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Mainstream messaging

Slack transports

Which Slack transport fits your deployment shape, and how Socket Mode behaves at runtime.

Choosing a transport

Socket Mode and HTTP Request URLs reach feature parity for messaging, slash commands, App Home, and interactivity. Pick by deployment shape, not features.

Concern Socket Mode (default) HTTP Request URLs
Public Gateway URL Not required Required (DNS, TLS, reverse proxy or tunnel)
Outbound network Outbound WSS to wss-primary.slack.com must be reachable No outbound WS; inbound HTTPS only
Tokens needed Bot identity: bot token + App-Level Token with connections:write; user identity: user token + App-Level Token Bot identity: bot token + Signing Secret; user identity: user token + Signing Secret
Dev laptop / behind firewall Works as-is Needs a public tunnel (ngrok, Cloudflare Tunnel, Tailscale Funnel) or staging Gateway
Horizontal scaling One Socket Mode session per app per host; multiple Gateways need separate Slack apps Stateless POST handler; multiple Gateway replicas can share one app behind a load balancer
Multi-account on one Gateway Supported; each account opens its own WS Supported; each account needs a unique webhookPath (default /slack/events) so registrations do not collide
Slash command transport Delivered over the WS connection; slash_commands[].url is ignored Slack POSTs to slash_commands[].url; field is required for the command to dispatch
Request signing Not used (auth is the App-Level Token) Slack signs every request; OpenClaw verifies with signingSecret
Recovery on connection drop Slack SDK auto-reconnect is enabled; OpenClaw also restarts failed Socket Mode sessions with bounded backoff. A fixed 15s client pong timeout applies. No persistent connection to drop; retries are per-request from Slack

Relay mode

Relay mode separates Slack ingress from the OpenClaw gateway. A trusted router owns the single Slack Socket Mode connection, chooses a destination gateway, and forwards a typed event over an authenticated websocket. The gateway still uses its own bot token for outbound Slack Web API calls.

json5
{  channels: {    slack: {      mode: "relay",      botToken: { source: "env", provider: "default", id: "SLACK_BOT_TOKEN" },      relay: {        url: "wss://router.example.com/gateway/ws",        authToken: { source: "env", provider: "default", id: "SLACK_RELAY_AUTH_TOKEN" },        gatewayId: "team-gateway",      },    },  },}

The relay URL must use wss:// unless it targets localhost. Treat the bearer token and router route table as part of the Slack authorization boundary: routed events enter the normal Slack message handler as authorized activations. A router-provided slack_identity in the websocket hello frame can set the default outbound username and icon; an explicit identity supplied by the caller still wins. The relay connection reconnects with the same bounded backoff timing as Socket Mode and clears the router-provided identity whenever it disconnects.

Socket Mode transport tuning

OpenClaw sets the Slack SDK client pong timeout to 15 seconds for Socket Mode. This is a fixed internal default and is not operator-configurable.

Notes:

  • The channels.slack.socketMode object, including clientPingTimeout, serverPingTimeout, and pingPongLoggingEnabled, is retired and is no longer read at runtime. openclaw doctor flags retired layout tuning knobs with a general notice rather than a per-key path. openclaw doctor --fix removes those three fields wherever they appear, at the channel root and under accounts.<accountId>, and drops the socketMode object once it is empty. Any other key you added inside it is left alone, so delete it by hand.
  • App messages and events remain application state, not transport liveness signals.
  • Socket Mode restart backoff starts around 2 seconds and caps around 30 seconds. Recoverable start, start-wait, and disconnect failures retry until the channel stops. Permanent account and credential errors such as invalid auth, revoked tokens, or missing scopes fail fast instead of retrying forever.
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