OpenClaw Signals: Deploy Safety, Manifest Flexibility, and the Plugin Config Cleanup

Tools

Dry-run mode lands for the deploy pipeline

This PR adds a --dry-run flag to the deploy command, letting you simulate a full deployment pipeline without actually touching production. For builders, this is huge for CI validation and catching config drift before it costs you real money.

Analysis

Issue tracks potential regression in manifest validation strictness

The maintainers are debating whether to strip down the default manifest validation rules to speed up boot times. If you're running fast-iterating environments, this is the thread to watch because relaxed defaults could break your existing safety nets.

News

PR unifies plugin environment variable handling

This update introduces a standard set of environment variable hooks for plugin configuration, replacing the previous ad-hoc approach. It standardizes how plugins read secrets and config, which means fewer weird runtime errors when swapping plugins in and out.

Concurrency patch addresses race condition in task scheduler

The team patched a race condition in the task queue that could cause duplicate execution when multiple workers pull from the same lease window. If you've seen weird double-runs in your logs lately, pull this fix immediately.