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Groups

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

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Beginner intro (2 minutes)

Clawdbot “lives” on your own messaging accounts. There is no separate WhatsApp bot user. If you are in a group, Clawdbot can see that group and respond there. Default behavior:
  • Groups are restricted (groupPolicy: "allowlist").
  • Replies require a mention unless you explicitly disable mention gating.
Translation: allowlisted senders can trigger Clawdbot by mentioning it.
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
otherwise -> reply
Group message flow If you want…
GoalWhat to set
Allow all groups but only reply on @mentionsgroups: { "*": { requireMention: true } }
Disable all group repliesgroupPolicy: "disabled"
Only specific groupsgroups: { "<group-id>": { ... } } (no "*" key)
Only you can trigger in groupsgroupPolicy: "allowlist", groupAllowFrom: ["+1555..."]

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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.

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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 #@+._-).

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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", "@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 } }
    }
  }
}
PolicyBehavior
"open"Groups bypass allowlists; mention-gating still applies.
"disabled"Block all group messages entirely.
"allowlist"Only allow groups/rooms that match the configured allowlist.
Notes:
  • groupPolicy is separate from mention-gating (which requires @mentions).
  • WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal/iMessage/Microsoft Teams: use groupAllowFrom (fallback: explicit allowFrom).
  • Discord: allowlist uses channels.discord.guilds.<id>.channels.
  • Slack: allowlist uses channels.slack.channels.
  • 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.
Quick mental model (evaluation order for group messages):
  1. groupPolicy (open/disabled/allowlist)
  2. group allowlists (*.groups, *.groupAllowFrom, channel-specific allowlist)
  3. mention gating (requireMention, /activation)

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Mention gating (default)

Group messages require a mention unless overridden per group. Defaults live per subsystem under *.groups."*". 
{
  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: ["@clawd", "clawdbot", "\\+15555550123"],
          historyLimit: 50
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}
Notes:
  • mentionPatterns are case-insensitive regexes.
  • 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).
  • Discord defaults live in channels.discord.guilds."*" (overridable per guild/channel).
  • Group history context is wrapped uniformly across channels; use messages.groupChat.historyLimit for the global default and channels.<channel>.historyLimit (or channels.<channel>.accounts.*.historyLimit) for overrides. Set 0 to disable.

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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. Common intents (copy/paste):
  1. Disable all group replies
{
  channels: { whatsapp: { groupPolicy: "disabled" } }
}
  1. Allow only specific groups (WhatsApp)
{
  channels: {
    whatsapp: {
      groups: {
        "[email protected]": { requireMention: true },
        "[email protected]": { requireMention: false }
      }
    }
  }
}
  1. Allow all groups but require mention (explicit)
{
  channels: {
    whatsapp: {
      groups: { "*": { requireMention: true } }
    }
  }
}
  1. Only the owner can trigger in groups (WhatsApp)
{
  channels: {
    whatsapp: {
      groupPolicy: "allowlist",
      groupAllowFrom: ["+15551234567"],
      groups: { "*": { requireMention: true } }
    }
  }
}

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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.

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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, and avoid typing literal \n sequences.

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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.

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WhatsApp specifics

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