Groups

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

For always-on rooms that should provide quiet context unless the agent explicitly sends a visible message, see Ambient room events.

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.
• Visible replies in groups/channels use the message tool by default.

Translation: allowlisted senders can trigger OpenClaw by mentioning it.

Note

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
mention/reply/command/DM -> user request
always-on group chatter -> user request, or room event when configured

Visible replies

For normal group/channel requests, OpenClaw defaults to messages.groupChat.visibleReplies: "automatic". Final assistant text posts through the legacy visible reply path unless you opt the room into message-tool-only output.

Use messages.groupChat.visibleReplies: "message_tool" when a shared room should let the agent decide when to speak by calling message(action=send). This works best for group rooms backed by latest-generation, tool-reliable models such as GPT 5.5. If the model misses that tool and returns substantive final text, OpenClaw keeps that final text private instead of posting it to the room.

If the message tool is unavailable under the active tool policy, OpenClaw falls back to automatic visible replies instead of silently suppressing the response. openclaw doctor warns about this mismatch.

For direct chats and any other source event, use messages.visibleReplies: "message_tool" to apply the same tool-only visible-reply behavior globally. Some harnesses, including Codex, also default direct/source chats to message-tool delivery when this is unset. Set messages.visibleReplies: "automatic" to force the old automatic final-reply path. messages.groupChat.visibleReplies remains the more specific override for group/channel rooms.

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 for direct group requests. Ambient always-on room events, when enabled, stay strict and quiet unless the agent calls the message tool.

Sessions suppress verbose tool/progress summaries by default. Use /verbose on to show those summaries for the current session while debugging, and /verbose off to return to final-reply-only behavior. The same verbose state applies across direct chats, groups, channels, and forum topics.

To submit unmentioned always-on group chatter as quiet room context instead of user requests, use Ambient room events:

{
  messages: {
    groupChat: {
      unmentionedInbound: "room_event",
    },
  },
}

The default is unmentionedInbound: "user_request".

Mentioned messages, commands, abort requests, and DMs stay user requests.

To require visible output to go through the message tool for group/channel requests:

{
  messages: {
    groupChat: {
      visibleReplies: "message_tool",
    },
  },
}

The gateway hot-reloads messages config after the file is saved. Restart only when file watching or config reload is disabled in the deployment.

To require visible output to go through the message tool for every source chat:

{
  messages: {
    visibleReplies: "message_tool",
  },
}

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.

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.

Current behavior is channel-specific

• 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.

Hardening direction (planned)

• 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.

If you want…

Goal	What to set
Allow all groups but only reply on @mentions	groups: { "*": { requireMention: true } }
Disable all group replies	groupPolicy: "disabled"
Only specific groups	groups: { "<group-id>": { ... } } (no "*" key)
Only you can trigger in groups	groupPolicy: "allowlist", groupAllowFrom: ["+1555..."]
Reuse one trusted sender set across channels	groupAllowFrom: ["accessGroup:operators"]

For reusable sender allowlists, see Access groups.

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.

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

Note

If you need truly separate workspaces/personas (“personal” and “public” must never mix), use a second agent + bindings. See Multi-Agent Routing.

DMs on host, groups sandboxedGroups see only an allowlisted folder

{
  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"],
      },
    },
  },
}

Want “groups can only see folder X” instead of “no host access”? Keep workspaceAccess: "none" and mount only allowlisted paths into the sandbox:

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      sandbox: {
        mode: "non-main",
        scope: "session",
        workspaceAccess: "none",
        docker: {
          binds: [
            // hostPath:containerPath:mode
            "/home/user/FriendsShared:/data:ro",
          ],
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Related:

• Configuration keys and defaults: Gateway configuration
• Debugging why a tool is blocked: Sandbox vs Tool Policy vs Elevated
• Bind mounts details: Sandboxing

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 #@+._-).

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: ["[email protected]"],
    },
    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 },
      },
    },
  },
}

Policy	Behavior
"open"	Groups bypass allowlists; mention-gating still applies.
"disabled"	Block all group messages entirely.
"allowlist"	Only allow groups/rooms that match the configured allowlist.

Per-channel notes

• groupPolicy is separate from mention-gating (which requires @mentions).
• WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal/iMessage/Microsoft Teams/Zalo: use groupAllowFrom (fallback: explicit allowFrom).
• Signal: groupAllowFrom can match either the inbound Signal group id or the sender phone/UUID.
• 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.

.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.groupAllowFromto restrict senders; per-roomusers 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.

absent), group policy falls back to a fail-closed mode (typicallyallowlist) 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).

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 },
        "[email protected]": { 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,
        },
      },
    ],
  },
}

Mention gating notes

• 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).
• Allowlisting a group or sender does not disable mention gating; set that group’s requireMention to false when all messages should trigger.
• Automatic group chat prompt context carries the resolved silent-reply instruction every turn; workspace files should not duplicate NO_REPLY mechanics.
• Groups where automatic silent replies are allowed treat clean empty or reasoning-only model turns as silent, equivalent to NO_REPLY. Direct chats never receive NO_REPLY guidance, and message-tool-only group replies stay quiet by not calling message(action=send).
• Ambient always-on group chatter uses user-request semantics by default. Set messages.groupChat.unmentionedInbound: "room_event" to submit it as quiet context instead. See Ambient room events for setup examples.
• Room events are not stored as fake user requests, and private assistant text from no-message-tool room events is not replayed as chat history.
• Discord defaults live in channels.discord.guilds."*" (overridable per guild/channel).
• Group history context is wrapped uniformly across channels. Mention-gated groups keep pending skipped messages; always-on groups may also retain recent processed room messages when the channel supports it. Use messages.groupChat.historyLimit for the global default and `channels.

.historyLimit(orchannels.

.accounts.*.historyLimit) for overrides. Set 0` to disable.

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: channel:<channelId>:<senderId>, id:<senderId>, e164:<phone>, username:<handle>, name:<displayName>, and "*" wildcard. Channel ids use canonical OpenClaw channel ids; aliases such as teams normalize to msteams. 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"] },
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Note

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.*).

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.

Warning

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):

Disable all group repliesAllow only specific groups (WhatsApp)Allow all groups but require mentionOwner-only triggers (WhatsApp)

{
  channels: { whatsapp: { groupPolicy: "disabled" } },
}

{
  channels: {
    whatsapp: {
      groups: {
        "[email protected]": { requireMention: true },
        "[email protected]": { requireMention: false },
      },
    },
  },
}

{
  channels: {
    whatsapp: {
      groups: { "*": { requireMention: true } },
    },
  },
}

{
  channels: {
    whatsapp: {
      groupPolicy: "allowlist",
      groupAllowFrom: ["+15551234567"],
      groups: { "*": { requireMention: true } },
    },
  },
}

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.

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.

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.

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.

WhatsApp system prompts

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

WhatsApp specifics

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

Related

• Broadcast groups
• Channel routing
• Group messages
• Pairing