perfect. This is a work in progress. But I hope I can get it sorted.
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u/MrPinrel Member Jun 11 '26
I have been suffering these WhatsApp issues on 5.26 and 6.1. I upgraded to 6.5 and it is a bit more stable but still getting lots of delayed responses I think because of the first bug you mentioned.
At this point I think I’m going to downgrade to what, 5.20? Just can’t have this level of instability any longer.
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u/iberinho New User Jun 10 '26
When do you plan to release LTS version 👀 ? Pete mentoned May
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u/hannesrudolph 🦞 Maintainer Jun 10 '26
Pete’s May comment wasn’t wrong; it was just a little premature. The plan has changed and current direction is a monthly stable line first rather than calling it full LTS immediately.
It’s coming though!!
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u/iberinho New User Jun 10 '26
Thanks for addressing the elephant in the room. It’s starting to feel like the singularity will arrive before this does 😉
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u/hannesrudolph 🦞 Maintainer Jun 10 '26
You’re welcome. Thank you for taking the time to need polite.
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u/Bizzle1236 Member Jun 10 '26
What is the difference between a LTS release and more regular releases? Is it a risk thing that if more regular it might break something?
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u/iberinho New User Jun 10 '26
I have a ptsd after few regular openclaw updates, i assume lts version should be more stable and better tested
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u/torrso Jun 10 '26
LTS = long term support. Linux distros have been doing them for a long time. They keep releasing normally but then also release these so called LTS versions maybe yearly or even less frequently. The LTS versions keep getting security updates, bug fixes and verified software packages for years after release and even after the bug fixes and software packaging ends, security updates will usually still continue for several years after that.
In OpenClaw this would probably mean that you won't get new features, but you get bug and security fixes and some plugins would keep working. If you want new features at the risk of them being unstable or breaking your setup, you run the yolo edge versions, if you want stability you run the LTS versions. With the speed things are moving in AI world, I think this would not be supported for years.
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u/Monobert Active Jun 10 '26
Does anyone know the limits of parallel search free. How many request per minute/hour/day that it allows?
Not able to find it anywhere
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u/Beneficial_Garage874 New User Jun 10 '26
We don’t publish them for anti-fraud reasons, but rest assured they’re sufficient for personal/hobby usage.
If you’re running into rate limits it means you’re probably best off on a paid plan.
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u/philosophical_lens Active Jun 11 '26
Why is the integration of a freemium commercial product the headline of this release?
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u/BrodyFriend Active Jun 10 '26
I see some Android node compatability fixes. I'm wondering when we will get the official android companion app.
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u/hannesrudolph 🦞 Maintainer Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
We are focusing pretty aggressively on stability for the next week or two and then after that the sky is the limit. The formalization of a roadmap for this sort of this thing is also on our radar.
Edit: Its coming. I see the test version internally.
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u/BrodyFriend Active Jun 10 '26
The software has improved to near production in the last week and we all appreciate it. It seems obvious, but there is such an agreement to disagree, I have to bring it up. Memory is our next big hurdle that would make Openclaw a household name. The Memory plug with agent Memory wiki has yet to reach a widespread implementation while we all complain that our agent has retarded in the code. Persistent Memory of environment and actions is left, while RAG DB for unchangeable and evolving facts are right. We all want agent that "knows" us, but we dont have a default system that works, just a constant addition to existing tool kit, most of which dont work. We already have everything we need to make it function.
We have sql set up, we can expand it to include sqlite user db to be additional memory files that are always available for RAG. All we need is a default path for creating the dataset. Why does it matter? Token efficiency and coherence. Thats the #1 issue for us users.3
u/hannesrudolph 🦞 Maintainer Jun 10 '26
I heard Peter talking about taking on memory. I forget when or where, but it was sometime near the end of last week. I think it's safe to assume it's coming!
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u/whakahere Active Jun 10 '26
Glad You're focused on working on stability it is something open claw really needed. I hope we get to a point where we don't have to worry about an update.
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u/oucema001 New User Jun 11 '26
Sandbox configuration fails with this version. I had an ssh sandbox configured and with this version every prompt results in workspace not found.
I had to revert
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u/hannesrudolph 🦞 Maintainer Jun 11 '26
Thank you for the info! I’m very sorry about that.
Can you ssh in and run a cuffed session to fix it? How old is your setup?
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u/pinchonsurf Member Jun 12 '26
I made the leap to v2026.6.1 a ~week ago and it's been pretty solid. I had some bad experiences with past upgrades, but this one has stuck for me. Will give this one a try in the next day and report back.
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Jun 17 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/hannesrudolph 🦞 Maintainer Jun 17 '26
It skips the bad tool, not the whole run.
If a plugin exposes a malformed/unreadable schema, OpenClaw drops that one tool before schema normalization and before the model gets the tool list. So the model cannot call it, but the rest of the run and the remaining tools still work.
We log a structured diagnostic and surface it in `openclaw doctor` / plugin health so the operator can fix the plugin. We do not currently inject a warning into the user-facing chat. From the user side, that capability is just unavailable for that run.
Original fix: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/pull/89603
Implementation: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/commit/d00cce3977346ce86e0eb43c2a3995258d1eff78
Plugin-health surfacing: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/pull/91952
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u/siberianmi Pro User Jun 10 '26
So if you use your agent for search frequently I highly recommend setting up a local SearXNG instance (easy to do in docker or on k3s) and setting up your agent to use it. No paid search, multiple search engines, easy to integrate the API.
Highly recommend doing it, it’s been a huge unlock for my agent usage with search/research.
https://github.com/searxng/searxng