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OpenClaw 2026.10.10: Power-User Guide to Advisor, MCP Relay and Event Automations

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Last updated: November 3, 2026

OpenClaw 2026.10.10 is a large feature release of the open-source personal agent platform, published November 2, 2026 (ET). It adds a Chat Details panel, an experimental Advisor that flags wrong turns, an MCP Relay for ChatGPT and Claude, MCP event-triggered automations, remote device folders and split speech mode for Talk.

Contents

The GitHub release for v2026.10.10 credits 3,028 pull requests and 454 contributors. It follows maintenance releases 2026.10.8 (October 27) and 2026.10.9 (October 29), which focused on update recovery and security patches. This guide uses the official 2026.10.10 release notes and the OpenClaw documentation.

What’s new at a glance

Feature What it does How to enable
Chat Details Session information and task progress in a side panel On by default; Details button toggles it
Advisor Reviews ongoing work and suggests corrections Experimental; Settings, System, Labs
MCP Relay ChatGPT, Codex and Claude reach your Gateway without an open port openclaw plugins enable mcp-relay
MCP Events Automations start when an MCP server sends an event Opt-in mcp-events plugin; public HTTPS callback
Device folders Agent works in place in a folder on a paired computer nodeHost.workerRuns.folders controls access
Split speech Talk Typed-chat model plus separate transcription and speech services Configure speech services first
Conversation messaging Always, Ask or Never for messages between conversations Session settings

Chat Details panel

The progress and pull-request bars that sat above the message box now live in a Details panel. On wide panes it opens beside the conversation; you can also toggle it with the Details button.

The Subagents panel now lists running and finished swarm workers and lets you read their transcripts. If a run ends after using tools but without a final reply, its progress stays visible with an Interrupted label.

Advisor: course corrections during a task

Advisor checks an agent’s ongoing work and may suggest a short correction when it finds a clear wrong turn, such as repeating a failed approach or drifting from your request. According to the Control UI feature reference, reviews use the session’s own model, steer active work and fall back to advice on the next turn.

  1. Open Settings, then System, then Labs.
  2. Turn on Advisor.
  3. Choose Configure to set the tool-call and run-time review intervals.
  4. Start a long task and watch for Advisor notes in the conversation.

Advisor uses extra model calls, can miss problems and can suggest unnecessary changes. It does not run tools or approve actions. Enable it for long, multi-step sessions and leave it off for short chats.

MCP Relay for ChatGPT, Codex and Claude

The MCP Relay documentation explains that the bundled mcp-relay plugin connects your Gateway to https://mcp.openclaw.ai over an outbound WebSocket. Remote clients connect to https://mcp.openclaw.ai/mcp, so you do not expose a Gateway port or share your Gateway password.

  1. On the Gateway host, run openclaw plugins enable mcp-relay, then openclaw mcp-relay status to confirm the connection.
  2. Add https://mcp.openclaw.ai/mcp as a plugin in ChatGPT or a custom connector in Claude. For Codex, run codex mcp add openclaw --url https://mcp.openclaw.ai/mcp and then codex mcp login openclaw.
  3. Choose Sign in with your Gateway, or create a single-use code under Connected apps, Pair with code (or openclaw mcp-relay pair on a single-user Gateway).
  4. Check the app name and return host, pick the access level and choose Allow. Requests and codes expire after ten minutes.

The default access is Read and write, capped by your own role. Full access can include administration and approval rights, so the docs advise choosing it only for an app and relay you trust. You can revoke any app under Connected apps. For setup on the client side, see our Claude Code power-user guide and the Codex CLI 0.166 guide.

Event-triggered automations

Automations can now start when a connected MCP server reports a supported event instead of polling on a timer. The MCP Events documentation says the opt-in mcp-events plugin implements the OpenAI webhook profile on MCP protocol 2026-07-28, with signed webhooks and per-subscription HMAC authentication.

