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Mainstream messaging

Discord threads and sessions

How Discord threads, forums, and channels map onto OpenClaw sessions.

Forum channels

Discord forum and media channels only accept thread posts. OpenClaw supports two ways to create them:

  • Send a message to the forum parent (channel:<forumId>) to auto-create a thread. The thread title is the first non-empty line of the message (truncated to Discord's 100-character thread-name limit).
  • Use openclaw message thread create to create a thread directly. Do not pass --message-id for forum channels.

Send to the forum parent to create a thread:

bash
openclaw message send --channel discord --target channel:<forumId> \  --message "Topic title\nBody of the post"

Create a forum thread explicitly:

bash
openclaw message thread create --channel discord --target channel:<forumId> \  --thread-name "Topic title" --message "Body of the post"

Forum parents do not accept Discord components. If you need components, send to the thread itself (channel:<threadId>).

Session and thread behavior

History, context, and thread behavior

Guild history context:

  • channels.discord.historyLimit default 20
  • fallback: messages.groupChat.historyLimit
  • 0 disables

DM history controls:

  • channels.discord.dmHistoryLimit
  • channels.discord.dms["<user_id>"].historyLimit

Thread behavior:

  • Discord threads route as channel sessions and inherit parent channel config unless overridden.
  • Thread sessions inherit the parent channel's session-level /model selection as a model-only fallback; thread-local /model selections take precedence, and parent transcript history is not copied unless transcript inheritance is enabled.
  • channels.discord.thread.inheritParent (default false) opts new auto-threads into seeding from the parent transcript. Per-account override: channels.discord.accounts.<id>.thread.inheritParent.
  • Message-tool reactions can resolve user:<id> DM targets.
  • guilds.<guild>.channels.<channel>.requireMention: false is preserved during reply-stage activation fallback.

Channel topics are injected as untrusted context. Allowlists gate who can trigger the agent, not a full supplemental-context redaction boundary.

Thread-bound sessions for subagents

Discord can bind a thread to a session target so follow-up messages in that thread keep routing to the same session (including subagent sessions).

Commands:

  • /session unbind remove the current thread binding without closing its agent session
  • /agents show active runs and binding state
  • /session idle <duration|off> inspect/update inactivity expiry for the current binding
  • /session max-age <duration|off> inspect/update hard max age for the current binding

Config:

json5
{session: {threadBindings: {  enabled: true,  idleHours: 24,  maxAgeHours: 0,  spawnSessions: true,  defaultSpawnContext: "fork",},},}

Notes:

  • session.threadBindings.* is the canonical policy for Discord and Telegram.
  • spawnSessions controls auto-create/bind threads for sessions_spawn({ thread: true }) and ACP thread spawns. Default: true.
  • defaultSpawnContext controls native subagent context for thread-bound spawns. Default: "fork".
  • Deprecated spawnSubagentSessions/spawnAcpSessions keys are migrated by openclaw doctor --fix.
  • If thread bindings are disabled, thread-bound spawns are unavailable.

See Sub-agents, ACP Agents, and Configuration Reference.

Persistent ACP channel bindings

For stable "always-on" ACP workspaces, configure top-level typed ACP bindings targeting Discord conversations.

Config path: bindings[] with type: "acp" and match.channel: "discord".

json5
{agents: {entries: {  codex: {    runtime: {      type: "acp",      acp: {        agent: "codex",        backend: "acpx",        mode: "persistent",        cwd: "/workspace/openclaw",      },    },  },},},bindings: [{  type: "acp",  agentId: "codex",  match: {    channel: "discord",    accountId: "default",    peer: { kind: "channel", id: "222222222222222222" },  },  acp: { label: "codex-main" },},],channels: {discord: {  guilds: {    "111111111111111111": {      channels: {        "222222222222222222": {          requireMention: false,        },      },    },  },},},}

Notes:

  • /acp spawn codex --bind here binds the current channel or thread in place and keeps future messages on the same ACP session. Thread messages inherit the parent channel binding.
  • In a bound channel or thread, /new and /reset reset the same ACP session in place. Temporary thread bindings can override target resolution while active.
  • spawnSessions gates child thread creation/binding via --thread auto|here.

See ACP Agents for binding behavior details.

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