OpenClaw v2026.3.28: Human-in-the-Loop Automation, Qwen Migration, and Async Tool Approvals
OpenClaw just shipped version 2026.3.28, and if you run agentic pipelines on this platform, you need to read the release notes carefully. This is one of the more architecturally significant updates in recent months — it introduces async human-in-the-loop (HITL) tool approvals, drops the Qwen portal auth integration entirely, and ships a handful of other meaningful improvements. Let’s unpack what changed and what it means for your deployments. Async Human-in-the-Loop: The Headline Feature The biggest change is the addition of requireApproval as an async hook in OpenClaw’s before_tool_call plugin system. In practical terms, this means plugins can now pause tool execution mid-flight and prompt the user for explicit approval before the tool actually runs. ...