Which OpenClaw version has the stale reply bug?

Reported in v2026.5.2 (GitHub issue #76888, filed May 3, 2026).

How to avoid the stale reply bug in OpenClaw?

Avoid sending rapid consecutive messages in channel-backed sessions while a subagent task is active. The bug is triggered by the orphaned user-message merge behavior.

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clawsmith.com/signal/openclaw-queued-message-merge-stale-reply-v2026-5-2

⚠ IssueWide OpenLive

OpenClaw Queued Message Merge Produces Stale Reply — Model Answers Earlier Turn Instead of Latest Instruction

Q: What is the OpenClaw stale reply bug?

In channel-backed sessions, the message queue merge logic answers an earlier unresolved user turn instead of the latest instruction, producing a stale visible reply.

GitHub issue #76888 (filed May 3, 2026): in channel-backed sessions with queued/orphaned user-message merge behavior, the model answers an earlier unresolved user turn instead of the latest instruction, producing a stale visible reply. Merged and orphaned user messages are removed to prevent consecutive user turns, but the assistant response references the wrong message.

Product Idea from this Signal

A CLI tool that snapshots your OpenClaw state before updates, runs the upgrade in a sandboxed dry-run against your live config, and auto-rolls back if any health check fails

1667.8k ▲

OpenClaw ships updates every 2-3 days and each one risks breaking exec permissions, crashing the gateway, saturating CPU with plugin loading bugs, or silently deleting cron jobs. Four separate regressions in April 2026 alone (v2026.4.1 sandbox, v2026.4.5 CPU, v2026.4.14 memory timeouts, update command wiping Feishu and crons) hit thousands of self-hosters with no rollback path. The built-in openclaw doctor only validates config schema after the fact. This tool wraps the entire update lifecycle: snapshot state, dry-run the upgrade against your actual agent/cron/channel config, diff the before/after, and block or auto-rollback if anything regresses.

CLIOPEN-SOURCEDEVTOOLSELF-HOSTEDRELIABILITY

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