Channel inbound API

Channel plugins should model receive paths with inbound and message nouns:

platform event -> inbound facts/context -> agent reply -> message delivery

Use openclaw/plugin-sdk/channel-inbound for inbound event normalization, formatting, roots, and orchestration. Use openclaw/plugin-sdk/channel-outbound for native send, receipt, durable delivery, and live preview behavior.

Core Helpers

import {
  buildChannelInboundEventContext,
  runChannelInboundEvent,
  dispatchChannelInboundReply,
} from "openclaw/plugin-sdk/channel-inbound";

• buildChannelInboundEventContext(...): project normalized channel facts into the prompt/session context. Use channelContext to pass channel-owned sender/chat metadata through to plugin hook ctx.channelContext; augment PluginHookChannelSenderContext or PluginHookChannelChatContext from this subpath for channel-specific fields.
• runChannelInboundEvent(...): run ingest, classify, preflight, resolve, record, dispatch, and finalize for one inbound platform event.
• dispatchChannelInboundReply(...): record and dispatch an already assembled inbound reply with a delivery adapter.

The injected plugin runtime exposes the same high-level helpers under runtime.channel.inbound.* for bundled/native channels that already receive the runtime object.

await runtime.channel.inbound.run({
  channel: "demo",
  accountId,
  raw: platformEvent,
  adapter: {
    ingest: normalizePlatformEvent,
    resolveTurn: resolveInboundReply,
  },
});

Compatibility dispatchers should assemble dispatchChannelInboundReply(...) inputs and keep platform delivery in the delivery adapter. New send paths should prefer message adapters and durable message helpers.

Migration

The old runtime.channel.turn.* runtime aliases were removed. Use:

• runtime.channel.inbound.run(...) for raw inbound events.
• runtime.channel.inbound.dispatchReply(...) for assembled reply contexts.
• runtime.channel.inbound.buildContext(...) for inbound context payloads.
• runtime.channel.inbound.runPreparedReply(...) only for channel-owned prepared dispatch paths that already assemble their own dispatch closure.

New plugin code should not introduce turn-named channel APIs. Keep model or agent turn vocabulary inside agent/provider code; channel plugins use inbound, message, delivery, and reply terms.