Bot loop protection

Bot loop protection

OpenClaw can accept messages written by other bots on channels that support allowBots. When that path is enabled, pair loop protection prevents two bot identities from replying to each other indefinitely.

The guard is enforced by the core channel-turn kernel. Each supporting channel maps its own inbound event into generic facts: account or scope, conversation id, sender bot id, and receiver bot id. Core then tracks the participant pair in both directions, applies a sliding-window budget, and suppresses the pair during a cooldown after the budget is exceeded.

Defaults

Pair loop protection is active when a channel lets bot-authored messages reach dispatch. Built-in defaults are:

• maxEventsPerWindow: 20 - a bot pair can exchange 20 events within the window
• windowSeconds: 60 - sliding window length
• cooldownSeconds: 60 - suppression time after the pair exceeds the budget

The guard does not affect normal human-authored messages, single-bot deployments, self-message filtering, or one-shot bot replies that stay under the budget.

Configure shared defaults

Set channels.defaults.botLoopProtection once to give every supporting channel the same baseline. Channel and account overrides can still tune individual surfaces.

{
  channels: {
    defaults: {
      botLoopProtection: {
        maxEventsPerWindow: 20,
        windowSeconds: 60,
        cooldownSeconds: 60,
      },
    },
  },
}

Set enabled: false only when your channel policy intentionally allows bot-to-bot conversations without automatic suppression.

Override per channel or account

Supporting channels layer their own config over the shared default. Precedence is:

• channels.<channel>.<room-or-space>.botLoopProtection, when the channel supports per-conversation overrides
• channels.<channel>.accounts.<account>.botLoopProtection, when the channel supports accounts
• channels.<channel>.botLoopProtection, when the channel supports top-level defaults
• channels.defaults.botLoopProtection
• built-in defaults

{
  channels: {
    defaults: {
      botLoopProtection: {
        maxEventsPerWindow: 20,
      },
    },
    discord: {
      botLoopProtection: {
        maxEventsPerWindow: 8,
      },
      accounts: {
        molty: {
          allowBots: "mentions",
          botLoopProtection: {
            maxEventsPerWindow: 5,
            cooldownSeconds: 90,
          },
        },
      },
    },
    slack: {
      allowBots: "mentions",
      botLoopProtection: {
        maxEventsPerWindow: 8,
      },
    },
    matrix: {
      allowBots: "mentions",
      groups: {
        "!roomid:example.org": {
          botLoopProtection: {
            maxEventsPerWindow: 5,
          },
        },
      },
    },
    googlechat: {
      allowBots: true,
      groups: {
        "spaces/AAAA": {
          botLoopProtection: {
            maxEventsPerWindow: 5,
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Channel support

• Discord: native author.bot facts, keyed by Discord account, channel, and bot pair.
• Slack：針對接受的 Bot 建立訊息的原生 bot_id 事實，以 Slack 帳戶、頻道和 Bot 配對為鍵值。
• Matrix：已配置的 Matrix Bot 帳戶，以 Matrix 帳戶、房間和配置的 Bot 配對為鍵值。
• Google Chat：針對接受的 Bot 建立訊息的原生 sender.type=BOT 事實，以帳戶、空間和 Bot 配對為鍵值。

無法公開可靠輸入 Bot 身分的頻道會繼續使用其正常的自我訊息與存取原則過濾器。在它們能夠識別 Bot 配對中的兩個參與者之前，不應選擇加入此防護機制。

請參閱 SDK 執行時期 以了解外掛程式的實作細節。