Group Routing

Groups require explicit routing rules. OpenClaw uses mention gating, reply tags, and per-channel chunking to decide when to respond.

Group activation

• Mention gating — by default, the bot only responds in groups when mentioned. Set per-group via channels.<name>.groups.<groupId>.requireMention.
• Mention patterns — configure custom mention strings under messages.groupChat.mentionPatterns. Example: ["@openclaw"].
• Reply tags — replies to the bot's own messages trigger a response without needing a fresh mention.

Example

{
  channels: {
    whatsapp: {
      groups: {
        "*": { requireMention: true },
      },
    },
  },
  messages: { groupChat: { mentionPatterns: ["@openclaw"] } },
}

Per-channel chunking

Group routing also handles channel-specific chunking and routing rules (message length caps, reply threading, etc.). See per-channel docs under docs/channels/ in the repo for the specific rules.

Owner-only group commands

Some chat commands are owner-only when sent in groups. See the chat commands section in the upstream README.md for the canonical list.

See also

• DM policy & pairing.
• Channels overview.