OpenClaw v2026.3.22 Ships New Plugin SDK, ClawHub Marketplace, GPT-5.4 Support
What Happened
OpenClaw shipped version 2026.3.22 on March 23, marking one of the most significant architectural releases since the platform's November 2025 debut. The headline change is a new public Plugin SDK that replaces the legacy openclaw/extension-api entry point entirely — no compatibility shim is provided, making this a hard migration for existing plugin authors. The new SDK surface, available under openclaw/plugin-sdk/* subpaths, introduces injected runtime capabilities, curated interfaces, and official test helpers.
Alongside the SDK, the release formalizes ClawHub as the primary plugin source. When running openclaw plugins install , OpenClaw now queries ClawHub before falling back to npm, effectively placing the curated marketplace ahead of the open registry in the resolution chain. Native openclaw skills search | install | update commands were added for skill management within chat, and the gateway gains ClawHub-backed update tracking.
On the model side, GPT-5.4 becomes the new standard model (replacing GPT-5.3), with GPT-5.4-mini and GPT-5.4-nano added as lighter options. Anthropic's Claude models via Google Vertex AI, MiniMax-M2.7, and several new OpenAI variants join the supported provider list. The Matrix channel received a full rebuild using the official matrix-js-sdk, resolving a longstanding module-loading bug. Feishu gains structured approval cards, and Telegram adds custom Bot API endpoints.
Why It Matters
The ClawHub-first install order formalizes what was already a de facto preference for curated, vetted skills over the open npm registry. For the ecosystem, this is significant: ClawHub crossed 13,000 skills in February, and the new SDK gives marketplace authors a stable, documented interface to build against. The removal of extension-api without a shim is an aggressive breaking change, but it signals that OpenClaw's maintainers are willing to accept short-term friction to establish a cleaner architecture before the ecosystem grows any larger.
The GPT-5.4 default reflects OpenAI's rapid model cadence and OpenClaw's strategy of shipping upstream model improvements as first-class defaults rather than requiring user configuration. Vertex AI support for Claude models is particularly noteworthy for enterprise users who need cloud-hosted Claude without direct Anthropic API dependency — it opens a path for organizations already standardized on Google Cloud to adopt OpenClaw with managed compliance controls.
What's Next
Plugin authors using openclaw/extension-api must migrate to openclaw/plugin-sdk/* subpaths. The official migration guide is at https://docs.openclaw.ai/plugins/sdk-migration. ClawHub publishers can now register packages in the new catalog for resolution via openclaw plugins install clawhub:. With NVIDIA NemoClaw and Anthropic's Claude Dispatch both released in the same week, this v2026.3.22 drop consolidates the platform's infrastructure just as commercial interest peaks.
Related
- ClawHub — the official OpenClaw skills marketplace
- OpenClaw Plugin SDK — developer reference for the new SDK