Release Notes

v0.8.7 (March 9, 2026)

This patch release repairs the published npm lockfile so clean installs and GitHub Actions npm ci runs stay aligned with the shipped v0.8.6 runtime state.

Highlights

  • Clean-install repair: restored the optional nested lockfile records for opusscript and utf-8-validate that some npm runners require during npm ci, eliminating the release-line install failure on fresh environments.
  • No runtime behavior change: the app behavior remains the same as v0.8.6; this patch is about packaging/install integrity, not a new feature rollout.

Upgrade Guidance

  1. Upgrade SwarmClaw to v0.8.7 if you install from npm, rely on npm ci, or use the GitHub Actions release workflow.
  2. If you already pulled v0.8.6 source and installed dependencies successfully, no runtime migration is required beyond updating to the fixed patch line.

v0.8.6 (March 9, 2026)

This release focuses on chat-surface consistency, smarter provider model discovery, and lower UI refresh pressure across agent and thread navigation.

Highlights

  • Canonical agent plugin state: agent edits now persist enabled tools on the canonical plugins field, new agents start from a fuller default tool set, and agent-thread sessions stay in sync so inspector and chat-surface counts do not drift after saves.
  • Live provider model hydration: testing or saving provider credentials can now sync live model catalogs into the saved provider model list for discoverable providers, giving operators a more accurate model picker without manual copy or paste.
  • Lower refresh pressure across the UI: session, task, provider, and connector loaders now skip no-op writes, while agent and chat switching paths avoid redundant message reloads that previously caused visible rerender churn.
  • Chat surface polish plus release diagnostics: desktop image attachments now open in the shared preview panel, and the release toolchain now includes a dedicated browser workbench smoke path plus perf tracing hooks for regression checks.

Upgrade Guidance

  1. Upgrade SwarmClaw to v0.8.6 and restart the app and docs deployment.
  2. Re-run provider connection tests for any saved key or endpoint where you want the live model catalog persisted into the picker.
  3. If you keep long-lived agent chats pinned, expect tool counts and inspector badges to stay aligned after agent tool edits without requiring a manual dropdown reopen.
  4. If you use browser-based release checks, switch to the updated workbench smoke path and optional perf trace capture for UI regressions.

v0.8.4 (March 8, 2026)

This patch release promotes the latest connector-manager follow-up fix onto the v0.8.4 line without changing the broader v0.8.3 rollout shape.

Highlights

  • Connector manager follow-up fix: the current release commit already includes the latest connector-manager fix, and v0.8.4 exists to publish that corrected runtime state under a fresh patch version.
  • No installer or deployment workflow changes: install snippets, docs alignment, and deployment steps stay the same as v0.8.3; this is a patch-line promotion rather than a new feature rollout.

Upgrade Guidance

  1. Upgrade SwarmClaw to v0.8.4 and restart the app and docs deployment.
  2. If you validated the connector-manager behavior locally on top of the v0.8.3 commit, this is the tagged patch release for that same tested state.

v0.8.3 (March 8, 2026)

This release focuses on local runtime stability, lighter chat-index payloads, and clearer daemon ownership of background services.

Highlights

  • Lightweight chat index payloads: /api/chats now serves session summaries instead of full transcript histories, so the shell and home surfaces can load recent chats without pulling every message into the browser.
  • Lower hot-path reload pressure: thread switches, plugin toggles, and header/tooling refresh paths now use narrower session refreshes instead of repeatedly reloading the entire chat corpus.
  • Daemon owns background startup again: scheduler and queue bootstrap now happen through the daemon path instead of being started independently during server instrumentation, so the daemon toggle reflects the real background-service state.
  • Safer local runtime detection: local installs where NODE_ENV is unset now behave like development for auth/proxy fallback logic and daemon autostart defaults, avoiding accidental production-style lockouts during dev.
  • Dev-shell stability cleanup: duplicate request storms were reduced across websocket fallback polling, approvals, plugin UI fetches, and devserver starts, making the app less likely to bog down after repeated chat or agent switches.

