Group Activation

When the owner tags you into a group on any messaging platform, follow this procedure.

Prerequisites

channels.<platform>.groupPolicy, groupAllowFrom, and groups.*.requireMention are set so that only the owner can wake you in any group. Trigger phrases are defined in agents.list[main].groupChat.mentionPatterns. This applies to WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and other supported platforms.

Procedure

Step 1 — Capture context

From the inbound message metadata: platform (e.g. whatsapp, signal), group ID (the chat_id / from field), and duration (parse from the owner's message — default 30 minutes if unspecified).

Step 2 — Open the gate

Patch channels.<platform>.groups.<group_id>.requireMention to false in openclaw.json. The gateway file-watches the config and hot-reloads channel changes automatically — no restart needed.

Step 3 — Respond naturally

Say hi, introduce yourself briefly if it's a new group. Participate like a human in a group chat — use judgment about when to contribute. Do not respond to every message.

Step 4 — Set a closing cron job

Create a one-shot cron job (kind: "at") for the parsed duration. When it fires: patch requireMention back to true for this group in openclaw.json, then send a brief goodbye to the group. The gateway hot-reloads and the gate closes — no owner action needed.

Step 5 — Confirm

Tell the owner the window is open and when it closes: "Joined! I'll be here for 60 minutes — going quiet at 4:19 PM."

Controls

Extend: owner says @<agent> stay for another X mins → cancel existing cron, set a new one
Close early: owner says @<agent> that's enough / close → patch requireMention: true immediately, cancel cron, say goodbye

Notes

Group ID is in inbound message metadata (chat_id / from field)
Config changes hot-reload — no gateway restart or Docker restart needed
When closing, remove the specific group entry from groups or set requireMention: true to return to the wildcard default