OpenClaw v2026.5.16-beta.6: Mac app, delivery notes

v2026.5.16-beta.6 is a channel and session story. The official source describes a skills, plugin, marketplace, or SDK change, and the important question is what survives the handoff between a Gateway, a conversation, and a reconnect.

The tag is pre-release: keep it isolated from a production Gateway and compare it with the stable line before making it a default. Support still depends on the provider, channel, platform, and account behind the installation, so check those boundaries before extrapolating from the tag.

Follow the message path

01 / Mac app

Source signal. redesign Settings pages with consistent card layouts, cached navigation, cleaner permissions/voice/skills/cron/exec/debug panes, and steadier spacing around the native sidebar.

Treat Mac app as a boundary change. Exercise one permitted request and one refused request with a test identity, then keep both decisions in the log.

02 / Skills

Source signal. rename the repo-local Codex closeout review skill and helper to autoreview while preserving the Codex-first fallback behavior.

A catalog label for Skills is only the first signal. Confirm the account, endpoint, context limit, and tool policy that the running Gateway actually selected.

03 / Skills

Source signal. add a meme-maker skill for curated template search, local SVG/PNG rendering, Imgflip hosted rendering, and Know Your Meme provenance links.

Use Skills to test ownership as well as installation. Confirm which agent owns the skill or plugin and that a missing or rejected package cannot mutate another workspace.

04 / Mac app

Source signal. keep app-level menu commands and Dashboard failure states reachable when the remote Gateway is disconnected, and keep the Settings sidebar toggle in the leading titlebar area.

Test Mac app at the edges of the interface: clean start, reload, reconnect, and a refused or unavailable action. Keep the final screen and error message with the release note.

The less visible details

Gateway/webchat

hide internal runtime-context and other display: false transcript messages from Chat history and live message events. Fixes #83216.

For Gateway/webchat, delivery is only proven when identity survives an interruption. Keep a disposable channel, send one request, and check for a single reply in the intended thread.

Test this release without widening the boundary

1. Note the current version, host, provider, and workspace before exercising Mac app.
2. Keep a tested backup beside the release record if the update can touch configuration, sessions, or a database.
3. Send one harmless message through the named account and save the account, thread, and sender identifiers.
4. Compare the transcript before and after reconnect, including delivery state and any visible error.
5. Stop if the observed behavior falls outside the official note, and link the log or screenshot to the version record.

openclaw --version
openclaw gateway status
openclaw security audit

Record what the release actually changed

Keep the version, source URL, test identity, and rollback decision together. If this tag is pre-release, leave it isolated; if it is stable, record the migration and rollback result before reconnecting every channel.

Corrections worth replaying

Mac app. keep app-level menu commands and Dashboard failure states reachable when the remote Gateway is disconnected, and keep the Settings sidebar toggle in the leading titlebar area. Keep the reproduction and the post-fix result together in the acceptance record.

Gateway/webchat. hide internal runtime-context and other display: false transcript messages from Chat history and live message events. Fixes #83216. Record the failure that this correction addresses before declaring the upgrade complete.

Use the complete OpenClaw v2026.5.16-beta.6 release notes for the exact change list, then cross-check the official release index and the skills documentation before acting.