Telegram multi-account/bot to different agents routing is broken in OpenClaw 2026.2.1. Messages to secondary Telegram bot accounts always route to the default agent (agent:main), ignoring bindings configuration with accountId matching.

Related issues: #9110, #9058, #8692, #8773
Related PR (Feishu fix): #8975

Steps to reproduce

1. Configure two Telegram bot accounts in channels.telegram.accounts:
   "channels": {
   "telegram": {
   "enabled": true,
   "accounts": {
   "bot1": { "botToken": "TOKEN1" },
   "bot2": { "botToken": "TOKEN2" }
   }
   }
   }

2. Set up bindings mapping each account to different agents:
   "bindings": [
   { "agentId": "main", "match": { "channel": "telegram", "accountId": "bot1" } },
   { "agentId": "secondary", "match": { "channel": "telegram", "accountId": "bot2" } }
   ]

3. Send message to @bot2 on Telegram

4. Observe: Message routes to agent:main instead of secondary
   Expected behavior

Messages to @bot2 should route to secondary agent based on binding:

{ "agentId": "secondary", "match": { "channel": "telegram", "accountId": "bot2" } }

Actual behavior

All messages route to default agent (agent:main), ignoring accountId matching in bindings.

Root cause identified: bot-message-context.js does not pass accountId to routing layer. File: /usr/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/telegram/bot-message-context.js

Environment

• OpenClaw version: 2026.2.1
• OS: Linux (HAOS/Docker)
• Channel: Telegram (multi-account)
• Install method: Docker/HAOS addon
Attempted workarounds (all failed)

1. accountId variations

• accountId: "bot2" - Standard format
• accountId: "bot2_bot" - Username format (matching Telegram bot handle)
2. Group mentions with mentionPatterns

Configured agents with mention patterns:

{
"agents": {
"list": [
{
"id": "main",
"groupChat": { "mentionPatterns": ["@BOT1"] }
},
{
"id": "secondary",
"groupChat": { "mentionPatterns": ["@bot2"] }
}
]
}
}

Result: Created Telegram group, added both bots, mentioned @bot2 - still routed to agent:main

3. Separate instances

Blocked: Requires multiple ports (HAOS addon limitation - single port mapping)

Conclusion: No viable workaround. Routing is fundamentally broken at code level.

Proposed fix

Solution: Map Bot Tokens to Agents via accountId

Core change: Pass accountId from the bot account that received the message through to the routing layer.

File: src/telegram/bot-message-context.ts

function buildBotMessageContext(update, account) {
return {
channel: "telegram",
peer: extractPeer(update),
text: update.message?.text",
accountId: account.id, // ADD: Pass account identifier
};
}

File: src/channels/channel-router.ts

function resolveAgentRoute(context) {
// Match binding by channel + accountId
const binding = bindings.find(b =>
b.match.channel === context.channel &&
b.match.accountId === context.accountId // ADD: Check account match
);
return binding?.agentId || defaultAgentId;
}

Result: Each bot account routes to its bound agent based on accountId matching in bindings configuration.

Alternative: Bot Token Mapping

If accountId matching is problematic, could map by bot token:

// Map bot token to agent via lookup table
const tokenToAgent = {
"TOKEN1": "main",
"TOKEN2": "secondary"
};

Reference: PR #8975 implements similar fix for Feishu channel (see pattern there).

Logs or screenshots

Gateway status shows multiple Telegram accounts configured but routing ignores accountId:

agents.list: 2 entries
bindings: 2 entries
telegram.accounts: ['bot1', 'bot2']

Session logs show all messages routing to agent:main:telegram:... regardless of which bot received them.

Impact: Blocks multi-bot Telegram workflows, multiple telegram bot/agent deployments and dev/prod bot separation.

Priority: High

Labels: bug, telegram