diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 95bf3f5a618..73f0b04a807 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 ### Changes
 
 - Outbound adapters/plugins: add shared `sendPayload` support across direct-text-media, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Zalo, and Zalouser with multi-media iteration and chunk-aware text fallback. (#30144) Thanks @nohat.
+- Plugin runtime/STT: add `api.runtime.stt.transcribeAudioFile(...)` so extensions can transcribe local audio files through OpenClaw's configured media-understanding audio providers. (#22402) Thanks @benthecarman.
 - Sessions/Attachments: add inline file attachment support for `sessions_spawn` (subagent runtime only) with base64/utf8 encoding, transcript content redaction, lifecycle cleanup, and configurable limits via `tools.sessions_spawn.attachments`. (#16761) Thanks @napetrov.
 - Tools/PDF analysis: add a first-class `pdf` tool with native Anthropic and Google PDF provider support, extraction fallback for non-native models, configurable defaults (`agents.defaults.pdfModel`, `pdfMaxBytesMb`, `pdfMaxPages`), and docs/tests covering routing, validation, and registration. (#31319) Thanks @tyler6204.
 - Zalo Personal plugin (`@openclaw/zalouser`): rebuilt channel runtime to use native `zca-js` integration in-process, removing external CLI transport usage and keeping QR/login + send/listen flows fully inside OpenClaw.
@@ -24,6 +25,11 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 ### Fixes
 
 - macOS/LaunchAgent security defaults: write `Umask=63` (octal `077`) into generated gateway launchd plists so post-update service reinstalls keep owner-only file permissions by default instead of falling back to system `022`. (#32022) Fixes #31905. Thanks @liuxiaopai-ai.
+- Plugin SDK/runtime hardening: add package export verification in CI/release checks to catch missing runtime exports before publish-time regressions. (#28575) Thanks @Glucksberg.
+- Media understanding/provider HTTP proxy routing: pass a proxy-aware fetch function from `HTTPS_PROXY`/`HTTP_PROXY` env vars into audio/video provider calls (with graceful malformed-proxy fallback) so transcription/video requests honor configured outbound proxies. (#27093) Thanks @mcaxtr.
+- Media understanding/malformed attachment guards: harden attachment selection and decision summary formatting against non-array or malformed attachment payloads to prevent runtime crashes on invalid inbound metadata shapes. (#28024) Thanks @claw9267.
+- Media understanding/audio transcription guard: skip tiny/empty audio files (<1024 bytes) before provider/CLI transcription to avoid noisy invalid-audio failures and preserve clean fallback behavior. (#8388) Thanks @Glucksberg.
+- OpenAI media capabilities: include `audio` in the OpenAI provider capability list so audio transcription models are eligible in media-understanding provider selection. (#12717) Thanks @openjay.
 - Security/Node exec approvals: preserve shell/dispatch-wrapper argv semantics during approval hardening so approved wrapper commands (for example `env sh -c ...`) cannot drift into a different runtime command shape, and add regression coverage for both approval-plan generation and approved runtime execution paths. Thanks @tdjackey for reporting.
 - Browser/Security output boundary hardening: replace check-then-rename output commits with root-bound fd-verified writes, unify install/skills canonical path-boundary checks, and add regression coverage for symlink-rebind race paths across browser output and shared fs-safe write flows. Thanks @tdjackey for reporting.
 - Security/Webhook request hardening: enforce auth-before-body parsing for BlueBubbles and Google Chat webhook handlers, add strict pre-auth body/time budgets for webhook auth paths (including LINE signature verification), and add shared in-flight/request guardrails plus regression tests/lint checks to prevent reintroducing unauthenticated slow-body DoS patterns. Thanks @GCXWLP for reporting.
diff --git a/docs/nodes/media-understanding.md b/docs/nodes/media-understanding.md
index 6b9c78dece9..a40921582b0 100644
--- a/docs/nodes/media-understanding.md
+++ b/docs/nodes/media-understanding.md
@@ -123,6 +123,7 @@ Recommended defaults:
 Rules:
 
 - If media exceeds `maxBytes`, that model is skipped and the **next model is tried**.
+- Audio files smaller than **1024 bytes** are treated as empty/corrupt and skipped before provider/CLI transcription.
 - If the model returns more than `maxChars`, output is trimmed.
 - `prompt` defaults to simple “Describe the {media}.” plus the `maxChars` guidance (image/video only).
 - If `<capability>.enabled: true` but no models are configured, OpenClaw tries the
@@ -160,6 +161,20 @@ To disable auto-detection, set:
 
 Note: Binary detection is best-effort across macOS/Linux/Windows; ensure the CLI is on `PATH` (we expand `~`), or set an explicit CLI model with a full command path.
 