Upgrade Guidance

  1. Upgrade SwarmClaw to v0.8.3 and restart the app and docs deployment.
  2. Expect chat list and home surfaces to feel lighter on large local installs because recent-chat metadata no longer requires full transcript payloads.
  3. If you use the daemon toggle during local testing, note that scheduler/queue ownership now follows the daemon state more faithfully than before.
  4. If you want daemon autostart in local dev, set SWARMCLAW_DAEMON_AUTOSTART=true; otherwise local boots stay manual.

v0.8.2 (March 8, 2026)

This release gives bounded turns more headroom and tightens the agent routing around memory writes, current-thread recall, and exact output structure.

Highlights

  • Higher bounded-turn headroom: the default agent recursion limit is now 120 instead of 60, giving longer bounded tool runs more room before they stop early.
  • Cleaner memory-write routing: remember-and-confirm turns stay on direct memory writes instead of getting mistaken for same-thread recall, and bundled related facts are now guided toward one canonical memory write.
  • Sharper recall separation: current-thread recall keeps using the active chat context, but direct write requests no longer get diverted into the recall path just because they mention confirmation.
  • Stricter output-shape guidance: deliverable follow-through now preserves exact bullet-count constraints and required titled sections more explicitly when writing files.
  • Memory plugin guidance refresh: the built-in memory tools now tell agents to prefer one canonical store call when a single request contains several related facts.

Upgrade Guidance

  1. Upgrade SwarmClaw to v0.8.2 and restart the app and docs deployment.
  2. If you rely on long bounded tool runs, expect fewer early cutoffs before you need to raise runtime settings manually.
  3. If you test remember-and-confirm prompts or multi-fact memory capture, rerun those flows against this release because memory-write routing is now narrower and more deliberate.
  4. If you generate structured docs or plans from prompts with exact section/bullet constraints, recheck those outputs because the follow-through policy now treats those shape requirements as hard constraints.

v0.8.1 (March 8, 2026)

This release tightens operator-facing behavior for notifications, memory routing, local observability, and eval coverage.

Highlights

  • Notification dedupe with activity counts: repeated events with the same dedup key now refresh one notification, keep the unread state intact, and show occurrence counts plus latest activity time in the home view and notification center.
  • Sharper memory vs recall routing: current-thread recall turns now stay inside the active chat instead of reaching for long-term memory or delegation, while direct memory-write requests steer agents straight to narrow memory tools.
  • Cleaner agent/tool discipline: manage_agents and manage_secrets now reject misuse as general memory storage, discovery/delegate flows tell agents to call already-enabled tools directly, and agent creation dedupes same-session duplicates more reliably.
  • Eval + runtime hardening: the regression suite adds blackboard-fit and follow-through coverage, eval turns persist only intentional internal user messages, and OpenClaw-linked thread sessions retain their openclawAgentId mapping.
  • Health/local operator polish: synthetic workbench/comparison sessions no longer spam daemon health alerts, stale-heartbeat alerts dedupe cleanly, HMR refreshes daemon timers, and localhost operators can see platform-owned sessions that stay hidden from remote users.

Upgrade Guidance

  1. Upgrade SwarmClaw to v0.8.1 and restart the app and docs deployment.
  2. Expect fewer duplicate notifications after repeated health or approval events; the latest activity time and repeat count now update in place.
  3. If you rely on memory-heavy automations or eval harnesses, re-run them against this release because current-thread recall and direct memory-write routing are now stricter.
  4. Local operators can continue to inspect system/platform sessions on localhost, but those sessions remain hidden from non-local browser views.

v0.8.0 (March 8, 2026)

This release focuses on release hardening for plugins, OpenClaw gateway verification, and outbound voice-note reliability.

Highlights

  • Plugin source/channel clarity: Marketplace installs now preserve both the plugin publisher and the install channel, so the UI can distinguish SwarmForge, SwarmClaw Site, ClawHub, and direct URL installs cleanly.
  • Canonical first-party plugin flow: The hosted registry remains a generated mirror of swarmclawai/swarmforge, making it clearer that SwarmForge is the first-party source of truth and the site is the public distribution mirror.
  • WebSocket-first OpenClaw health: Gateway health checks now treat successful websocket gateway auth as the primary health signal. Missing OpenAI-compatible /v1/chat/completions support is reported as a warning instead of a false hard failure.
  • Voice-note delivery fallback: Outbound ElevenLabs voice-note sends now retry with the built-in fallback voice when a saved default voice is rejected as a paid-only/library voice, keeping WhatsApp delivery working for affected setups.
  • Production start-path fix: npm run start now launches the standalone production server that matches the app's Next.js standalone build output.

