OpenClaw - Group Messages: Let Everyone Talk to Your Telegram Bot Without @Mentions

OpenClaw

To make it possible for everyone in a Telegram group to talk to your bot without needing to @mention it, you must change settings on both Telegram and OpenClaw:

• Telegram side: make sure the bot can see all group messages.

• OpenClaw side: set the group to groupPolicy: "open" and set requireMention: false (turn off mention gating).

1) Telegram: Disable Privacy Mode (or make the bot an admin)

If you do not require @, Telegram must deliver normal group messages to the bot. Otherwise, the bot will not receive anything. OpenClaw also notes that when requireMention=false, Telegram must allow full visibility.

Choose one of the following methods:

Method A: Disable Privacy Mode in @BotFather (recommended, most complete)

1. Open Telegram and chat with @BotFather

2. Send /setprivacy

3. Select your bot

4. Choose Disable

5. Remove the bot from the group and add it back again (Telegram only applies this change after re-adding)

Method B: Make the bot a group administrator
Telegram’s official behavior is that admin bots can receive all group messages even if Privacy Mode is on. This is a better option if you prefer not to disable Privacy Mode.

2) Get the group chat id (the “-100...” value)

You need the chat id to configure OpenClaw for that specific group.

The most reliable method is through logs:

Run in a terminal:

openclaw logs --follow

Then ask anyone in the group to send a normal message. In the logs, find chat.id / chatId (it will look like -100...).

You can also forward a group message to @userinfobot or @getidsbot to see the id, but using logs is more private.

3) OpenClaw config: allow everyone to talk, no @ needed

Edit ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json, or use the Control UI Config page and edit the Raw JSON. The gateway hot reloads automatically, so you do not need to restart it.

Replace <CHAT_ID> with your actual -100... id:

{
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "groups": {
        "<CHAT_ID>": {
          "groupPolicy": "open",
          "requireMention": false
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

two groups
{
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "groups": {
        "<CHAT_ID1>": {
          "groupPolicy": "open",
          "requireMention": false
        },
        "<CHAT_ID2>": {
          "groupPolicy": "open",
          "requireMention": false
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

What this means:

• groupPolicy: "open": anyone in the group can trigger the bot (no sender allowlist)

• requireMention: false: users do not need to @mention the bot to get a reply

Important note: once you configure channels.telegram.groups, it becomes a group allowlist, so you must include this group id (or use "*").

4) Verify

Run again:

openclaw logs --follow

Ask another group member to send a message without @mentioning the bot. You should see the bot receive and reply. If it still does not respond, the Telegram change probably did not take effect, especially if you forgot to re-add the bot after disabling Privacy Mode.

If you want this behavior for all groups

Set a global default:

{
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "groupPolicy": "open",
      "groups": {
        "*": { "requireMention": false }
      }
    }
  }
}

The "*" allows all groups and sets the default behavior.

If you paste the log line that contains chat.id (you can hide usernames), I can fill <CHAT_ID> into the final config for you to avoid mistakes.

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