OpenClaw 2.0 (v2026.8.2) Open your main agent in a side panel, Update break fixes, and use the new Linux app

OpenClaw v2026.8.2 is out, with 784 pull requests, 10 direct commits, and contributions from 134 people. OpenClaw 2.0 launched as v2026.8.1. This v2026.8.2 release is the first follow-up in the 2.0 series. If you missed the 2.0 release, OpenClaw 2.0, Accidentally explains what changed and how it became 2.0. Tomorrow at 11:30 AM PT, Peter is joining Patrick and me live on The ClawCast to talk about OpenClaw 2.0. Join the live recording through the podcast page: https://openclaw.ai/podcast The headline addition is a new Home button in the Control UI. Home is your selected agent’s main conversation, and the button opens it in a side panel beside the page or session you are currently using. You can ask your main agent for help without leaving your work, inspect or remove the small “Working on” snapshot included with your message, and open Home full-page without losing your draft or attachments. Start new sessions in the background From the New Session page, press Cmd+Enter on macOS or Ctrl+Enter elsewhere to start independent work without navigating away. OpenClaw prepares and runs the session in the background, then shows a notification that opens it when the first task finishes. Linux desktop and browser control Linux users now have an x86-64 desktop companion available as a .deb or AppImage, with Quick Chat in the system tray and an X11 keyboard shortcut. On supported macOS and Linux extension builds, a paired Chrome extension can also keep its authenticated local browser-control relay available while the Gateway is not running. The Gateway can reconnect to that same relay later without taking it away from other authenticated clients. Conversations, voice, and channels The Control UI gains four optional themes: Manuscript, Rosé, Miami, and CRT. Conversation drafts, queued messages, long histories, session links, and cross-session messages also behave more consistently. Voice and media work includes better Browser Talk turn ordering, more reliable spoken-reply delivery, improved Voice Call interruption handling, and fixes for images, audio, video, text attachments, and plain-text formatting. Discord, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, iMessage, LINE, Matrix, SMS, and shared Beam conversations receive additional delivery, routing, recovery, and presentation fixes. Setup, models, plugins, and recovery Guided setup does a better job of preserving the selected agent and model through reconnects. Required runtime plugins can be reviewed, installed, and verified in the same flow. Model and speech-provider selection, authentication, retries, and fallback guidance are more consistent. Plugin loading, updates, diagnostics, and capability approval also receive a broad reliability pass. Updates preserve more of the working installation and leave clearer recovery paths. Doctor can coordinate supported offline repairs with the managed Gateway, while busy Gateways, shutdowns, diagnostics, and session recovery do less unnecessary work. Full Release Notes Read the complete OpenClaw v2026.8.2 release notes.