+### Proxy environment support (provider models)
+
+When provider-based **audio** and **video** media understanding is enabled, OpenClaw
+honors standard outbound proxy environment variables for provider HTTP calls:
+
+- `HTTPS_PROXY`
+- `HTTP_PROXY`
+- `https_proxy`
+- `http_proxy`
+
+If no proxy env vars are set, media understanding uses direct egress.
+If the proxy value is malformed, OpenClaw logs a warning and falls back to direct
+fetch.
+
 ## Capabilities (optional)
 
 If you set `capabilities`, the entry only runs for those media types. For shared
diff --git a/docs/tools/plugin.md b/docs/tools/plugin.md
index 3dc575088eb..90e1f461f4c 100644
--- a/docs/tools/plugin.md
+++ b/docs/tools/plugin.md
@@ -90,6 +90,22 @@ Notes:
 - Returns PCM audio buffer + sample rate. Plugins must resample/encode for providers.
 - Edge TTS is not supported for telephony.
 
+For STT/transcription, plugins can call:
+
+```ts
+const { text } = await api.runtime.stt.transcribeAudioFile({
+  filePath: "/tmp/inbound-audio.ogg",
+  cfg: api.config,
+  // Optional when MIME cannot be inferred reliably:
+  mime: "audio/ogg",
+});
+```
+
+Notes:
+
+- Uses core media-understanding audio configuration (`tools.media.audio`) and provider fallback order.
+- Returns `{ text: undefined }` when no transcription output is produced (for example skipped/unsupported input).
+
 ## Discovery & precedence
 
 OpenClaw scans, in order:
diff --git a/src/media-understanding/attachments.guards.test.ts b/src/media-understanding/attachments.guards.test.ts
index 68bdb379bc6..3d2cfa86c85 100644
--- a/src/media-understanding/attachments.guards.test.ts
+++ b/src/media-understanding/attachments.guards.test.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
-import type { MediaAttachment } from "./types.js";
 import { selectAttachments } from "./attachments.js";
+import type { MediaAttachment } from "./types.js";
 
 describe("media-understanding selectAttachments guards", () => {
   it("does not throw when attachments is undefined", () => {
@@ -26,4 +26,21 @@ describe("media-understanding selectAttachments guards", () => {
     expect(run).not.toThrow();
     expect(run()).toEqual([]);
   });
+
+  it("ignores malformed attachment entries inside an array", () => {
+    const run = () =>
+      selectAttachments({
+        capability: "audio",
+        attachments: [
+          null,
+          { index: 1, path: 123 },
+          { index: 2, url: true },
+          { index: 3, mime: { nope: true } },
+        ] as unknown as MediaAttachment[],
+        policy: { prefer: "path" },
+      });
+
+    expect(run).not.toThrow();
+    expect(run()).toEqual([]);
+  });
 });
diff --git a/src/media-understanding/attachments.ts b/src/media-understanding/attachments.ts
index a42c3045c3e..0bf6da818b0 100644
--- a/src/media-understanding/attachments.ts
+++ b/src/media-understanding/attachments.ts
@@ -169,7 +169,7 @@ function orderAttachments(
   attachments: MediaAttachment[],
   prefer?: MediaUnderstandingAttachmentsConfig["prefer"],
 ): MediaAttachment[] {
-  const list = Array.isArray(attachments) ? attachments : [];
+  const list = Array.isArray(attachments) ? attachments.filter(isAttachmentRecord) : [];
   if (!prefer || prefer === "first") {
     return list;
   }
@@ -189,13 +189,36 @@ function orderAttachments(
   return list;
 }
 