Upgrade Guidance

  1. Upgrade SwarmClaw to v0.8.0 and restart the app and docs deployment.
  2. Re-run npm run sync:plugin-registry in the site repo before deploying docs so the public marketplace mirror matches swarmforge.
  3. If you use OpenClaw, expect gateway verification to show websocket health even when the optional HTTP /v1 chat endpoint is disabled.
  4. If you send WhatsApp voice notes, keep your ElevenLabs API key configured; older paid-only voice IDs now fall back automatically instead of breaking delivery.

v0.7.8 (March 7, 2026)

This release turns projects and task execution into longer-lived operating context, while making approvals, connectors, and the live chat surface more resilient.

Highlights

  • Project operating system: Projects now store durable objectives, audience, pilot priorities, open objectives, credential requirements, success metrics, and preferred heartbeat prompts/intervals. The project detail view also rolls up related agents, tasks, schedules, and secrets together.
  • Project-aware agents: Active project context now flows into agent runtime prompts and platform tools, so agents can answer from the current project brief and default new work toward that project when appropriate. Project workspaces are provisioned automatically.
  • Durable task continuation: Follow-up tasks can inherit project, agent, working directory, session, and CLI resume state from earlier tasks via continuation-style inputs, and queued tasks now wait for blocker tasks to complete before running.
  • Approval and surface controls: Settings now expose task-management and project-management toggles, while the approvals center adds operator controls for manual approvals, auto-approve categories, and outbound connector-send confirmation.
  • Connector resilience: Enabled connectors now auto-recover after disconnects or dev-server restarts with bounded exponential backoff instead of silently disabling themselves.
  • Chat/runtime polish: Finished streaming replies no longer trigger a full thread reload, Gemini resume handles now surface in delegation banners, and connector/web tools accept more forgiving media and URL inputs while handling cookie banners more reliably.

Upgrade Guidance

  1. Upgrade SwarmClaw to v0.7.8 and restart the app and docs deployment.
  2. Revisit Projects to fill in objective, audience, priorities, credential requirements, and heartbeat cadence for any active workstream.
  3. If you rely on durable automation, review Approvals and Settings -> Capability Policy so the new task/project controls and auto-approve categories match your operating model.
  4. If you use connectors, leave them enabled and let the daemon recover them automatically after restart; only intervene if a connector remains exhausted after the bounded retry window.

v0.7.7 (March 7, 2026)

This release turns OpenClaw Smart Deploy into a fuller control-plane workflow instead of a first-run helper only.

Highlights

  • In-house SSH deploy: SwarmClaw can now push the official OpenClaw Docker bundle to your own VPS over SSH and bootstrap it there without relying on outside deployment services.
  • Remote lifecycle controls: Gateway deploy panels now expose remote start, stop, restart, upgrade, backup, restore, and token rotation for SSH-managed OpenClaw hosts.
  • Safer remote defaults: Smart Deploy now carries clearer use-case templates (local-dev, single-vps, private-tailnet, browser-heavy, team-control) and exposure presets (private-lan, tailscale, caddy, nginx, ssh-tunnel) through onboarding and the main app.
  • Onboarding persistence: OpenClaw setup choices made during onboarding now persist into the saved gateway profile, including deployment metadata, notes, tags, and verified connection state.
  • Gateway mobility: Gateway editing now supports import/export JSON flows, while the Providers screen adds fast cloning for existing OpenClaw gateway profiles.
  • Fleet visibility + runtime controls: External Agent Runtimes now show lifecycle state, gateway assignment, version, tags, last-seen data, and direct activate/drain/cordon/restart controls.
  • Routing preferences: Agents and route targets can now prefer OpenClaw gateways by tags or deployment use case instead of only hard-pinning a single saved gateway.
  • CLI parity: The built-in CLI now exposes local restart, SSH deploy, verify, and remote lifecycle commands, including backup restore.

