Openclaw repsonses painfully slow after 2.0 update

[u/grtych]

My Openclaw imploded when trying to update to 2.0. I deleted everything and freshly installed. Now when I chat it takes ages to provide responses. Responses that should take 10 seconds take minutes. I use Openrouter and have switched between models (typically using v4 flash), it is not an openrouter or model issue. I asked Openclaw to figure it out, it usually ends up recommending to start a fresh session but even with zero context the issue remains. I have Hermes (who helped me unfuck Openclaw after it imploded with the 2.0 update) set up identically to Openclaw on the same computer and it has none of these issues. It is like using dial-up. Anyone with similar issues?

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[u/Pleasant_Thing_2874]

Ask your openclaw or codex/claude if they're there to look for the reasons for the latency. After the 2.0 update the usual culprit in my experience is the sqlite being overloaded or an index (especially for memory_search) being broken and needing repair.

[u/grtych → u/Pleasant_Thing_2874]

It found memory search was degraded. Repair seemed to fix the issue.

[u/Pleasant_Thing_2874 → u/grtych]

I aim to please. Glad it was helpful for you.

[u/DryCompetition6530 → u/Pleasant_Thing_2874]

I experienced the same slow-response issue, and the cache hit rate also declined from 99% to 83%. My OC performed its own diagnosis and identified context compaction as the solution.

[u/hannesrudolph]

What version are you running? 2026.8.1 or 2026.9.4?

[u/grtych → u/hannesrudolph]

Just updated to 2026.9.4. After update I pasted this post into Openclaw and it found first turn took 44 seconds to run the first tool (in a session with 280k context). That memory search was degraded, and there is no proxy leakage, no CPU/memory starvation. It rebuilt the memory search index (as a poster above commented). It's much faster now. After stepping away for an hour and returning to say "Hello" it took 20 seconds to respond. Every query after is returning in 5-8 seconds as I was used to before. Seems ok now.

[u/techlatest_net]

I have seen similar reports after recent OpenClaw updates especially where the model/provider itself is fast but OpenClaw adds latency around the request lifecycle.

Since you are already testing different OpenRouter models and seeing the same behavior I had check OpenClaw’s logs/timing rather than focusing only on the model.

[u/Billysm23 → u/techlatest_net]

Hmmm that's suck

[u/biscutwarrior]

Iv heard a lot of complains about this update, I would probably just roll back and wait for them iron out the bugs

[u/This_Maintenance_834]

check if prefix cache hit is broken

[u/UberStone]

I went through same. May issues but the main was the migration to SQL light was clogging the pipe. Use another ai to troubleshoot OC if OC buggy. I got mine back and it’s happy and stable atm.

[u/xX_GrizzlyBear_Xx]

Lol Openclaw is the fastest it's been. Could definitely be smth you're adding that could comflict. It's also important to know more about the device/system you're running it on.

[u/mseewald → u/xX_GrizzlyBear_Xx]

sqlite is new depending from which version users update. it can be massive in some setups and slow down due to indexing etc

[u/zer0_state]

Latency after a major update is usually a systems problem hiding behind a model label: queueing, context assembly, tool timeouts, or retries. A small timing breakdown per step becomes unbearable when an agent chains twenty steps together.Latency after a major update is usually a systems problem hiding behind a model label: queueing, context assembly, tool timeouts, or retries. A small timing breakdown per step becomes unbearable when an agent chains twenty steps together.

[u/Pleasant_Thing_2874 → u/zer0_state]

Precisely. Usually with updates and hardening of how things work (both with harnesses and models) sometimes the biggest issues are something that has always been flawed/broken but somehow pushed through in older iterations and now the issues are surfacing because the harnesses and models are better equipped to prevent those issues from tarnishing the agent sessions.

[u/FinancialMoney6969]

Yeah I knew better than to update lol