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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.openclaw.ai/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

OpenClaw treats group chats consistently across surfaces: Discord, iMessage, Matrix, Microsoft Teams, Signal, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, Zalo.

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Beginner intro (2 minutes)

OpenClaw “lives” on your own messaging accounts. There is no separate WhatsApp bot user. If you are in a group, OpenClaw can see that group and respond there. Default behavior:
  • Groups are restricted (groupPolicy: "allowlist").
  • Replies require a mention unless you explicitly disable mention gating.
  • Normal final replies in groups/channels are private by default. Visible room output uses the message tool.
Translation: allowlisted senders can trigger OpenClaw by mentioning it.
TL;DR
  • DM access is controlled by *.allowFrom.
  • Group access is controlled by *.groupPolicy + allowlists (*.groups, *.groupAllowFrom).
  • Reply triggering is controlled by mention gating (requireMention, /activation).
Quick flow (what happens to a group message): 
groupPolicy? disabled -> drop
groupPolicy? allowlist -> group allowed? no -> drop
requireMention? yes -> mentioned? no -> store for context only
otherwise -> reply

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Visible replies

For group/channel rooms, OpenClaw defaults to messages.groupChat.visibleReplies: "message_tool". That means the agent still processes the turn and can update memory/session state, but its normal final answer is not automatically posted back into the room. To speak visibly, the agent uses message(action=send). This replaces the old pattern of forcing the model to answer NO_REPLY for most lurk-mode turns. In tool-only mode, doing nothing visible simply means not calling the message tool. Typing indicators are still sent while the agent works in tool-only mode. The default group typing mode is upgraded from “message” to “instant” for these turns because there may never be normal assistant message text before the agent decides whether to call the message tool. Explicit typing-mode config still wins. To restore legacy automatic final replies for group/channel rooms: 
{
  messages: {
    groupChat: {
      visibleReplies: "automatic",
    },
  },
}
Native slash commands (Discord, Telegram, and other surfaces with native command support) bypass visibleReplies: "message_tool" and always reply visibly so the channel-native command UI gets the response it expects. This applies to validated native command turns only; text-typed /... commands and ordinary chat turns still follow the configured group default.

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Context visibility and allowlists

Two different controls are involved in group safety:
  • Trigger authorization: who can trigger the agent (groupPolicy, groups, groupAllowFrom, channel-specific allowlists).
  • Context visibility: what supplemental context is injected into the model (reply text, quotes, thread history, forwarded metadata).
By default, OpenClaw prioritizes normal chat behavior and keeps context mostly as received. This means allowlists primarily decide who can trigger actions, not a universal redaction boundary for every quoted or historical snippet.
  • Some channels already apply sender-based filtering for supplemental context in specific paths (for example Slack thread seeding, Matrix reply/thread lookups).
  • Other channels still pass quote/reply/forward context through as received.
  • contextVisibility: "all" (default) keeps current as-received behavior.
  • contextVisibility: "allowlist" filters supplemental context to allowlisted senders.
  • contextVisibility: "allowlist_quote" is allowlist plus one explicit quote/reply exception.
Until this hardening model is implemented consistently across channels, expect differences by surface.
Group message flow If you want…
GoalWhat to set
Allow all groups but only reply on @mentionsgroups: { "*": { requireMention: true } }
Disable all group repliesgroupPolicy: "disabled"
Only specific groupsgroups: { "<group-id>": { ... } } (no "*" key)
Only you can trigger in groupsgroupPolicy: "allowlist", groupAllowFrom: ["+1555..."]

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Session keys

  • Group sessions use agent:<agentId>:<channel>:group:<id> session keys (rooms/channels use agent:<agentId>:<channel>:channel:<id>).
  • Telegram forum topics add :topic:<threadId> to the group id so each topic has its own session.
  • Direct chats use the main session (or per-sender if configured).
  • Heartbeats are skipped for group sessions.

