OpenClaw 2026.9.2 turns on multi-agent swarms by default and speeds up chat

Your move: Swarm mode is now on unless you already turned it off

OpenClaw 2026.9.2 came out on September 5, 2026. Chat feels faster because loading long conversation history and cleaning up disk space now happen separately from the live chat instead of blocking it. The release also turns on "swarm" mode by default, so multiple sub-agents can work on a task at the same time, though it still respects anyone who had already turned that off. It adds support for OpenAI's new GPT-6 Astra model with text and image input, lets more settings change without restarting the whole system, and fixes a backup bug that could corrupt saved text containing certain special characters. The release includes 1,247 merged pull requests.

Why it matters

If you rely on OpenClaw running single-agent for predictability, check your settings after updating: swarm mode is now the default, not something you have to turn on. Everyone else gets a faster, more reliable app and a new model option for free.

Source: GitHub Releases ↗

Published by Agent Log. The summary reports the linked source; “Why it matters” and the verdict are Agent Log's interpretation.

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