feat: Zulip channel plugin with concurrent message processing by FtlC-ian · Pull Request #15051 · openclaw/openclaw

FtlC-ian · 2026-02-12T22:42:29Z

Summary

Adds a full-featured Zulip channel plugin with concurrent message processing that significantly improves conversation flow compared to existing Zulip PRs.

Core Features

✅ Event queue polling with exponential backoff and auto-recovery
✅ Authenticated upload downloads from /user_uploads/
✅ Outbound file uploads via /api/v1/user_uploads
✅ Reaction indicators (eyes → check_mark/warning)
✅ Topic directive [[zulip_topic: <topic>]]
✅ HTTP retry with backoff (429/502/503/504)
✅ Full actions API (stream CRUD, user management, reactions)
✅ Channel docs and unit tests (16 passing)

Security & SDK Compliance

✅ SSRF protection: All outbound HTTP uses fetchWithSsrFGuard() (no raw fetch())
✅ Temp directory policy: Uses resolvePreferredOpenClawTmpDir() (no os.tmpdir())
✅ Group auth composition: Uses resolveDmGroupAccessWithLists() shared resolver (no manual pairing-store group auth)
✅ Pairing scope: Uses createScopedPairingAccess() for account-scoped pairing operations
✅ All 6 CI lint gates pass (check-no-raw-channel-fetch, check-no-random-messaging-tmp, check-no-pairing-store-group-auth, check-pairing-account-scope, check-channel-agnostic-boundaries, check-no-raw-window-open)

Key Improvement Over Existing PRs

The Problem

Existing Zulip PRs (#9643, #14182) process messages sequentially, causing:

Long delays when multiple messages arrive during the polling window
"Message dumps" where all replies arrive at once after minutes of silence
Poor conversation UX

The Solution

This PR implements concurrent message processing with staggered start times:

// Old way (sequential - causes dumps):
for (const event of events) {
  if (event.type === "message" && event.message) {
    await processMessage(event.message);  // Blocks until complete
  }
}

// New way (concurrent - natural flow):
for (const event of events) {
  if (event.type === "message" && event.message) {
    processMessage(event.message).catch(handleError);  // Fire-and-forget
    await delay(200);  // Small stagger for natural pacing
  }
}

Verified Impact

✅ Tested live on production Zulip instance
✅ Messages start processing immediately (no blocking)
✅ Replies arrive independently as each finishes
✅ Natural conversation flow instead of reply dumps

Technical Details

Fire-and-forget message processing with per-message error handling
Maintains event cursor and queue ID correctly during concurrent processing
200ms stagger between starting each message for natural pacing
Error handling does not block subsequent message processing
DM policy, group policy, and allowFrom enforcement via shared SDK resolvers
Mention detection, onchar prefix mode, and group chat history context
Message deduplication cache (5-minute TTL, 2000-entry max)
Media download with size limits and verbose error logging (no silent failures)

Comparison with PR #22308

PR #22308 provides a minimal Zulip skeleton (~1,670 lines). This PR is the full-featured implementation (~3,500+ lines) with:

Concurrent message processing (the key UX differentiator)
Proper DM/group policy enforcement in the monitor
Media download/upload handling
Message deduplication
Typing indicators
Group chat history context
Onchar prefix mode
Full SDK security compliance (SSRF guard, temp dirs, group auth resolvers)

References

Discussion: #5163
Related PRs: Add Zulip channel plugin #8365, Zulip: add channel plugin #9643, feat: Zulip channel plugin #12183 (closed due to branch noise)
This is a clean-branch recreation of feat: Zulip channel plugin #12183 with concurrent processing and full SDK compliance

Testing

16 unit tests passing (channel config + uploads)
Deployed and tested live on self-hosted Zulip
All CI checks green

greptile-apps

_{23 files reviewed, 2 comments}

_{Edit Code Review Agent Settings | Greptile}

greptile-apps · 2026-02-12T22:54:14Z

extensions/zulip/src/zulip/monitor.ts

+            mediaPaths.push(saved.path);
+            mediaTypes.push(saved.contentType);
+            mediaUrls.push(uploadUrl);
+          }


Silent media download failures

The /user_uploads download loop swallows all exceptions (catch (err) {}), so attachment fetch failures become invisible and users will see missing media with no diagnostic trail. Please log (at least debug/verbose) when a download/save fails so the operator can understand why attachments aren’t being forwarded.

