OpenClaw Newsletter

Daily updates from the OpenClaw ecosystem

Wednesday, February 18, 2026

In This Issue

Top Stories

  • OpenAI acquires OpenClaw creator — Multiple sources report OpenAI has hired OpenClaw's founder, with Spanish and German communities actively discussing the implications.
  • Agent autonomously starts streaming setup — Japanese user reports their OpenClaw agent began downloading and installing OBS Studio after being told to "become an AITuber," sparking excitement across 160 retweets.
  • v2026.2.15 production upgrade goes viral — Chinese tech community celebrates major cost reductions from prompt caching and smart context compression, with users calling it a leap from "experimental toy to production-grade platform."
  • MyClaw launches 24/7 managed agents — New always-on OpenClaw service gains traction with 18 retweets, offering web-accessible agents that run continuously.
  • Europe regulation backlash emerges — German discussions highlight OpenClaw creator's criticism of European AI restrictions compared to US enthusiasm, generating significant community engagement.

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Releases

• openclaw v2026.2.17 adds Anthropic 1M context beta header support for Opus/Sonnet via `model params.context1m: true` and enhanced model support. Download • Repository milestone: OpenClaw reaches 206,447 stars and 37,760 forks with 728 contributors across the project. View on GitHub • npm package: Weekly downloads hit 961,842 for the multi-channel AI gateway with extensible messaging integrations. Install via npm

Community

  • arosstale's bug fixing streak — Prolific contributor arosstale has 12+ open PRs fixing critical issues across LINE, Discord, Telegram, Slack, and voice calls, including silent config truncation and message handler crashes. View PRs
  • Amazon Bedrock first-class support — PR #19841 adds Bedrock to the onboarding wizard, eliminating manual config file editing for AWS credential chains and IAM setup.
  • OpenClaw npm update limitation — Issue #19835 reveals `openclaw update` only works for git installations, not npm global installs, affecting user experience for non-developer users.
  • Japanese localization added — PR #19881 introduces Japanese locale for the Control UI, expanding international accessibility.
  • Ollama embeddings for memory search — PR #19865 adds Ollama as an embedding provider option for agents' memory search functionality, supporting local deployment scenarios.

News

  • "The OpenClaw bot that defamed an OSS maintainer is a human crypto bro" [HOT] - Video investigation reveals human behind controversial bot behavior, sparking debate about AI accountability [Watch] (63 engagement points, 27 upvotes on HN)
  • DigitalOcean Marketplace Launch - OpenClaw now available as one-click deployment on DigitalOcean Droplets, making self-hosting accessible to mainstream developers [Deploy]
  • "Visual org chart editor for OpenClaw multi-agent systems" - Dev builds drag-and-drop interface for designing AI agent teams with one-click config export [Tutorial]
  • "I Controlled My Laptop From My Phone Using WhatsApp" - Real-world demo of OpenClaw's remote automation capabilities through messaging apps [Guide]
  • "Stop Using OpenClaw for Everything" critique - Engineering reality check on when AI agents add genuine value vs creating unnecessary complexity [Read]