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Pattern: personal DMs + public groups (single agent)

Yes — this works well if your “personal” traffic is DMs and your “public” traffic is groups. Why: in single-agent mode, DMs typically land in the main session key (agent:main:main), while groups always use non-main session keys (agent:main:<channel>:group:<id>). If you enable sandboxing with mode: "non-main", those group sessions run in the configured sandbox backend while your main DM session stays on-host. Docker is the default backend if you do not choose one. This gives you one agent “brain” (shared workspace + memory), but two execution postures:
  • DMs: full tools (host)
  • Groups: sandbox + restricted tools
If you need truly separate workspaces/personas (“personal” and “public” must never mix), use a second agent + bindings. See Multi-Agent Routing.
{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      sandbox: {
        mode: "non-main", // groups/channels are non-main -> sandboxed
        scope: "session", // strongest isolation (one container per group/channel)
        workspaceAccess: "none",
      },
    },
  },
  tools: {
    sandbox: {
      tools: {
        // If allow is non-empty, everything else is blocked (deny still wins).
        allow: ["group:messaging", "group:sessions"],
        deny: ["group:runtime", "group:fs", "group:ui", "nodes", "cron", "gateway"],
      },
    },
  },
}
Related:

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Display labels

  • UI labels use displayName when available, formatted as <channel>:<token>.
  • #room is reserved for rooms/channels; group chats use g-<slug> (lowercase, spaces -> -, keep #@+._-).

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Group policy

Control how group/room messages are handled per channel: 
{
  channels: {
    whatsapp: {
      groupPolicy: "disabled", // "open" | "disabled" | "allowlist"
      groupAllowFrom: ["+15551234567"],
    },
    telegram: {
      groupPolicy: "disabled",
      groupAllowFrom: ["123456789"], // numeric Telegram user id (wizard can resolve @username)
    },
    signal: {
      groupPolicy: "disabled",
      groupAllowFrom: ["+15551234567"],
    },
    imessage: {
      groupPolicy: "disabled",
      groupAllowFrom: ["chat_id:123"],
    },
    msteams: {
      groupPolicy: "disabled",
      groupAllowFrom: ["user@org.com"],
    },
    discord: {
      groupPolicy: "allowlist",
      guilds: {
        GUILD_ID: { channels: { help: { allow: true } } },
      },
    },
    slack: {
      groupPolicy: "allowlist",
      channels: { "#general": { allow: true } },
    },
    matrix: {
      groupPolicy: "allowlist",
      groupAllowFrom: ["@owner:example.org"],
      groups: {
        "!roomId:example.org": { enabled: true },
        "#alias:example.org": { enabled: true },
      },
    },
  },
}
PolicyBehavior
"open"Groups bypass allowlists; mention-gating still applies.
"disabled"Block all group messages entirely.
"allowlist"Only allow groups/rooms that match the configured allowlist.
  • groupPolicy is separate from mention-gating (which requires @mentions).
  • WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal/iMessage/Microsoft Teams/Zalo: use groupAllowFrom (fallback: explicit allowFrom).
  • DM pairing approvals (*-allowFrom store entries) apply to DM access only; group sender authorization stays explicit to group allowlists.
  • Discord: allowlist uses channels.discord.guilds.<id>.channels.
  • Slack: allowlist uses channels.slack.channels.
  • Matrix: allowlist uses channels.matrix.groups. Prefer room IDs or aliases; joined-room name lookup is best-effort, and unresolved names are ignored at runtime. Use channels.matrix.groupAllowFrom to restrict senders; per-room users allowlists are also supported.
  • Group DMs are controlled separately (channels.discord.dm.*, channels.slack.dm.*).
  • Telegram allowlist can match user IDs ("123456789", "telegram:123456789", "tg:123456789") or usernames ("@alice" or "alice"); prefixes are case-insensitive.
  • Default is groupPolicy: "allowlist"; if your group allowlist is empty, group messages are blocked.
  • Runtime safety: when a provider block is completely missing (channels.<provider> absent), group policy falls back to a fail-closed mode (typically allowlist) instead of inheriting channels.defaults.groupPolicy.
Quick mental model (evaluation order for group messages):
1

groupPolicy

groupPolicy (open/disabled/allowlist).
2

Group allowlists

Group allowlists (*.groups, *.groupAllowFrom, channel-specific allowlist).
3

Mention gating

Mention gating (requireMention, /activation).

