v2026.3.7 — Context Engine Plugin Architecture + Container Overhaul

Released: March 8, 2026 Theme: Architectural change + multi-platform stability Breaking Changes: 1 (Gateway auth mode)

Overview

v2026.3.7 is March’s largest release — over 230 changes and fixes. The biggest architectural move is a pluggable Context Engine that lets third parties supply alternative context-management strategies via plugins. The release also hardens ACP persistent channel bindings, multi-stage Docker / Podman builds, and stability fixes across nearly every messaging platform.

Core Highlights

1. Context Engine Plugin Interface (New Architecture)

A major milestone in “pluggable core”. A new ContextEngine plugin slot exposes the full lifecycle:

bootstrap → ingest → assemble → compact → afterTurn → prepareSubagentSpawn → onSubagentEnded

Slot-based registry + config-driven resolution
LegacyContextEngine wrapper keeps backward compatibility
Scoped runtime for sub-agents via AsyncLocalStorage
Community can ship alternatives like lossless-claw compaction

The Context Engine plugin turns “context management” from core logic into a replaceable module. Different scenarios (long conversations, multi-document analysis, code review) can now adopt their own strategies.

2. ACP Persistent Channel Binding

Discord channels and Telegram topics persist across restarts
Telegram /acp spawn supports --thread here|auto for topic binding
Pinned confirmation message appears on successful binding
Per-topic agentId override: different topics route to dedicated agents

3. Docker / Podman Container Overhaul

Multi-stage builds: final image excludes build tools, source, and Bun
OPENCLAW_VARIANT=slim: produces a bookworm-slim variant
OPENCLAW_EXTENSIONS: preinstall selected bundled extensions during container build
Image size drops significantly; boot time noticeably faster

4. Plugin System Expansion

prependSystemContext / appendSystemContext: static plugin boot text can be added to the system prompt
plugins.entries.<id>.hooks.allowPromptInjection policy controls
Compaction lifecycle events: session:compact:before / session:compact:after
Bundled plugins migrate from monolithic imports to scoped subpaths
Startup performance: disabled plugins skip loading

5. Gateway SecretRef + Auth Hardening

gateway.auth.token supports SecretRef
API keys no longer written to models.json; auth tags strip token fragments
Config load fails closed
New gateway run --password-file

Breaking Changes

gateway.auth.mode must be set explicitly. When both gateway.auth.token and gateway.auth.password are set, pick token or password. Otherwise startup / pairing / TUI will fail.

Technical Direction

Pluggable Context Management

The Context Engine plugin lets the community ship alternative compaction strategies without touching core — much-needed flexibility for large contexts.

Modernized Container Deployment

Multi-stage builds + slim variant + preinstalled extensions continue improving container deployment ergonomics.

Cross-Platform Messaging Stability

LINE, Telegram, Discord, Feishu, Mattermost, Slack, WhatsApp, and iMessage all receive many fixes — LINE in particular consolidated dozens of PRs.

Notable Fixes

Memory / Hybrid search BM25 order: negative FTS5 ordering caused strong matches to rank below weak matches
TUI /new session isolation: multiple TUI clients were receiving each other’s replies
Routing binding scalability: large binding configs caused multi-second pauses in resolveAgentRoute
Slack app_mention race dedup: same message triggered duplicate replies
Config load fail-closed: invalid configs no longer silently downgrade to permissive defaults