Release Notes

August 31, 2026

v0.0.117

NemoClaw v0.0.117 makes OpenShell the sole durable network-policy authority. It improves fail-closed recovery for sandboxes, Shields, the installer, Portable runtimes, and messaging channels. It also removes the deprecated Brev deploy wrapper and adds contributor and maintainer analysis tools.

  • OpenShell is now the sole durable source of sandbox policy state. NemoClaw policy commands and Shields operate on the live OpenShell policy without storing a second desired-policy copy, while rebuild carries the current policy through one private, temporary handoff. Legacy policy fields are removed from NemoClaw state without changing the live policy. Related change: PR #10515.
  • Failed onboarding cleanup now retains immutable sandbox, gateway, policy, and create-attempt evidence. While OpenShell still reports the sandbox live, destroy preserves recovery instead of deleting by mutable name. After OpenShell confirms absence, NemoClaw removes only containers that match the retained immutable identity and verifies their absence before clearing recovery state. Related change: PR #10571.
  • The OpenClaw memory secret scanner now covers writes under absolute named-workspace paths such as /sandbox/.openclaw/workspace-main/. Project directories whose names start with workspace- remain outside the memory-path classification unless they are under the OpenClaw state directory. Related change: PR #10527.
  • Hermes activation and Shields recovery now bind release acknowledgement, writer rescans, root-broker cleanup, and completed auto-restore lock retirement to exact process and transaction identities. Transient replaced writers are reconsidered under fresh identity, while live, foreign, durable, or ambiguous identity remains denied. Related changes: PR #10272, PR #10597, and PR #10603.
  • macOS upgrades can retire an identity-verified legacy OpenShell gateway or Homebrew service before selecting the checksum-verified replacement binaries. Managed startup also transfers protected receipts through read-only Docker volumes, so VM-backed Docker daemons such as Colima do not need access to a client-only temporary path. Failed verification retains the recovery receipts, and successful finalization reports any exact volume that cleanup cannot remove. Related changes: PR #10484 and PR #10534.
  • Hermes Portable connect --probe-only now recovers published Ollama only for the ollama-local provider. Descriptor-backed compatible endpoints keep verification-only routing without requiring an Ollama receipt. Routine recovery reuses a healthy published runtime or performs one lifecycle recovery for a stopped runtime before it proves published Ollama readiness. Onboarding and explicit deep validation retain generated completion, tool-call, and model-placement qualification. OpenClaw Portable recovery uses one bounded in-sandbox gateway observer and a shorter OpenShell registration poll while preserving the existing readiness statuses and outer lifecycle deadline. Related changes: PR #10556, PR #10612, and PR #10614.
  • Experimental OpenClaw WeChat setup now writes the exact revision-scoped OpenShell placeholder to the Tencent plugin account file and binds both authorized iLink endpoints to the channel provider. Channel removal clears durable account state before provider, policy, or registry teardown, and raw bot tokens remain outside sandbox files, process arguments, and diagnostics. Related change: PR #10601.
  • The deprecated nemoclaw deploy Brev compatibility command has been removed. Remote hosts use their provisioning workflow, the hosted installer, and nemoclaw onboard; deploy is now available as a sandbox name. Related change: PR #10576.
  • nemoclaw <name> logs now labels OpenClaw gateway lines with [gateway] and keeps existing OpenShell source tags unchanged. Follow mode bounds incomplete-line memory, honors output backpressure, waits for accepted writes, and reports source failures. Related change: PR #10342.
  • Contributors with a prepared checkout can run the checked-in PR Review Advisor specialists on committed and working-tree changes with npm run review:local before PR publication. The local-run prerequisites name the required host tools, the origin/main trust base, and the credential boundary. Hosted specialist jobs publish completed analyses in their GitHub job summaries. Maintainer analysis now emits bounded slow-test evidence and Perfetto-compatible PR lifetime traces with revision, readiness, review-request, workflow, job, and step timelines. Related changes: PR #10581, PR #10604, PR #10608, PR #10611, PR #10616, PR #10617, and PR #10623.
  • Development qualification now contains a provider-owned record and dormant executor for the OpenShell v0.0.24 and MXC v0.7.0-rc1 checkpoint on physical Windows. NemoClaw does not register or select MXC, expose Windows onboarding, activate this executor, or treat the checkpoint as an accepted stable distribution. Related changes: PR #10591 and PR #10596.