Prompt To Fix With AI

This is a comment left during a code review. Path: extensions/zulip/src/zulip/monitor.ts Line: 333:336 Comment: **Silent media download failures** The `/user_uploads` download loop swallows all exceptions (`catch (err) {}`), so attachment fetch failures become invisible and users will see missing media with no diagnostic trail. Please log (at least debug/verbose) when a download/save fails so the operator can understand why attachments aren’t being forwarded. How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.

greptile-apps · 2026-02-12T22:54:15Z

extensions/zulip/src/zulip/send.ts

+      } else {
+        tempFilePath = await writeTempFile(fetched.buffer, filename);
+        tempFileCleanup = true;
+      }
+      const upload = await uploadZulipFile(client, tempFilePath);
+      mediaUrl = upload.url;
+      if (tempFileCleanup && tempFilePath) {
+        await fsPromises.unlink(tempFilePath).catch(() => undefined);
+      }


Temp directory leak

When mediaUrl is a remote URL, writeTempFile() creates a mkdtemp directory, but the cleanup only unlinks tempFilePath and never removes the containing temp directory. Over time this will leave many empty zulip-upload-* dirs in the system temp folder. Consider removing the temp dir after the upload (or reuse core.channel.media.saveMediaBuffer exclusively).

Prompt To Fix With AI

This is a comment left during a code review. Path: extensions/zulip/src/zulip/send.ts Line: 176:184 Comment: **Temp directory leak** When `mediaUrl` is a remote URL, `writeTempFile()` creates a `mkdtemp` directory, but the cleanup only unlinks `tempFilePath` and never removes the containing temp directory. Over time this will leave many empty `zulip-upload-*` dirs in the system temp folder. Consider removing the temp dir after the upload (or reuse `core.channel.media.saveMediaBuffer` exclusively). How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.

maltokyo · 2026-02-13T13:06:27Z

Great to see this coming, from my side, thank you!!

wilenius · 2026-02-21T12:25:24Z

Just tested this branch, thanks for your work on this! Based on a quick test, it works great, except there's some oddities with message processing. At one point the agent lost track of the thread context, and on another thread, when I asked the agent to fetch some data via Zotero MCP before answering, it posted the answer twice, and this in between the two answers:

I think you didn't see my reply — I responded here in our session but didn't send it to the Zulip stream. Let me post it there now.
Ah! I see — you asked a follow-up question about trust calibration that I missed. Let me search Zotero for relevant literature and elaborate.

Please let me know if you need more details or if I can help more with testing.

baustin27 · 2026-02-25T19:52:21Z

Hi @FtlC-ian! 👋

I've been reviewing your Zulip plugin implementation and I'm impressed with the work you've done here. The typing notification implementation in particular is well-designed:

sendZulipTyping() in client.ts - Clean API wrapper for the /typing endpoint
createTypingCallbacks integration in monitor.ts - Proper start/stop handling with error logging

I noticed there's an opportunity to add unit tests for the typing functionality. The existing test coverage includes:

channel.test.ts - Plugin configuration and normalization
uploads.test.ts - Upload URL extraction and emoji normalization

Missing test coverage for:

client.ts - sendZulipTyping() function (stream and direct message variants)
monitor.ts - createTypingCallbacks integration

I'd like to contribute tests for the typing functionality to improve the plugin's reliability. Would you be open to collaborating on this? I can either:

Submit a PR to your branch with the test additions
Wait until your PR is merged and then submit a follow-up PR

Let me know what works best for you!

Quick PR assessment:

✅ Typing implementation is complete and functional
⚠️ Minor merge conflict with pnpm-lock.yaml (easy to resolve)
📝 Test coverage could be expanded for typing functions

Thanks for the great work on this plugin!

FtlC-ian · 2026-02-25T20:05:57Z

Hey @baustin27, thanks for the kind words and the thorough review! 🙏

Adding typing tests is a great idea — that's a real gap in the current coverage. I'd say option 2 (follow-up PR after merge) would work best. The branch has been pretty active with rebases and it'd be easier to avoid coordination headaches on a fork branch.

Once this lands, feel free to open a PR with the typing tests and I'll be happy to review it.

Re: the pnpm-lock conflict — yeah, that's just a rebase artifact, easy fix when we're ready to merge.

Thanks again!

Adds a full-featured Zulip channel plugin with: Core Features: - Event queue polling with exponential backoff and auto-recovery - Authenticated upload downloads from /user_uploads/ - Outbound file uploads via /api/v1/user_uploads - Reaction indicators (eyes → check_mark/warning) - Topic directive [[zulip_topic: <topic>]] - HTTP retry with backoff (429/502/503/504) - Full actions API (stream CRUD, user management, reactions) - Channel docs and unit tests Key Improvement Over Existing PRs: - Implements CONCURRENT message processing with staggered start times - Other PRs (openclaw#9643, openclaw#14182) process messages sequentially, causing reply delays and "message dumps" when multiple messages arrive - This implementation starts processing each message immediately with a 200ms stagger for natural conversation flow - Replies arrive as each finishes instead of all at once Technical Details: - Fire-and-forget message processing with per-message error handling - Maintains event cursor and queue ID correctly during concurrent processing - Tested live and confirmed significant UX improvement Refs: openclaw#5163, openclaw#8365, openclaw#9643, openclaw#12183

- Add logging for media download failures (silent exception swallowing) - Fix temp directory leak by tracking and removing temp dirs after upload - Update pnpm-lock.yaml with Zulip extension dependencies Addresses CI failures and Greptile review comments.

