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Status: Experimental. Added in 2026.1.9.

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Overview

Broadcast Groups enable multiple agents to process and respond to the same message simultaneously. This allows you to create specialized agent teams that work together in a single WhatsApp group or DM — all using one phone number. Current scope: WhatsApp only (web channel). Broadcast groups are evaluated after channel allowlists and group activation rules. In WhatsApp groups, this means broadcasts happen when OpenClaw would normally reply (for example: on mention, depending on your group settings).

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Use cases

Deploy multiple agents with atomic, focused responsibilities:
Group: "Development Team"
Agents:
  - CodeReviewer (reviews code snippets)
  - DocumentationBot (generates docs)
  - SecurityAuditor (checks for vulnerabilities)
  - TestGenerator (suggests test cases)
Each agent processes the same message and provides its specialized perspective.
Group: "International Support"
Agents:
  - Agent_EN (responds in English)
  - Agent_DE (responds in German)
  - Agent_ES (responds in Spanish)

Group: "Customer Support"
Agents:
  - SupportAgent (provides answer)
  - QAAgent (reviews quality, only responds if issues found)

Group: "Project Management"
Agents:
  - TaskTracker (updates task database)
  - TimeLogger (logs time spent)
  - ReportGenerator (creates summaries)

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Configuration

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Basic setup

Add a top-level broadcast section (next to bindings). Keys are WhatsApp peer ids:
  • group chats: group JID (e.g. 120363403215116621@g.us)
  • DMs: E.164 phone number (e.g. +15551234567)
{
  "broadcast": {
    "120363403215116621@g.us": ["alfred", "baerbel", "assistant3"]
  }
}
Result: When OpenClaw would reply in this chat, it will run all three agents.

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Processing strategy

Control how agents process messages:
All agents process simultaneously:
{
  "broadcast": {
    "strategy": "parallel",
    "120363403215116621@g.us": ["alfred", "baerbel"]
  }
}

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Complete example

{
  "agents": {
    "list": [
      {
        "id": "code-reviewer",
        "name": "Code Reviewer",
        "workspace": "/path/to/code-reviewer",
        "sandbox": { "mode": "all" }
      },
      {
        "id": "security-auditor",
        "name": "Security Auditor",
        "workspace": "/path/to/security-auditor",
        "sandbox": { "mode": "all" }
      },
      {
        "id": "docs-generator",
        "name": "Documentation Generator",
        "workspace": "/path/to/docs-generator",
        "sandbox": { "mode": "all" }
      }
    ]
  },
  "broadcast": {
    "strategy": "parallel",
    "120363403215116621@g.us": ["code-reviewer", "security-auditor", "docs-generator"],
    "120363424282127706@g.us": ["support-en", "support-de"],
    "+15555550123": ["assistant", "logger"]
  }
}

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How it works

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Message flow

1

Incoming message arrives

A WhatsApp group or DM message arrives.
2

Broadcast check

System checks if peer ID is in broadcast.
3

If in broadcast list

  • All listed agents process the message.
  • Each agent has its own session key and isolated context.
  • Agents process in parallel (default) or sequentially.
4

If not in broadcast list

Normal routing applies (first matching binding).
Broadcast groups do not bypass channel allowlists or group activation rules (mentions/commands/etc). They only change which agents run when a message is eligible for processing.

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Session isolation

Each agent in a broadcast group maintains completely separate:
  • Session keys (agent:alfred:whatsapp:group:120363... vs agent:baerbel:whatsapp:group:120363...)
  • Conversation history (agent doesn’t see other agents’ messages)
  • Workspace (separate sandboxes if configured)
  • Tool access (different allow/deny lists)
  • Memory/context (separate IDENTITY.md, SOUL.md, etc.)
  • Group context buffer (recent group messages used for context) is shared per peer, so all broadcast agents see the same context when triggered
This allows each agent to have:
  • Different personalities
  • Different tool access (e.g., read-only vs. read-write)
  • Different models (e.g., opus vs. sonnet)
  • Different skills installed

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Example: isolated sessions

In group 120363403215116621@g.us with agents ["alfred", "baerbel"]: 
Session: agent:alfred:whatsapp:group:120363403215116621@g.us
History: [user message, alfred's previous responses]
Workspace: /Users/user/openclaw-alfred/
Tools: read, write, exec