+function isAttachmentRecord(value: unknown): value is MediaAttachment {
+  if (!value || typeof value !== "object") {
+    return false;
+  }
+  const entry = value as Record<string, unknown>;
+  if (typeof entry.index !== "number") {
+    return false;
+  }
+  if (entry.path !== undefined && typeof entry.path !== "string") {
+    return false;
+  }
+  if (entry.url !== undefined && typeof entry.url !== "string") {
+    return false;
+  }
+  if (entry.mime !== undefined && typeof entry.mime !== "string") {
+    return false;
+  }
+  if (entry.alreadyTranscribed !== undefined && typeof entry.alreadyTranscribed !== "boolean") {
+    return false;
+  }
+  return true;
+}
+
 export function selectAttachments(params: {
   capability: MediaUnderstandingCapability;
   attachments: MediaAttachment[];
   policy?: MediaUnderstandingAttachmentsConfig;
 }): MediaAttachment[] {
   const { capability, attachments, policy } = params;
-  const input = Array.isArray(attachments) ? attachments : [];
+  const input = Array.isArray(attachments) ? attachments.filter(isAttachmentRecord) : [];
   const matches = input.filter((item) => {
     // Skip already-transcribed audio attachments from preflight
     if (capability === "audio" && item.alreadyTranscribed) {
diff --git a/src/media-understanding/runner.entries.guards.test.ts b/src/media-understanding/runner.entries.guards.test.ts
index d237038eef0..7a1cb32d811 100644
--- a/src/media-understanding/runner.entries.guards.test.ts
+++ b/src/media-understanding/runner.entries.guards.test.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
-import type { MediaUnderstandingDecision } from "./types.js";
 import { formatDecisionSummary } from "./runner.entries.js";
+import type { MediaUnderstandingDecision } from "./types.js";
 