Upgrade Guidance

  1. Upgrade SwarmClaw to v0.7.7 and restart the app and docs deployment.
  2. Revisit Providers -> OpenClaw Gateways to verify existing gateways and add deployment metadata for any older manual profiles.
  3. If you operate remote gateways, prefer tailscale or ssh-tunnel exposure unless you intentionally want public HTTPS ingress.
  4. Update any automation or internal docs to use the expanded swarmclaw openclaw deploy-* and swarmclaw openclaw remote-* command set.

v0.7.6 (March 7, 2026)

This release focuses on making OpenClaw deployment much easier for non-technical operators while keeping the supply chain on official OpenClaw sources only.

Highlights

  • OpenClaw Smart Deploy: SwarmClaw can now launch a local OpenClaw gateway directly from the app, generate a ready-to-save gateway profile, and expose the same flow during onboarding and from the main Providers screen.
  • Official-only remote bundles: Remote deployment helpers now stay on the official OpenClaw Docker image or the official OpenClaw repo. No third-party OpenClaw deployment services are used.
  • Top VPS presets: Docker-based Smart Deploy now includes provider-friendly presets for Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, Lightsail, Google Cloud, Azure, OCI, and generic Ubuntu hosts, including cloud-init.yaml.
  • Hosted OpenClaw templates: SwarmClaw can generate preconfigured Render, Fly.io, and Railway templates for official-repo deployments.
  • CLI deployment parity: The built-in CLI now includes openclaw deploy-status, openclaw deploy-local-start, openclaw deploy-local-stop, and openclaw deploy-bundle.
  • Docs refresh: Getting Started, Deployment, CLI, and OpenClaw setup docs were updated to match the new deployment flow and version line.

Upgrade Guidance

  1. Upgrade SwarmClaw to v0.7.6 and restart the app.
  2. Revisit Providers -> OpenClaw Gateways to use the new Smart Deploy flow for any gateway you still create manually.
  3. If you expose remote gateways, prefer Tailscale, SSH tunneling, or a TLS reverse proxy instead of raw public ports.
  4. Update any internal runbooks that referenced unofficial OpenClaw hosting or old manual-only gateway setup steps.

v0.7.4 (March 6, 2026)

This release focuses on OpenClaw fleet management, setup polish, and safer autonomy defaults.

Highlights

  • Named gateway profiles: Providers now expose first-class OpenClaw gateway profiles with default selection, health checks, discovery helpers, and better operator visibility around remote endpoints.
  • External runtime visibility: SwarmClaw can track external agent runtimes that register and heartbeat into the control plane, making distributed OpenClaw-style workers visible in one place.
  • Setup wizard refresh: Onboarding now supports Quick Start, Intent Guided, and Custom Setup flows, starter kits, reusable provider mappings, and stricter OpenClaw connection verification before continuing.
  • Sandbox hardening: Local sandbox_exec is now Deno-only and fails closed when Deno is unavailable. Docs and tool guidance now steer simple API work to http_request and recurring automation to plugins plus schedules.
  • CLI/docs alignment: CLI coverage now includes the new gateways and external-agents surfaces, and the docs were refreshed to remove stale sandbox/Python guidance.

Upgrade Guidance

  1. Pull the latest code, install dependencies, and restart the app and docs deployment.
  2. If you use OpenClaw, revisit Providers to set a default gateway profile and rerun health checks after upgrade.
  3. If you use sandbox_exec, install or verify Deno on the host. npm run setup:easy will install it when missing.
  4. Update any scripts, skills, or docs that still assume Python support in the local sandbox or reference old chat main-loop CLI commands.

v0.7.3 (March 5, 2026)

This release focuses on autonomous runtime depth, durable human-loop workflows, and docs/runtime alignment for the plugin system.

Highlights

  • Browser autonomy upgrade: Browser sessions now persist profile state, observations, artifacts, and higher-level workflow actions for longer-running web tasks.
  • New primitive plugin families: Added built-in mailbox, ask_human, document, extract, table, and crawl capabilities for inbox automation, approvals, document/OCR parsing, schema-driven extraction, spreadsheet-style transforms, and multi-page research.
  • Durable waits everywhere: schedule_wake, mailbox replies, approval decisions, and related monitoring flows now sit on persisted watch jobs instead of transient in-memory timing only.
  • Plugin runtime cleanup: Canonical plugin family IDs, source-backed install/update metadata, encrypted secret settings, and real hook wiring are now reflected consistently across runtime, UI, and docs.
  • Plugin workspaces: Plugins can now carry dependency manifests, install workspace packages from the Plugins manager, and report dependency-install state back through the UI/API.
  • Connector/operator improvements: Connector health, thread context bootstrap, and operator tooling were expanded to make long-running chat-platform autonomy more debuggable, including the new connector doctor diagnostics surface.
  • Docs refresh: Plugin reference, plugin tutorial, provider model-selection guidance, and tools docs were brought up to date with the current runtime.

