Removed surfaces and replacements

Old (openclaw/plugin-sdk/command-auth): buildCommandsMessage, buildCommandsMessagePaginated, buildHelpMessage.

New (openclaw/plugin-sdk/command-status): same signatures, imported from the narrower subpath. The command-auth compatibility re-exports have been removed.

// Before
import { buildHelpMessage } from "openclaw/plugin-sdk/command-auth";

// After
import { buildHelpMessage } from "openclaw/plugin-sdk/command-status";

Old: resolveMentionGating(params) and resolveMentionGatingWithBypass(params) from openclaw/plugin-sdk/channel-inbound or openclaw/plugin-sdk/channel-mention-gating.

New: resolveInboundMentionDecision({ facts, policy }) - one decision object instead of two split call shapes.

Adopted across Discord, iMessage, Matrix, MS Teams, QQBot, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, and Zalo. Slack's own app_mention event model does not use this helper.

openclaw/plugin-sdk/channel-runtime has been removed. Use openclaw/plugin-sdk/channel-runtime-context for registering runtime objects.

The native message schema helpers in openclaw/plugin-sdk/channel-actions were removed alongside raw "actions" channel exports. Expose capabilities through the semantic presentation surface instead - channel plugins declare what they render (cards, buttons, selects) rather than which raw action names they accept.

Old: tool() factory from openclaw/plugin-sdk/provider-web-search.

New: implement createTool(...) directly on the provider plugin. OpenClaw no longer needs the SDK helper to register the tool wrapper.

Old: api.runtime.channel.reply.formatInboundEnvelope(...) (and the channelEnvelope field on inbound message objects) to build a flat plaintext prompt envelope from inbound channel messages.

New: BodyForAgent plus structured user-context blocks. Channel plugins attach routing metadata (thread, topic, reply-to, reactions) as typed fields instead of concatenating them into a prompt string. The formatAgentEnvelope(...) helper is still supported for synthesized assistant-facing envelopes, but inbound plaintext envelopes are on the way out.

Affected areas: inbound_claim, message_received, and any custom channel plugin that post-processed the old envelope text.

Old: api.on("subagent_spawning", handler) returning threadBindingReady or deliveryOrigin.

New: let core prepare thread: true subagent bindings through the channel session-binding adapter. Use api.on("subagent_spawned", handler) only for post-launch observation.

// Before
api.on("subagent_spawning", async () => ({
  status: "ok",
  threadBindingReady: true,
  deliveryOrigin: { channel: "discord", to: "channel:123", threadId: "456" },
}));

// After
api.on("subagent_spawned", async (event) => {
  await observeSubagentLaunch(event);
});

The subagent_spawning hook and its event/result types were removed in August 2026 after thread binding moved to the core session-binding path.

Four discovery type aliases are now thin wrappers over the catalog-era types:

The aliases and legacy ProviderCapabilities static bag have been removed. Provider plugins should use explicit provider hooks such as buildReplayPolicy, normalizeToolSchemas, and wrapStreamFn rather than a static object.

Old (three separate hooks on ProviderThinkingPolicy): isBinaryThinking(ctx), supportsXHighThinking(ctx), and resolveDefaultThinkingLevel(ctx).

New: a single resolveThinkingProfile(ctx) that returns a ProviderThinkingProfile with the canonical id, optional label, and a ranked level list. OpenClaw downgrades stale stored values by profile rank automatically.

The context includes provider, modelId, optional merged reasoning, and optional merged model compat facts. Provider plugins can use those catalog facts to expose a model-specific profile only when the configured request contract supports it.

Implement one hook instead of three. The legacy hooks have been removed.

Old: implementing external auth hooks without declaring the provider in the plugin manifest.

New: declare contracts.externalAuthProviders in the plugin manifest and implement resolveExternalAuthProfiles(...).

{
  "contracts": {
    "externalAuthProviders": ["anthropic", "openai"]
  }
}

Old manifest field: providerAuthEnvVars: { anthropic: ["ANTHROPIC_API_KEY"] }.

New: mirror the same env-var lookup into setup.providers[].envVars on the manifest. This consolidates setup/status env metadata in one place and avoids booting the plugin runtime just to answer env-var lookups.

providerAuthEnvVars is no longer accepted.

Old: three separate calls - api.registerMemoryPromptSection(...), api.registerMemoryFlushPlan(...), api.registerMemoryRuntime(...).

New: one call on the memory-state API - registerMemoryCapability(pluginId, { promptBuilder, flushPlanResolver, runtime }).

Same slots, single registration call. Additive prompt and corpus helpers (registerMemoryPromptSupplement, registerMemoryCorpusSupplement) are not affected.

