ClawBox 4.2.0

ClawBox 4.2.0

Previous release: v4.1.0, 25 September 2026. 78 commits.

4.2 lets several people share one ClawBox, each with a user of their own. It
spreads the desktop over several monitors, adds a drop-down terminal and a
proper kiosk mode. Project folders can be backed up to GitHub in one click,
ClawKeep backups are fixed, and testing on real ClawBox hardware fixed the
problems it found.

Highlights

• Several people, one ClawBox. The owner adds users in Settings → Users.
  Each person signs in with their own name and password, and gets a desktop and
  a Terminal of their own. Settings and installed apps stay with the owner.
• Monitor mode, with a drop-down terminal. With the ClawBox desktop
  session, one desktop spans a row of monitors, arranged in Settings →
  Monitors. Win+Down drops a terminal down from the top of the screen.
• Back up project folders to GitHub. In Files → Projects, Back up copies a
  folder to a private GitHub repository, with a daily backup if you want one.
  Files that look like passwords or keys are left out, and you are told which.
• Kiosk mode. When ClawBox shows its desktop full screen, every page the
  desktop opens gets a ClawBox bar with tabs, back, forward, reload and an
  address field, so the desktop is always one click away.
• Choose OpenClaw or Hermes at setup. During first setup, a new ClawBox
  asks which assistant it should run, and sets up the one you pick.
• ClawKeep backups fixed. Snapshots no longer carry old backup archives
  along, a link that cannot be archived is skipped and named instead of failing
  the backup, and a full account no longer turns auto-backup off for good.
• Fixes from hardware testing. Testing 4.2 on real ClawBox hardware found
  and fixed problems with voice input, spoken replies, the ClawBox AI plugin's
  Retry, and updating a box left on an older build.

What's new by area

Users and sign-in

• Settings → Users (owner only) adds and removes users. Each one is a real
  account on the box with its own password. Removing a user signs them out
  everywhere.
• The sign-in page offers a choice of user only on a box that has more than
  one. A box with one user signs in exactly as before, and existing sign-ins
  keep working.
• Another user gets the desktop and a Terminal that runs as their own account.
  Settings, installed apps and the assistant stay with the owner; a page that
  is the owner's sends them back to the desktop with a short note.
• Signing in, switching user or locking the screen in one browser tab moves
  every other open tab of that browser along with it.

Desktop

• Monitor mode (ClawBox desktop session): arrange monitors by dragging,
  choose the main one, and set resolution, refresh rate, scale, rotation,
  mirroring and variable refresh rate, plus brightness where the monitor allows
  it. A new layout is undone after 20 seconds unless you keep it. Windows
  maximise and snap on the monitor they are on; the shelf, chat and notices
  stay on the main one.
• Drop-down terminal (ClawBox desktop session): Win+Down shows and hides
  it, in the ClawBox Terminal's colours.
• Kiosk mode (ClawBox desktop session): pages the desktop opens get a
  ClawBox bar with tabs, back, forward, reload and an address field, and a new
  tab opens a ClawBox start page with search. The desktop's shelf gathers those
  pages under one Web icon.
• Windows and Terminals survive a page refresh. Open windows come back
  where they were, and a running Terminal keeps running on the box and
  reattaches with its output.
• A maximised window now fills the desktop edge to edge.
• The desktop does less work in the background: fewer repaints and fewer
  polls, which shows most on a large screen.

Files and projects

• Pin folders as Projects: in the Files sidebar and behind a Projects icon
  on the desktop. A folder downloads as one ZIP, without the local AI models.
• GitHub backup uses the Coding Agent's GitHub sign-in. It offers Back up
  now, History, Open on GitHub, a daily backup (off until you turn it on, and
  only when something changed) and Disconnect, which leaves the GitHub copy
  alone. A folder that already has its own GitHub remote is pushed to its
  current branch, never force-pushed. Likely secrets, files over 50 MB and
  nested repositories are left out and listed.
• Select several files at once (Ctrl/Cmd-click, Shift-click, Select all), then
  download them as one ZIP, move them or delete them. Move by dragging onto a
  folder or with Move to…, and choose the folder an upload goes to.
• The box's own data folder can no longer be pinned as a project.

Chat and voice

• Your chat tabs are the same on every device: a conversation started on the
  phone is listed on the desktop too.
• Files the assistant sends in the web chat now download instead of failing.
• Files and folders dragged onto the chat's message box are attached.
• On a phone, opening the chat no longer raises the keyboard by itself.
• Voice input works with ClawBox AI's transcription again, and when the cloud
  cannot answer, the box transcribes on its own with Whisper.
• Installing on-box speech recognition from Settings → Local AI works on a
  freshly set-up box, and spoken replies no longer fail when the voice engine
  has to start from cold.

Coding Agent

• Several Anthropic accounts move together. The chat and every coding run
  use the same account, and when it reaches a limit they all switch to the
  next one and carry on.
• Run history can keep more: Standard (the last 30 runs), Extended, Keep
  everything, or Archive.
• Pull requests the box opens by itself keep private addresses, home folders,
  e-mail addresses, tokens and the box's own name out of their title,
  description and comments.
• A coding team is not done while the project's own tests fail, and harmless
  events no longer count as team alerts.
• A model error partway through a run no longer blocks new runs for 15
  minutes.

Backups

• ClawKeep snapshots leave out backup archives kept inside the assistant's own
  folder. On one box they had grown snapshots from 2.5 GB to 13 GB and filled
  the account.
• A link that cannot be archived is skipped, and the ClawKeep status and
  restore card name it.
• Auto-backup switched off while the ClawKeep account is full is paused, not
  turned off for good: the ClawKeep card says so, and it switches back on by
  itself once backups can run again. A schedule change from the assistant or a
  script no longer switches auto-backup off by accident.

First setup

• Choose your assistant comes right after Wi-Fi: OpenClaw, which we
  recommend for most people, or Hermes. When your order named one, it is
  already selected. The box sets up your choice and removes the other to free
  space. A box that already runs an assistant is never asked.

Updates

• The update screen shows what is new in the version being installed.
• A box with no recorded update branch follows main and is offered its
  releases. System Update → Advanced options says which branch it follows.
• A box left on an older build by a failed update repairs itself at the next
  boot.
• Changes made by hand to ClawBox's own files are saved aside before an update
  resets them, and the update card says so.
• The ClawBox AI plugin no longer loops through a repair on every start when
  its exact version is missing from ClawHub, and Retry installs it and
  switches it back on.

Upgrade notes

• Upgrade from 4.1.x or 4.0.x in Settings → System Update, or over SSH by
  running sudo bash install.sh in the ClawBox checkout. On the Hermes edition
  System Update is the only route.
• Updates are release-tag based: a box offers 4.2.0 once the v4.2.0 tag is
  published.
• Your data is preserved, as in 4.1, and the edition lock is untouched.
• Monitor mode, the drop-down terminal and kiosk mode need the ClawBox desktop
  session. The update does not switch them on, and a ClawBox without it looks
  and works as before.
• The owner is the user ClawBox was installed as. A box stays single-user until
  the owner adds someone.

Breaking changes

• None. A dismissal of the 4.1 card is kept but no longer hides anything, and a
  tab still showing the 4.1 card cannot dismiss the 4.2 one.