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Best practices

Design each agent with a single, clear responsibility:
{
  "broadcast": {
    "DEV_GROUP": ["formatter", "linter", "tester"]
  }
}
✅ Good: Each agent has one job. ❌ Bad: One generic “dev-helper” agent.
Make it clear what each agent does:
{
  "agents": {
    "security-scanner": { "name": "Security Scanner" },
    "code-formatter": { "name": "Code Formatter" },
    "test-generator": { "name": "Test Generator" }
  }
}
Give agents only the tools they need:
{
  "agents": {
    "reviewer": {
      "tools": { "allow": ["read", "exec"] } // Read-only
    },
    "fixer": {
      "tools": { "allow": ["read", "write", "edit", "exec"] } // Read-write
    }
  }
}
With many agents, consider:
  • Using "strategy": "parallel" (default) for speed
  • Limiting broadcast groups to 5-10 agents
  • Using faster models for simpler agents
Agents fail independently. One agent’s error doesn’t block others:
Message → [Agent A ✓, Agent B ✗ error, Agent C ✓]
Result: Agent A and C respond, Agent B logs error

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Compatibility

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Providers

Broadcast groups currently work with:
  • ✅ WhatsApp (implemented)
  • 🚧 Telegram (planned)
  • 🚧 Discord (planned)
  • 🚧 Slack (planned)

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Routing

Broadcast groups work alongside existing routing: 
{
  "bindings": [
    {
      "match": { "channel": "whatsapp", "peer": { "kind": "group", "id": "GROUP_A" } },
      "agentId": "alfred"
    }
  ],
  "broadcast": {
    "GROUP_B": ["agent1", "agent2"]
  }
}
  • GROUP_A: Only alfred responds (normal routing).
  • GROUP_B: agent1 AND agent2 respond (broadcast).
Precedence: broadcast takes priority over bindings.

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Troubleshooting

Check:
  1. Agent IDs exist in agents.list.
  2. Peer ID format is correct (e.g., 120363403215116621@g.us).
  3. Agents are not in deny lists.
Debug:
tail -f ~/.openclaw/logs/gateway.log | grep broadcast
Cause: Peer ID might be in bindings but not broadcast.Fix: Add to broadcast config or remove from bindings.
If slow with many agents:
  • Reduce number of agents per group.
  • Use lighter models (sonnet instead of opus).
  • Check sandbox startup time.

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Examples

{
  "broadcast": {
    "strategy": "parallel",
    "120363403215116621@g.us": [
      "code-formatter",
      "security-scanner",
      "test-coverage",
      "docs-checker"
    ]
  },
  "agents": {
    "list": [
      {
        "id": "code-formatter",
        "workspace": "~/agents/formatter",
        "tools": { "allow": ["read", "write"] }
      },
      {
        "id": "security-scanner",
        "workspace": "~/agents/security",
        "tools": { "allow": ["read", "exec"] }
      },
      {
        "id": "test-coverage",
        "workspace": "~/agents/testing",
        "tools": { "allow": ["read", "exec"] }
      },
      { "id": "docs-checker", "workspace": "~/agents/docs", "tools": { "allow": ["read"] } }
    ]
  }
}
User sends: Code snippet.Responses:
  • code-formatter: “Fixed indentation and added type hints”
  • security-scanner: “⚠️ SQL injection vulnerability in line 12”
  • test-coverage: “Coverage is 45%, missing tests for error cases”
  • docs-checker: “Missing docstring for function process_data”
{
  "broadcast": {
    "strategy": "sequential",
    "+15555550123": ["detect-language", "translator-en", "translator-de"]
  },
  "agents": {
    "list": [
      { "id": "detect-language", "workspace": "~/agents/lang-detect" },
      { "id": "translator-en", "workspace": "~/agents/translate-en" },
      { "id": "translator-de", "workspace": "~/agents/translate-de" }
    ]
  }
}

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API reference

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Config schema

interface OpenClawConfig {
  broadcast?: {
    strategy?: "parallel" | "sequential";
    [peerId: string]: string[];
  };
}

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Fields

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strategy
"parallel" | "sequential"
default:"\"parallel\""
How to process agents. parallel runs all agents simultaneously; sequential runs them in array order.
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[peerId]
string[]
WhatsApp group JID, E.164 number, or other peer ID. Value is the array of agent IDs that should process messages.

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Limitations

  1. Max agents: No hard limit, but 10+ agents may be slow.
  2. Shared context: Agents don’t see each other’s responses (by design).
  3. Message ordering: Parallel responses may arrive in any order.
  4. Rate limits: All agents count toward WhatsApp rate limits.

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Future enhancements

Planned features:
  • Shared context mode (agents see each other’s responses)
  • Agent coordination (agents can signal each other)
  • Dynamic agent selection (choose agents based on message content)
  • Agent priorities (some agents respond before others)