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Mention gating (default)

Group messages require a mention unless overridden per group. Defaults live per subsystem under *.groups."*". Replying to a bot message counts as an implicit mention when the channel supports reply metadata. Quoting a bot message can also count as an implicit mention on channels that expose quote metadata. Current built-in cases include Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams, and ZaloUser. 
{
  channels: {
    whatsapp: {
      groups: {
        "*": { requireMention: true },
        "123@g.us": { requireMention: false },
      },
    },
    telegram: {
      groups: {
        "*": { requireMention: true },
        "123456789": { requireMention: false },
      },
    },
    imessage: {
      groups: {
        "*": { requireMention: true },
        "123": { requireMention: false },
      },
    },
  },
  agents: {
    list: [
      {
        id: "main",
        groupChat: {
          mentionPatterns: ["@openclaw", "openclaw", "\\+15555550123"],
          historyLimit: 50,
        },
      },
    ],
  },
}
  • mentionPatterns are case-insensitive safe regex patterns; invalid patterns and unsafe nested-repetition forms are ignored.
  • Surfaces that provide explicit mentions still pass; patterns are a fallback.
  • Per-agent override: agents.list[].groupChat.mentionPatterns (useful when multiple agents share a group).
  • Mention gating is only enforced when mention detection is possible (native mentions or mentionPatterns are configured).
  • Group chat prompt context carries the resolved silent-reply instruction every turn; workspace files should not duplicate NO_REPLY mechanics.
  • Groups where silent replies are allowed treat clean empty or reasoning-only model turns as silent, equivalent to NO_REPLY. Direct chats still treat empty replies as a failed agent turn.
  • Discord defaults live in channels.discord.guilds."*" (overridable per guild/channel).
  • Group history context is wrapped uniformly across channels and is pending-only (messages skipped due to mention gating); use messages.groupChat.historyLimit for the global default and channels.<channel>.historyLimit (or channels.<channel>.accounts.*.historyLimit) for overrides. Set 0 to disable.

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Group/channel tool restrictions (optional)

Some channel configs support restricting which tools are available inside a specific group/room/channel.
  • tools: allow/deny tools for the whole group.
  • toolsBySender: per-sender overrides within the group. Use explicit key prefixes: id:<senderId>, e164:<phone>, username:<handle>, name:<displayName>, and "*" wildcard. Legacy unprefixed keys are still accepted and matched as id: only.
Resolution order (most specific wins):
1

Group toolsBySender

Group/channel toolsBySender match.
2

Group tools

Group/channel tools.
3

Default toolsBySender

Default ("*") toolsBySender match.
4

Default tools

Default ("*") tools.
Example (Telegram): 
{
  channels: {
    telegram: {
      groups: {
        "*": { tools: { deny: ["exec"] } },
        "-1001234567890": {
          tools: { deny: ["exec", "read", "write"] },
          toolsBySender: {
            "id:123456789": { alsoAllow: ["exec"] },
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}
Group/channel tool restrictions are applied in addition to global/agent tool policy (deny still wins). Some channels use different nesting for rooms/channels (e.g., Discord guilds.*.channels.*, Slack channels.*, Microsoft Teams teams.*.channels.*).

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Group allowlists

When channels.whatsapp.groups, channels.telegram.groups, or channels.imessage.groups is configured, the keys act as a group allowlist. Use "*" to allow all groups while still setting default mention behavior.
Common confusion: DM pairing approval is not the same as group authorization. For channels that support DM pairing, the pairing store unlocks DMs only. Group commands still require explicit group sender authorization from config allowlists such as groupAllowFrom or the documented config fallback for that channel.
Common intents (copy/paste): 
{
  channels: { whatsapp: { groupPolicy: "disabled" } },
}

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Activation (owner-only)

Group owners can toggle per-group activation:
  • /activation mention
  • /activation always
Owner is determined by channels.whatsapp.allowFrom (or the bot’s self E.164 when unset). Send the command as a standalone message. Other surfaces currently ignore /activation.

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Context fields

Group inbound payloads set:
  • ChatType=group
  • GroupSubject (if known)
  • GroupMembers (if known)
  • WasMentioned (mention gating result)
  • Telegram forum topics also include MessageThreadId and IsForum.
Channel-specific notes:
  • BlueBubbles can optionally enrich unnamed macOS group participants from the local Contacts database before populating GroupMembers. This is off by default and only runs after normal group gating passes.
The agent system prompt includes a group intro on the first turn of a new group session. It reminds the model to respond like a human, avoid Markdown tables, minimize empty lines and follow normal chat spacing, and avoid typing literal \n sequences. Channel-sourced group names and participant labels are rendered as fenced untrusted metadata, not inline system instructions.

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iMessage specifics

  • Prefer chat_id:<id> when routing or allowlisting.
  • List chats: imsg chats --limit 20.
  • Group replies always go back to the same chat_id.

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WhatsApp system prompts

See WhatsApp for the canonical WhatsApp system prompt rules, including group and direct prompt resolution, wildcard behavior, and account override semantics.

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WhatsApp specifics

See Group messages for WhatsApp-only behavior (history injection, mention handling details).