What is defineToolPlugin in OpenClaw v2026.5.18?

A new API for creating typed simple tool plugins with generated manifest metadata, optional tool declarations, and context factories. Includes openclaw plugins build, validate, and init CLI commands.

Which plugins were externalized in v2026.5.18?

Amazon Bedrock, Bedrock Mantle, Slack, OpenShell sandbox, and Anthropic Vertex plugins. Their runtime dependencies only install when those plugins are explicitly installed.

What changed in the OpenClaw Mac app in v2026.5.18?

Settings pages redesigned with consistent card layouts, cached navigation, and cleaner permissions/voice/skills/cron/exec/debug panes.

What is the Python debugging skill in v2026.5.18?

A new skill for pdb, breakpoint(), post-mortem inspection, and debugpy remote attach — enabling comprehensive Python debugging within OpenClaw agents.

How many contributors worked on v2026.5.18?

75 contributors, 204 commits, with 73 GitHub reactions on the release. Over 150 bug fixes addressing edge cases in message delivery, OAuth handling, and tool execution.

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OpenClaw v2026.5.18: defineToolPlugin API, Plugin Externalization (Bedrock/Slack/Vertex), Mac App Redesign

OpenClaw v2026.5.18 released May 18 2026 with 73 GitHub reactions, 75 contributors, 204 commits. Major features: defineToolPlugin + openclaw plugins build/validate/init for typed simple tool plugins with generated manifest metadata. Externalizes Amazon Bedrock, Slack, OpenShell sandbox, and Anthropic Vertex plugins — runtime dependency cones install only when those plugins are installed (leaner core installs). Mac app redesigned settings pages with consistent card layouts. New Python debugging skill (pdb, breakpoint, debugpy). Android Talk Mode with realtime Gateway relay voice sessions.

Product Idea from this Signal

A CLI tool that validates, tests, and dry-runs OpenClaw plugins in an isolated sandbox before publishing to ClawHub

372.1k ▲

OpenClaw's plugin ecosystem ships broken packages to production. The Brave plugin v2026.5.2 went live with only TypeScript source and no compiled dist/, crashing every gateway that installed it into an unrecoverable 1.2-second restart loop. Four separate GitHub issues filed for the same root cause. The new defineToolPlugin SDK (v2026.5.18) gives plugin authors a typed API, but there is no validation step between writing a plugin and publishing it to ClawHub where 44,000+ skills live. This tool runs a full lifecycle check in an isolated container: schema validation, build verification, dependency audit, gateway integration test, and provider registration smoke test. It catches the exact class of bugs that took down Brave search users.

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