OpenClaw chat gets more compact: messages from other sessions collapse to 1 line

Less noise. Previously, messages from other sessions took up standard chat blocks with repeated sources and avatars. Now Control UI groups messages from the same source into an `updates-from` row. Expanding it reveals the original messages in full, their timestamps and a link to the source session.

Grouping stops at a human message, a local reply, a different source or a conversation marker. Search and navigation to a reply expand the original messages. Messages can also be expanded using the keyboard.

How to get collapsible messages. For an npm installation or an existing Git checkout, `openclaw update --channel dev` switches OpenClaw to an updatable checkout of GitHub main and builds it. The selected channel is saved.

Install from main using the official instructions:

```sh curl -fsSL --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash -s -- --install-method git --version main ```

According to the PR report, Control UI passed checks at widths of 1,440, 768 and 390 pixels in light and dark themes. A long message is available in full after a single expansion.

Primary source: [PR #161656](https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/pull/161656), merged on Sep 30, 2026, merge commit `c582ad7209d7`. The installation and update commands were checked against the OpenClaw documentation as of Sep 30, 2026.

Collapsible messages have already landed in main and are available through the dev channel.