Old: api.registerMemoryEmbeddingProvider(...) plus contracts.memoryEmbeddingProviders.

New: api.registerEmbeddingProvider(...) plus contracts.embeddingProviders.

The generic embedding provider contract is reusable outside memory and is the supported path for every provider. The memory-specific registration API and manifest contract were removed after the 2026-08-21 migration deadline.

Old: return { ok, messageId, error } through ChannelSendRawResult and normalize it with createRawChannelSendResultAdapter(...).

New: return OutboundDeliveryResult fields and attach the channel with createAttachedChannelResultAdapter(...). Failed sends should throw instead of returning an error string. Put the platform destination in target: { kind: "chat" | "channel" | "room" | "conversation", id }; the old parallel chatId, channelId, roomId, and conversationId result fields are no longer accepted. The raw result type remains available until the next plugin-SDK major release.

Two legacy type aliases still exported from src/plugins/runtime/types.ts:

The runtime method readSession is deprecated in favor of getSessionMessages. Same signature; the old method calls through to the new one.

The SQLite session/transcript flip removes or deprecates plugin-facing APIs that exposed active sessions.json stores, JSONL transcript paths, or lists of session files. Runtime plugins should use session identity and SDK runtime helpers instead of resolving or mutating active files.

Legacy JSONL transcript files remain valid as import, archive, export, and support artifacts. They are no longer the steady-state runtime contract for active sessions.

The official @openclaw/codex and @openclaw/feishu plugins released with v2026.7.1-beta.5 imported the retired bridge. SDK-owner approval on September 30, 2026 closed its compatibility window early, replacing the former October 12 deadline. The supported-plugin cutoff excludes that release and any other package still importing the bridge. Upgrade affected plugins to versions using the replacements before upgrading OpenClaw. A newer version number alone is not evidence of migration.

openclaw/plugin-sdk/session-store-runtime and resolveStorePath(...) remain supported. Pass the selected agentId explicitly to scoped row operations; resolving a path no longer records an agent selection for a later whole-store call. This removal does not change SQLite schemas or legacy-state import and Doctor migrations.

openclaw plugins inspect --all --runtime reports non-bundled plugins whose load errors or diagnostics still reference these removed file APIs. The @openclaw/plugin-inspector advisory sweep must use version 0.3.17 or newer so external package scans also flag whole-store session helpers, session file-path helpers, legacy transcript file targets, and low-level transcript helpers before release.

New or updated harness plugins should implement AgentHarnessV2 and use AgentHarnessAttemptParamsV2, EmbeddedRunAttemptParamsV2, or AgentHarnessSideQuestionParamsV2. The V2 parameter types require hostCapabilities, matching what core supplies at the selected-harness boundary. A plugin that adopts these V2 contracts must declare openclaw.compat.pluginApi: ">=2026.8.1" (or a newer floor) in its package manifest so an older host rejects the plugin before loading it.

Existing plugins may continue implementing AgentHarness and constructing the legacy AgentHarnessAttemptParams, EmbeddedRunAttemptParams, or AgentHarnessSideQuestionParams types without that field through 2026-10-12. Those contracts keep the capability optional only for source compatibility; they do not create a capability-free runtime path. Migrate by changing the imported type name and binding tool or native-action surfaces through params.hostCapabilities.

The Tasks registry and TaskFlow orchestration APIs have been removed, including api.runtime.tasks, registerDetachedTaskRuntime, and the agent-harness-task-runtime SDK subpath. No compatibility facade remains. Use native subagent launch/wait/history APIs, cron run history, and the ordinary Lobster runner for their respective operations. Harness completion routing uses the completion-only agent-harness-completion subpath. This removal does not change the physical database schemas. Existing task_runs, task_delivery_state, and flow_runs tables, columns, and indexes remain unchanged. Cron reads and writes only its runtime = 'cron' history rows in task_runs; non-Cron Task and TaskFlow rows remain untouched and unused by the runtime. The Codex plugin's Doctor migration preserves eligible owner-stamped native recovery facts in existing parent binding metadata, leaving source rows byte-identical. It adds no runtime Task reader or replacement SDK surface; current requester authority still governs completion delivery. See the versioning contract.

Covered in How to migrate. Included here for completeness: the removed embedded-runner-only api.registerEmbeddedExtensionFactory(...) path is replaced by api.registerAgentToolResultMiddleware(...) with an explicit runtime list in contracts.agentToolResultMiddleware.

The OpenClawSchemaType root-SDK alias was removed. Use the canonical OpenClawConfig name.

// Before
import type { OpenClawSchemaType } from "openclaw/plugin-sdk";
// After
import type { OpenClawConfig } from "openclaw/plugin-sdk/config-contracts";