Experimental features

Experimental features in OpenClaw are opt-in preview surfaces. They are behind explicit flags because they still need real-world mileage before they deserve a stable default or a long-lived public contract.

Treat them differently from normal config:

• Keep them off by default unless the related doc tells you to try one.
• Expect shape and behavior to change faster than stable config.
• Prefer the stable path first when one already exists.
• If you are rolling OpenClaw out broadly, test experimental flags in a smaller environment before baking them into a shared baseline.

Currently documented flags

Local model lean mode

is a pressure-release valve for weaker local-model setups. It trims heavyweight default tools like , , and so the prompt shape is smaller and less brittle for small-context or stricter OpenAI-compatible backends.

That is intentionally not the normal path. If your backend handles the full runtime cleanly, leave this off.

Experimental does not mean hidden

If a feature is experimental, OpenClaw should say so plainly in docs and in the config path itself. What it should not do is smuggle preview behavior into a stable-looking default knob and pretend that is normal. That's how config surfaces get messy.

Related

• Features
• Release channels