To set it up, connect the MCP server through the normal MCP settings, enable the plugin with a callbackOrigin such as https://events.example.com, and route only /plugins/mcp-events/callback/ to the Gateway through your HTTPS reverse proxy. Then create an automation whose schedule uses "kind": "event" with "source": "mcp-events", naming the server and event. The mcp_events tool and the Automation editor list the events a server offers.

Do not expose the Control UI or Gateway WebSocket, and keep tokens and signing secrets out of automation instructions.

Working in a folder on another computer

OpenClaw can now run on a server while the agent works directly in a project folder on your laptop, without copying it. Per the session hosting documentation, the paired computer’s nodeHost.workerRuns.folders setting has three modes: unset allows any existing directory except filesystem roots, a list such as ["~/Projects"] limits sessions to those roots, and [] disables the feature. Restart the node host after changing it.

In the workspace picker, choose Existing folder on device. The docs call the folder list a guardrail, not an exec sandbox, so enable session hosting only on trusted devices.

Split speech mode for Talk

A new split speech option for browser Talk sends spoken requests to the same model that answers your typed messages, while separate configured services handle transcription and speech output. Split mode has no realtime voice switching or camera input.

Other changes worth knowing

  • Separate send and receive settings for messages between conversations: Always, Ask to approve each new message, or Never. Both default to Always.
  • Pin and reorder sidebar pages and conversations; old shortcuts do not carry over.
  • The command palette also opens with Cmd+P on Mac or Ctrl+P elsewhere.

If you are comparing agent hosts, our Open WebUI 0.12 guide covers a self-hosted chat interface, and the Cursor Remote Control guide covers steering local coding agents from a phone.

How to upgrade

The install guide lists Node 24.16.0 or later on 24.x, or Node 26.1.0 or later, with Node 26 recommended. New installs on macOS, Linux or WSL2 can use curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash. Existing npm installs update with openclaw update; the release notes point to openclaw update repair when plugin checks or an unfinished update record need attention.

Known limitations

  • Advisor is experimental, adds model calls and can be wrong.
  • MCP Events needs a public HTTPS callback and supports only one events profile.
  • Device-folder sessions lack attachments and the Files panel, and the relay can read the traffic it carries.
  • Downgrading can drop new settings, such as conversation messaging choices, which older versions do not enforce.

For other open-source agent releases this fall, see the OpenCode 2.2 guide and the Charm Crush 0.99 guide.

Frequently asked questions

What is new in OpenClaw 2026.10.10?

The headline changes are a Chat Details panel beside the conversation, an experimental Advisor that can suggest course corrections, split speech mode for browser Talk, sessions that work in a folder on another paired computer, the MCP Relay for ChatGPT, Codex and Claude, and automations that start from MCP server events.

How do I turn on the OpenClaw Advisor?

Advisor is off by default. Open Settings, then System, then Labs, and enable Advisor. Its Configure button sets the tool-call and run-time review intervals. Reviews use the session’s own model, so they add model calls, and advice never runs tools or approves actions.

How do I connect ChatGPT or Claude to OpenClaw?

Run openclaw plugins enable mcp-relay on the Gateway host, then add https://mcp.openclaw.ai/mcp as a plugin in ChatGPT or a custom connector in Claude. Approve the app with Sign in with your Gateway or a single-use pairing code. Codes expire after ten minutes.

Do OpenClaw event automations need a public server?

Yes. The mcp-events plugin needs a public HTTPS callback origin, and only the /plugins/mcp-events/callback/ path should be routed to the Gateway. It supports the OpenAI webhook profile of MCP Events, not every draft Events feature.

Is OpenClaw free and open source?

Yes. The OpenClaw repository on GitHub is published under the MIT License. You pay only for the model providers and any hosting you choose to use.

Sources

Image: OpenClaw logo by Onur Solmaz, via Wikimedia Commons, MIT License (trademarked), placed on a white background and resized. FreeAnswers is not affiliated with OpenClaw.



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