Upgrade Guidance

  1. Pull the latest code, install dependencies, and restart the app and any separate site deployment.
  2. Revisit Settings → Plugins for any plugin using settingsFields, especially inbox or connector-backed plugins.
  3. If you use browser-heavy autonomy, expect persistent browser profile state under your configured browser-profile directory.
  4. Review release docs and any external onboarding material for the new canonical plugin/tool names.

v0.7.2 (March 5, 2026)

This release focuses on chat-surface consistency, plugin extensibility, and new built-in agent capabilities.

Highlights

  • Chats are now canonical: API and CLI docs now center on /api/chats/* and swarmclaw chats ... (legacy sessions aliases remain in compatibility paths).
  • Plugin-driven runtime guidance: Plugins can inject capability lines, operating guidance, and context blocks into agent runtime prompts.
  • New plugin hook surface: Added support for afterChatTurn, getAgentContext, getCapabilityDescription, and getOperatingGuidance.
  • Plugin settings UI/API: Plugin-defined settingsFields now render in the Plugins detail sheet, backed by /api/plugins/settings.
  • New built-in tool plugins:
    • image_gen (generate_image) for OpenAI/Stability image generation
    • email for SMTP outbound mail (send, status)
    • calendar for Google/Outlook event management
  • Expanded CLI delegation: delegate now supports Gemini CLI (delegate_to_gemini_cli) alongside Claude/Codex/OpenCode.
  • Usage telemetry expansion: /api/usage now includes byPlugin token/cost rollups; the usage dashboard includes a plugin token usage chart.
  • State migration hardening: runtime now migrates legacy tools fields to plugins for agents and chats.

Operational Notes

  • New API endpoints:
    • GET /api/plugins/settings?pluginId=...
    • PUT /api/plugins/settings?pluginId=...
  • Main-loop controls apply to agent-thread and orchestrated chats.
  • Task metadata now includes geminiResumeId when Gemini CLI delegation is used.

Upgrade Guidance

  1. Pull latest code, install dependencies, and restart.
  2. Validate plugin settings in Settings → Plugins for any plugin using settingsFields.
  3. Update scripts/integrations from sessions routes/commands to chats.
  4. Verify telemetry consumers can handle optional byPlugin in /api/usage.

v0.7.0 (March 4, 2026)

This release focuses on plugin reliability, clearer operator feedback, and release hardening.

Highlights

  • Plugin safety guardrails: Plugins that fail repeatedly are auto-disabled to protect runtime stability.
  • Operator visibility: Auto-disable events generate Notification Center warnings with direct links to the Plugins manager.
  • Failure diagnostics: Consecutive plugin failure metadata is persisted for debugging and shown in plugin management views.
  • Manual recovery flow: Disabled plugins can be re-enabled manually after fixes.
  • OpenClaw-compatible plugin runtime: Compatibility paths remain first-class while plugin execution is better isolated and observable.
  • Installed plugin detail UX: Plugin cards and detail views now surface clearer descriptions, status, source metadata, and capability badges.
  • Marketplace URL normalization: Legacy marketplace entries pointing to swarmclawai/plugins are normalized to swarmclawai/swarmforge during install.
  • Hydration hardening: Nested button structures in list-card UIs were removed to eliminate hydration errors.
  • Clipboard compatibility: Copy actions now use a fallback path when navigator.clipboard is unavailable.

Operational Notes

  • New optional environment variable:
    • SWARMCLAW_PLUGIN_FAILURE_THRESHOLD (default 3)
  • New failure state file:
    • data/plugin-failures.json

Upgrade Guidance

  1. Update to the latest tag and restart.
  2. Review Notification Center for any plugin auto-disable alerts after startup.
  3. Re-enable affected plugins only after validating their logs and recent changes.