…n file paths OpenClaw core URL-encodes MessageThreadId for filesystem safety. The plugin was passing raw topic names ('general chat') which became '-topic-general%20chat' in session file paths. Changes: - Add sanitizeThreadId() to replace spaces and unsafe chars with hyphens - Update resolveThreadSessionKeys() to return sanitizedThreadId - Pass threadKeys.sanitizedThreadId instead of raw topic to MessageThreadId Result: Session files now use clean names like 'general-chat' instead of 'general%20chat'

Zulip ANDs narrow terms together, so multiple ["stream", "x"] filters in one narrow match nothing (stream=A AND stream=B is always empty). For single-stream configs, keep the narrow filter for efficiency. For multiple streams or "*", switch to all_public_streams=true and filter client-side.

…haining

- Add zulip to MARKDOWN_CAPABLE_CHANNELS - Add mode? to ChannelPlugin queue defaults type - Add resolvePluginMode() to queue settings - Ensure plugin registry initialized in message command - Add resolveZulipSession() for default topic resolution

CI formatting check was failing after rebase. Auto-formatted 4 files to match project style.

- Use createScopedPairingAccess() for readAllowFromStore/upsertPairingRequest (upstream now requires accountId in all pairing API calls) - Use chatType ('direct'|'channel') not kind ('dm'|'channel') for peer.kind in resolveAgentRoute() to match ChatType constraint

openclaw-barnacle · 2026-02-28T15:11:38Z

Please make this as a third-party plugin that you maintain yourself in your own repo. Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/plugin. Feel free to open a PR after to add it to our community plugins page: https://docs.openclaw.ai/plugins/community

FtlC-ian · 2026-02-28T15:20:06Z

Published as a standalone third-party plugin: https://github.com/FtlC-ian/openclaw-channel-zulip — install with openclaw plugins install openclaw-channel-zulip

maltokyo · 2026-02-28T15:32:29Z

Thank you for this

openclaw-barnacle bot added the size: XL label Feb 12, 2026

greptile-apps bot reviewed Feb 12, 2026

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jamie-dit mentioned this pull request Feb 14, 2026

feat: add Zulip channel plugin #15887

Closed

thewilloftheshadow force-pushed the main branch from bfc1ccb to f92900f Compare February 15, 2026 18:46

openclaw-barnacle bot added the commands Command implementations label Feb 18, 2026

FtlC-ian force-pushed the feat/zulip-plugin-v2 branch from 3f3c879 to 4ea2be4 Compare February 18, 2026 18:06

FtlC-ian and others added 9 commits February 27, 2026 11:14

feat(zulip): SHA-256 topic fallback, 120s backoff cap, abort signal c…

2173a96

…haining

style: run oxfmt on Zulip plugin files

a1f4257

CI formatting check was failing after rebase. Auto-formatted 4 files to match project style.

chore: sync pnpm-lock.yaml with upstream/main after rebase

b3b9f8c

FtlC-ian force-pushed the feat/zulip-plugin-v2 branch from 269121c to b3b9f8c Compare February 27, 2026 18:13

FtlC-ian mentioned this pull request Feb 27, 2026

fix: remove trailing whitespace in CONTRIBUTING.md #29038

Closed

baustin27 approved these changes Feb 27, 2026

View reviewed changes

FtlC-ian force-pushed the feat/zulip-plugin-v2 branch from 21e5b75 to b3b9f8c Compare February 27, 2026 23:42

fix(zulip): update test to match upstream formatAllowFrom signature

0504c6e

FtlC-ian force-pushed the feat/zulip-plugin-v2 branch from ad93b68 to 0504c6e Compare February 27, 2026 23:52

Debbie added 3 commits February 27, 2026 17:54

fix(zulip): use resolvePreferredOpenClawTmpDir() instead of os.tmpdir()

2174f08

fix(zulip): use fetchWithSsrFGuard() instead of raw fetch()

17ccae0

fix(zulip): use resolveDmGroupAccessWithLists for group auth composition

1d96630

github-actions bot mentioned this pull request Feb 28, 2026

🦞 OpenClaw 生态日报 2026-02-28 duanyytop/agents-radar#24

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thewilloftheshadow added the r: third-party-extension label Feb 28, 2026

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feat: Zulip channel plugin with concurrent message processing#15051

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FtlC-ian commented Feb 12, 2026 •

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Summary

Core Features

Security & SDK Compliance

Key Improvement Over Existing PRs

The Problem

The Solution

Verified Impact

Technical Details

Comparison with PR #22308

References

Testing

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FtlC-ian commented Feb 12, 2026 •

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