 describe("media-understanding formatDecisionSummary guards", () => {
   it("does not throw when decision.attachments is undefined", () => {
@@ -26,4 +26,26 @@ describe("media-understanding formatDecisionSummary guards", () => {
     expect(run).not.toThrow();
     expect(run()).toBe("video: skipped (0/1)");
   });
+
+  it("ignores non-string provider/model/reason fields", () => {
+    const run = () =>
+      formatDecisionSummary({
+        capability: "audio",
+        outcome: "failed",
+        attachments: [
+          {
+            attachmentIndex: 0,
+            chosen: {
+              outcome: "failed",
+              provider: { bad: true },
+              model: 42,
+            },
+            attempts: [{ reason: { malformed: true } }],
+          },
+        ],
+      } as unknown as MediaUnderstandingDecision);
+
+    expect(run).not.toThrow();
+    expect(run()).toBe("audio: failed (0/1)");
+  });
 });
diff --git a/src/media-understanding/runner.entries.ts b/src/media-understanding/runner.entries.ts
index e7665a96e66..f2b9be0c099 100644
--- a/src/media-understanding/runner.entries.ts
+++ b/src/media-understanding/runner.entries.ts
@@ -350,15 +350,17 @@ export function formatDecisionSummary(decision: MediaUnderstandingDecision): str
   const total = attachments.length;
   const success = attachments.filter((entry) => entry?.chosen?.outcome === "success").length;
   const chosen = attachments.find((entry) => entry?.chosen)?.chosen;
-  const provider = chosen?.provider?.trim();
-  const model = chosen?.model?.trim();
+  const provider = typeof chosen?.provider === "string" ? chosen.provider.trim() : undefined;
+  const model = typeof chosen?.model === "string" ? chosen.model.trim() : undefined;
   const modelLabel = provider ? (model ? `${provider}/${model}` : provider) : undefined;
   const reason = attachments
     .flatMap((entry) => {
       const attempts = Array.isArray(entry?.attempts) ? entry.attempts : [];
-      return attempts.map((attempt) => attempt?.reason).filter(Boolean);
+      return attempts
+        .map((attempt) => (typeof attempt?.reason === "string" ? attempt.reason : undefined))
+        .filter((value): value is string => Boolean(value));
     })
-    .find(Boolean);
+    .find((value) => value.trim().length > 0);
   const shortReason = reason ? reason.split(":")[0]?.trim() : undefined;
   const countLabel = total > 0 ? ` (${success}/${total})` : "";
   const viaLabel = modelLabel ? ` via ${modelLabel}` : "";
diff --git a/src/media-understanding/transcribe-audio.test.ts b/src/media-understanding/transcribe-audio.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..2851b9d4a4e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/media-understanding/transcribe-audio.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,95 @@
+import { beforeEach, describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
+import type { OpenClawConfig } from "../config/config.js";
+
+const {
+  normalizeMediaAttachments,
+  createMediaAttachmentCache,
+  buildProviderRegistry,
+  runCapability,
+  cacheCleanup,
+} = vi.hoisted(() => {
+  const normalizeMediaAttachments = vi.fn();
+  const cacheCleanup = vi.fn(async () => {});
+  const createMediaAttachmentCache = vi.fn(() => ({ cleanup: cacheCleanup }));
+  const buildProviderRegistry = vi.fn(() => new Map());
+  const runCapability = vi.fn();
+  return {
+    normalizeMediaAttachments,
+    createMediaAttachmentCache,
+    buildProviderRegistry,
+    runCapability,
+    cacheCleanup,
+  };
+});
+
+vi.mock("./runner.js", () => ({
+  normalizeMediaAttachments,
+  createMediaAttachmentCache,
+  buildProviderRegistry,
+  runCapability,
+}));
+
+import { transcribeAudioFile } from "./transcribe-audio.js";
+
+describe("transcribeAudioFile", () => {
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    vi.clearAllMocks();
+    cacheCleanup.mockResolvedValue(undefined);
+  });
+
+  it("does not force audio/wav when mime is omitted", async () => {
+    normalizeMediaAttachments.mockReturnValue([{ index: 0, path: "/tmp/note.mp3" }]);
+    runCapability.mockResolvedValue({
+      outputs: [{ kind: "audio.transcription", text: "  hello  " }],
+    });
+
+    const result = await transcribeAudioFile({
+      filePath: "/tmp/note.mp3",
+      cfg: {} as OpenClawConfig,
+    });
+
+    expect(normalizeMediaAttachments).toHaveBeenCalledWith({
+      MediaPath: "/tmp/note.mp3",
+      MediaType: undefined,
+    });
+    expect(result).toEqual({ text: "hello" });
+    expect(cacheCleanup).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+  });
+
+  it("returns undefined and skips cache when there are no attachments", async () => {
+    normalizeMediaAttachments.mockReturnValue([]);
+
+    const result = await transcribeAudioFile({
+      filePath: "/tmp/missing.wav",
+      cfg: {} as OpenClawConfig,
+    });
+
+    expect(result).toEqual({ text: undefined });
+    expect(createMediaAttachmentCache).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(runCapability).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
+  it("always cleans up cache on errors", async () => {
+    const cfg = {
+      tools: { media: { audio: { timeoutSeconds: 10 } } },
+    } as unknown as OpenClawConfig;
+    normalizeMediaAttachments.mockReturnValue([{ index: 0, path: "/tmp/note.wav" }]);
+    runCapability.mockRejectedValue(new Error("boom"));
+
+    await expect(
+      transcribeAudioFile({
+        filePath: "/tmp/note.wav",
+        cfg,
+      }),
+    ).rejects.toThrow("boom");
+
+    expect(runCapability).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      expect.objectContaining({
+        capability: "audio",
+        cfg,
+        config: cfg.tools?.media?.audio,
+      }),
+    );
+    expect(cacheCleanup).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/media-understanding/transcribe-audio.ts b/src/media-understanding/transcribe-audio.ts
index 3573a0a4333..463e90608fa 100644
--- a/src/media-understanding/transcribe-audio.ts
+++ b/src/media-understanding/transcribe-audio.ts
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ export async function transcribeAudioFile(params: {
 }): Promise<{ text: string | undefined }> {
   const ctx = {
     MediaPath: params.filePath,
-    MediaType: params.mime ?? "audio/wav",
+    MediaType: params.mime,
   };
   const attachments = normalizeMediaAttachments(ctx);
   if (attachments.length === 0) {