diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index c5a376f35bc..b7e5d094139 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -47,6 +47,9 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 
 ### Fixes
 
+- Hooks/Windows: preserve Windows-aware hook path handling across plugin-managed hook loading and bundle MCP config resolution, so path aliases and canonicalization differences no longer drop hook metadata or break bundled MCP launches.
+- Outbound/channels: skip full configured-channel scans when explicit channel selection already determines the target, so explicit sends and broadcasts avoid slow unrelated plugin configuration checks.
+- Tlon/install: fetch `@tloncorp/api` from the pinned HTTPS tarball artifact instead of a Git transport URL so installs no longer depend on GitHub SSH access.
 - CLI/Ollama onboarding: keep the interactive model picker for explicit `openclaw onboard --auth-choice ollama` runs so setup still selects a default model without reintroducing pre-picker auto-pulls. (#49249) Thanks @BruceMacD.
 - Plugins/bundler TDZ: fix `RESERVED_COMMANDS` temporal dead zone error that prevented device-pair, phone-control, and talk-voice plugins from registering when the bundler placed the commands module after call sites in the same output chunk. Thanks @BunsDev.
 - Plugins/imports: fix stale googlechat runtime-api import paths and signal SDK circular re-exports broken by recent plugin-sdk refactors. Thanks @BunsDev.
diff --git a/src/infra/outbound/message-action-runner.ts b/src/infra/outbound/message-action-runner.ts
index dda0a35cd06..2aa6e7254cc 100644
--- a/src/infra/outbound/message-action-runner.ts
+++ b/src/infra/outbound/message-action-runner.ts
@@ -222,11 +222,12 @@ async function resolveChannel(
   params: Record<string, unknown>,
   toolContext?: { currentChannelProvider?: string },
 ) {
+  const explicitChannel = readStringParam(params, "channel");
   const selection = await resolveMessageChannelSelection({
     cfg,
-    channel: readStringParam(params, "channel"),
+    channel: explicitChannel,
     fallbackChannel: toolContext?.currentChannelProvider,
-    includeConfigured: false,
+    includeConfigured: !explicitChannel,
   });
   if (selection.source === "tool-context-fallback") {
     params.channel = selection.channel;
diff --git a/src/infra/outbound/message.channels.test.ts b/src/infra/outbound/message.channels.test.ts
index 0e99a7af2b7..a7b9d11a22b 100644
--- a/src/infra/outbound/message.channels.test.ts
+++ b/src/infra/outbound/message.channels.test.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,11 @@
 import { afterEach, beforeAll, beforeEach, describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
 import type { ChannelOutboundAdapter, ChannelPlugin } from "../../channels/plugins/types.js";
 import { setActivePluginRegistry } from "../../plugins/runtime.js";
-import { createMSTeamsTestPlugin, createTestRegistry } from "../../test-utils/channel-plugins.js";
+import {
+  createChannelTestPluginBase,
+  createMSTeamsTestPlugin,
+  createTestRegistry,
+} from "../../test-utils/channel-plugins.js";
 import { createIMessageTestPlugin } from "../../test-utils/imessage-test-plugin.js";
 import { GATEWAY_CLIENT_MODES, GATEWAY_CLIENT_NAMES } from "../../utils/message-channel.js";
 
@@ -242,6 +246,78 @@ describe("sendPoll channel normalization", () => {
   });
 });
 
+describe("implicit single-channel selection", () => {
+  it("keeps single configured channel fallback for sendMessage when channel is omitted", async () => {
+    const sendText = vi.fn(async () => ({ channel: "msteams", messageId: "m1" }));
+    setRegistry(
+      createTestRegistry([
+        {
+          pluginId: "msteams",
+          source: "test",
+          plugin: {
+            ...createChannelTestPluginBase({
+              id: "msteams",
+              label: "Microsoft Teams",
+              docsPath: "/channels/msteams",
+              config: {
+                listAccountIds: () => ["default"],
+                resolveAccount: () => ({}),
+                isConfigured: () => true,
+              },
+            }),
+            outbound: {
+              ...createMSTeamsOutbound(),
+              sendText,
+            },
+          },
+        },
+      ]),
+    );
+
+    const result = await sendMessage({
+      cfg: {},
+      to: "conversation:19:abc@thread.tacv2",
+      content: "hi",
+    });
+
+    expect(result.channel).toBe("msteams");
+    expect(sendText).toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
+  it("keeps single configured channel fallback for sendPoll when channel is omitted", async () => {
+    setRegistry(
+      createTestRegistry([
+        {
+          pluginId: "msteams",
+          source: "test",
+          plugin: {
+            ...createChannelTestPluginBase({
+              id: "msteams",
+              label: "Microsoft Teams",
+              docsPath: "/channels/msteams",
+              config: {
+                listAccountIds: () => ["default"],
+                resolveAccount: () => ({}),
+                isConfigured: () => true,
+              },
+            }),
+            outbound: createMSTeamsOutbound({ includePoll: true }),
+          },
+        },
+      ]),
+    );
+
+    const result = await sendPoll({
+      cfg: {},
+      to: "conversation:19:abc@thread.tacv2",
+      question: "Lunch?",
+      options: ["Pizza", "Sushi"],
+    });
+
+    expect(result.channel).toBe("msteams");
+  });
+});
+
 const setMattermostGatewayRegistry = () => {
   setRegistry(
     createTestRegistry([
diff --git a/src/infra/outbound/message.ts b/src/infra/outbound/message.ts
index 9df211960f8..b7b1a220a69 100644
--- a/src/infra/outbound/message.ts
+++ b/src/infra/outbound/message.ts
@@ -132,11 +132,12 @@ async function resolveRequiredChannel(params: {
   cfg: OpenClawConfig;
   channel?: string;
 }): Promise<string> {
+  const explicitChannel = typeof params.channel === "string" ? params.channel.trim() : "";
   return (
     await resolveMessageChannelSelection({
       cfg: params.cfg,
-      channel: params.channel,
-      includeConfigured: false,
+      channel: explicitChannel || undefined,
+      includeConfigured: !explicitChannel,
     })
   ).channel;
 }
diff --git a/src/infra/path-guards.test.ts b/src/infra/path-guards.test.ts
index 335d86f639e..e46a2bd5a8a 100644
--- a/src/infra/path-guards.test.ts
+++ b/src/infra/path-guards.test.ts
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ describe("isPathInside", () => {
   it("accepts identical and nested paths but rejects escapes", () => {
     expect(isPathInside("/workspace/root", "/workspace/root")).toBe(true);
     expect(isPathInside("/workspace/root", "/workspace/root/nested/file.txt")).toBe(true);
+    expect(isPathInside("/workspace/root", "/workspace/root/..cache/file.txt")).toBe(true);
     expect(isPathInside("/workspace/root", "/workspace/root/../escape.txt")).toBe(false);
   });
 
