v1.5.4

v1.5.4 gets Nerve working with current OpenClaw again: it connects to protocol v4 gateways and streams replies live on OpenClaw 2026.9.

Highlights

• Nerve connects to current OpenClaw gateways again. They require connect protocol v4, and 1.5.3 failed with "Auth failed: protocol mismatch" (#367, #386, thanks @LAIM69420, and @simonmarkcollins-cmyk for pinning down the cause in #380)
• Replies stream live again on OpenClaw 2026.9: text no longer freezes after the first few characters, interim replies show up in order while the agent works, and normal event traffic no longer triggers history reloads mid-stream (#386)
• Chat has slash command autocomplete, with grouping and argument hints (#322, thanks @zhangyihao697-art)

More in this release

• Kanban task descriptions and results render as markdown (#352)
• npm run setup no longer crashes when the gateway token is stored as a SecretRef, and resolves env and file references where it can (#379, #386)
• Setup respects OPENCLAW_CONFIG_PATH and adds a remote GATEWAY_URL host to WS_ALLOWED_HOSTS automatically (#316, #350)
• Local Whisper uses the Vulkan GPU backend on Linux, with cgroup-aware thread counts and an ICD manifest fallback (#319, #348, thanks @jimdawdy-hub)
• Clarified the remote deployment topology and next branch install instructions (#205, #332)

Fixes

• Connections recover cleanly when a reload interrupts the handshake (#326)
• Exec approval requests appear in the agent log again (#386)
• Invalid transcript costs no longer skew usage totals (#317)
• Mobile dropdowns no longer click through to the element underneath (#310, thanks @DrJsPBs)
• The file browser has a mobile fallback for PDFs (#315)

Known issue

• On OpenClaw 2026.9 the Crons tab cannot load, because the gateway's HTTP tool endpoint denies the automations tool by default. A fix is planned for 1.6.0.

If you run the next branch

The next branch is retired and will not get further updates. OpenClaw 2026.9 now handles mid-run reconnects natively, so master covers what next was built for, and its independent improvements are moving to master. Switch back with:

cd ~/nerve # installer default; manual clone: cd openclaw-nerve
git fetch origin
git switch master
git pull --ff-only
rm -rf server-dist   # next built to server-dist/server/; remove it so nothing stale keeps running
npm install
npm run build
npm run prod

If you installed with the installer while on next, your service still points at server-dist/server/index.js. Re-run the installer from master, or point the service at server-dist/index.js.

Full Changelog: v1.5.3...v1.5.4