OpenClaw v2026.4.25: Full TTS Overhaul, PWA Push Notifications, and OTEL Everywhere

OpenClaw's v2026.4.25 release — currently rolling through its beta cycle — is one of the most substantial single-version updates in months. Four betas landed today alone, each refining a release that touches nearly every layer of the platform: voice output, plugin infrastructure, observability, browser automation, and the control UI. Here's what's changed.

TTS Gets a Complete Rebuild

The standout headline is voice. The TTS layer has been overhauled end-to-end with six new provider integrations and a richer control model:

• New providers: Azure Speech (with SSML escaping and native Ogg/Opus output), ElevenLabs v3, Xiaomi, Volcengine, Inworld, and Local CLI are all now bundled options.
• /tts latest — a new slash command that reads the most recent message aloud on demand, with built-in duplicate suppression so it doesn't double-up on already-spoken content.
• /tts chat on|off|default — session-scoped auto-TTS toggle, letting users flip voice mode for the current chat without touching global config.
• Per-agent TTS overrides: individual agents can now define their own voice and provider via agents.list[].tts, overriding the global messages.tts setting.
• Per-account channel overrides: Feishu and QQBot accounts gain deep-merge support for channels..accounts..tts, enabling per-account voice configs over the global baseline.
• Discord voice model override: channels.discord.voice.model now lets you pick a different LLM for voice channel responses, independent of STT and TTS media settings. (#64368)

The WhatsApp read-aloud flow is now complete: /tts latest works with duplicate suppression for on-demand voice notes in current-chat replies.

Plugin Registry Moves Cold

Plugin startup and install paths have been migrated off of runtime manifest scans and onto a cold persisted registry. The practical effect:

• Startup is faster — broad manifest scans at boot are replaced by indexed registry reads.
• openclaw plugins list now reads from the cold registry snapshot by default.
• openclaw plugins registry is a new command for explicit registry inspection and --refresh repair.
• openclaw doctor --fix now refreshes the plugin index and cold registry without treating install records as authored config.

The OPENCLAW_DISABLE_PERSISTED_PLUGIN_REGISTRY environment variable is now deprecated and marked as a break-glass switch. Operators should use registry repair instead.

Plugin hooks also expanded: before-agent-finalize hooks, cron jobId hook context, bounded native permission fingerprints, and Codex MCP hook relay support are all new. (#71765, #71758, #71707)

OpenTelemetry Coverage Expands Significantly

Observability coverage in v2026.4.25 is now considerably broader. New telemetry surfaces include:

• Model call spans: GenAI attributes aligned with the OpenTelemetry stability opt-in spec (gen_ai.provider.name emitted under OTEL_SEMCONV_STABILITY_OPT_IN=gen_ai_latest_experimental).
• Harness lifecycle: openclaw.harness.run spans and openclaw.harness.duration_ms metrics for QA-lab, Codex, and future harnesses — all sharing one trace shape.
• Token usage, tool loops, exec processes, outbound delivery, context assembly, and memory pressure all now emit bounded low-cardinality attributes.
• W3C traceparent propagation: trusted trace context from model calls is now forwarded to provider transports, with caller-supplied values replaced.
• Signal-specific OTLP endpoints: traces, metrics, and logs can now each have their own OTLP endpoint via config or standard OTEL environment variables.
• Bundled diagnostics-prometheus plugin: a new plugin adds a protected gateway scrape route for Prometheus-compatible low-cardinality metrics.
• Provider request hashes: request identifiers are now surfaced as bounded hashes on span events without exporting raw IDs.

Control UI Gets PWA and Web Push

The Gateway chat interface can now be installed as a Progressive Web App and receive Web Push notifications. (#44590) This closes the gap with native app experiences for users who primarily interact with OpenClaw through the browser-based control UI.

The openclaw browser start --headless command is also new — a one-shot override for launching the managed browser in headless mode without rewriting persisted config. Raspberry Pi users benefit from configurable CDP readiness timeouts to handle slower hardware. (#66803)

Crestodian Gets a TUI and First-Run Flow

The Crestodian setup experience has been significantly upgraded with:

• A full TUI interactive mode for the Crestodian planner
• A first-run setup helper with local planner fallback
• Startup progress indicators and a shorter startup greeting
• A context mode selector for choosing between context modes on startup

(#71720, #71760)

Install and Update Hardening

Cross-platform install hardening covers Windows, macOS, Linux, Docker, bundled plugin runtime deps, Node service restarts, LaunchAgent token rotation, and mixed-version gateway verification — contributed by six separate community members.

Google Meet also gains calendar-backed attendance export workflows, export manifests, and dry-run previews.

How to Update

npm install -g openclaw@latest

For those tracking the beta: v2026.4.25-beta.4 is the latest as of this writing. The full changelog is on GitHub Releases.