@@ -75,6 +76,9 @@ describe("isPathInside", () => {
     expect(
       isPathInside(String.raw`C:\workspace\root`, String.raw`C:\workspace\root\Nested\File.txt`),
     ).toBe(true);
+    expect(
+      isPathInside(String.raw`C:\workspace\root`, String.raw`C:\workspace\root\..cache\file.txt`),
+    ).toBe(true);
     expect(
       isPathInside(String.raw`C:\workspace\root`, String.raw`C:\workspace\root\..\escape.txt`),
     ).toBe(false);
diff --git a/src/infra/path-guards.ts b/src/infra/path-guards.ts
index 379801152e8..ed0565abd30 100644
--- a/src/infra/path-guards.ts
+++ b/src/infra/path-guards.ts
@@ -37,11 +37,20 @@ export function isPathInside(root: string, target: string): boolean {
     const rootForCompare = normalizeWindowsPathForComparison(path.win32.resolve(root));
     const targetForCompare = normalizeWindowsPathForComparison(path.win32.resolve(target));
     const relative = path.win32.relative(rootForCompare, targetForCompare);
-    return relative === "" || (!relative.startsWith("..") && !path.win32.isAbsolute(relative));
+    return (
+      relative === "" ||
+      (relative !== ".." &&
+        !relative.startsWith(`..\\`) &&
+        !relative.startsWith("../") &&
+        !path.win32.isAbsolute(relative))
+    );
   }
 
   const resolvedRoot = path.resolve(root);
   const resolvedTarget = path.resolve(target);
   const relative = path.relative(resolvedRoot, resolvedTarget);
-  return relative === "" || (!relative.startsWith("..") && !path.isAbsolute(relative));
+  return (
+    relative === "" ||
+    (relative !== ".." && !relative.startsWith(`..${path.sep}`) && !path.isAbsolute(relative))
+  );
 }
diff --git a/src/plugins/bundle-mcp.ts b/src/plugins/bundle-mcp.ts
index b0960c17a93..bb870dcbd7b 100644
--- a/src/plugins/bundle-mcp.ts
+++ b/src/plugins/bundle-mcp.ts
@@ -327,7 +327,7 @@ export function loadEnabledBundleMcpConfig(params: {
 
     const loaded = loadBundleMcpConfig({
       pluginId: record.id,
-      rootDir: record.rootDir,
+      rootDir: record.format === "bundle" ? record.source : record.rootDir,
       bundleFormat: record.bundleFormat,
     });
     merged = applyMergePatch(merged, loaded.config) as BundleMcpConfig;
diff --git a/src/plugins/discovery.test.ts b/src/plugins/discovery.test.ts
index 20c1fefc87d..37d43a69e43 100644
--- a/src/plugins/discovery.test.ts
+++ b/src/plugins/discovery.test.ts
@@ -299,7 +299,9 @@ describe("discoverOpenClawPlugins", () => {
     expect(bundle?.format).toBe("bundle");
     expect(bundle?.bundleFormat).toBe("codex");
     expect(bundle?.source).toBe(bundleDir);
-    expect(normalizePathForAssertion(bundle?.rootDir)).toBe(normalizePathForAssertion(bundleDir));
+    expect(normalizePathForAssertion(bundle?.rootDir)).toBe(
+      normalizePathForAssertion(fs.realpathSync(bundleDir)),
+    );
   });
 
   it("auto-detects manifestless Claude bundles from the default layout", async () => {
diff --git a/src/plugins/discovery.ts b/src/plugins/discovery.ts
index 2b1c19ad756..3efe1ccc565 100644
--- a/src/plugins/discovery.ts
+++ b/src/plugins/discovery.ts
@@ -377,8 +377,7 @@ function addCandidate(params: {
   if (params.seen.has(resolved)) {
     return;
   }
-  const lexicalRoot = path.resolve(params.rootDir);
-  const resolvedRoot = safeRealpathSync(params.rootDir) ?? lexicalRoot;
+  const resolvedRoot = safeRealpathSync(params.rootDir) ?? path.resolve(params.rootDir);
   if (
     isUnsafePluginCandidate({
       source: resolved,
@@ -396,7 +395,7 @@ function addCandidate(params: {
     idHint: params.idHint,
     source: resolved,
     setupSource: params.setupSource,
-    rootDir: lexicalRoot,
+    rootDir: resolvedRoot,
     origin: params.origin,
     format: params.format ?? "openclaw",
     bundleFormat: params.bundleFormat,