OpenClaw Releases v2026.4.20 with Kimi K2.6 as Default Model

Gate News message, April 21 — OpenClaw, an open-source AI Agent platform, released v2026.4.20 on April 20, introducing significant updates to default model switching, plugin contract handling, and gateway storage optimization.

The release switches the default model for Moonshot’s built-in channels, web search, and multimodal understanding to Kimi K2.6, while maintaining backward compatibility with Kimi K2.5. Moonshot now allows thinking.keep = “all” exclusively on Kimi K2.6; other Moonshot models or requests with fixed tool_choice parameters will have the field automatically removed. The update adds tiered pricing for cost estimation with built-in pricing for Kimi K2.6 and K2.5, enabling direct token usage billing.

A critical fix reverts the strict ID contract introduced on April 14, which required plugin info.id to match registered slot IDs and caused third-party context engine plugins like lossless-claw to be rejected on every round. BlueBubbles text delivery default timeout increased from 10 to 30 seconds, and macOS 26 Tahoe now prioritizes Private API even when disabled, preventing silent message loss.

On the operations side, Cron now separates runtime execution state into jobs-state.json while keeping jobs.json for git-friendly task definitions. Sessions storage enables default entry limits and time-based trimming on startup, preventing memory buildup in gateway and executor. The Onboarding wizard redesigned security instructions with yellow warning banners and sectioned lists, added loading animations for initial model directory loading, and included placeholders in API key input fields. Security was further tightened for Gateway WebSocket broadcasts, device pairing permissions, and workspace .env injection blocking for OPENCLAW_* keys.