OpenClaw v2026.9.4: Plugin Discovery, Guided Skill Learning, GPT Image 2.5

OpenClaw v2026.9.4 is out: 1,558 pull requests, 20 direct commits, 293 contributors. The release focuses on making plugins and skills discoverable, letting you steer what your Claw learns from past conversations, and a few operational fixes.

Plugin and skill discovery

The Skills page now searches installed skills and ClawHub in a single view. Cards show what's ready versus what still needs setup. Plugin browsing follows the same pattern — installed and available choices appear together, and your Claw can recommend plugins or skills in chat. You can review a plugin before installing, then find its settings, permissions, and setup help in the browser. This matters if you've been digging through separate lists to figure out what's already configured versus what you still need to install.

Skill Workshop: guide what your Claw learns

"Learn from past conversations" in Skill Workshop opens a visible chat you can follow, steer, or stop. Two modes matter here:

• Auto — applies improvements without asking.
• Propose — leaves suggestions for your approval.

Starting a learning chat does not enable automatic self-learning, and normal model charges still apply. If you're cautious about an agent rewriting its own behavior, Propose is the safer default.

GPT Image 2.5 (Flare and Sunburst)

Two new variants: Flare and Sunburst. They support custom sizes, higher quality settings, transparent output, and edits using reference images. Variant selection is per-request — your default stays unchanged.

Access notes: OpenAI requires an API key even if you already use a ChatGPT sign-in. fal requires its own separate credentials.

Cloud sessions and Ready workers

Admins can save prepared projects and manage snapshots in Settings, then reuse that setup for new sessions. Ready workers keep a computer available for the next matching session. Defaults and limits:

• Eligible Linux projects get one spare per project and profile by default.
• Shared limit of four spares.
• Cloud charges continue until deletion is confirmed.
• Set a profile's Ready workers value to zero to disable its spares.

You can now choose an operating system when the provider supports it. Reusable images and desktop access remain Linux-only.

Terminal questions and secret requests

Your Claw can ask you to choose an option or type an answer directly in the terminal. Esc puts a question aside; /question brings it back. Secret requests use a masked entry box — what you type stays out of conversation history and requires a Gateway connection to save.

Web app and helper agents

The web app lets you preview loaded messages before jumping back to them on desktop, and you can add an editable quote to your draft. In Tasks, open a Codex helper to read its conversation and earlier messages — some older tasks still lack readable history. Finished helpers no longer display stale working messages.

Fixes worth knowing

• Discord voice notes keep their spoken words in channels where your Claw already reads without a mention.
• Affected Feishu document tools work again.
• Memory search stops dropping a better match when you request fewer results.
• Updates get fixes for stalled upgrades and clearer recovery reports.

Before updating: make and verify a backup. Restoring the previous app version does not restore your data.

If you run OpenClaw with a lot of community skills or cloud sessions, the discovery and Ready worker changes are the ones to test first.