diff --git a/extensions/irc/src/inbound.behavior.test.ts b/extensions/irc/src/inbound.behavior.test.ts
index 7a6d4f8ca3e2..1c2c23fe5e49 100644
--- a/extensions/irc/src/inbound.behavior.test.ts
+++ b/extensions/irc/src/inbound.behavior.test.ts
@@ -334,6 +334,70 @@ describe("irc inbound behavior", () => {
     expect(ctx?.OriginatingTo).toBe("channel:#ops");
   });
 
+  it.each([
+    { label: "ordinary nick", nick: "OpenClaw", text: "OpenClaw: hello", mentioned: true },
+    { label: "ASCII case folding", nick: "OpenClaw", text: "openclaw: hello", mentioned: true },
+    { label: "leading bracket", nick: "[Claw]", text: "[Claw]: hello", mentioned: true },
+    { label: "trailing bracket", nick: "Claw]", text: "hello Claw],", mentioned: true },
+    { label: "leading caret", nick: "^Claw", text: "^Claw, hello", mentioned: true },
+    { label: "trailing hyphen", nick: "Claw-", text: "Claw-: hello", mentioned: true },
+    { label: "escaped backslash", nick: "\\Claw", text: "\\Claw: hello", mentioned: true },
+    { label: "embedded brackets", nick: "Claw[Ops]", text: "Claw[Ops]: hi", mentioned: true },
+    { label: "RFC1459 opening bracket", nick: "[Claw", text: "{claw: hello", mentioned: true },
+    { label: "RFC1459 opening brace", nick: "{Claw", text: "[claw: hello", mentioned: true },
+    { label: "RFC1459 closing bracket", nick: "Claw]", text: "claw}: hello", mentioned: true },
+    { label: "RFC1459 closing brace", nick: "Claw}", text: "claw]: hello", mentioned: true },
+    { label: "RFC1459 backslash", nick: "\\Claw", text: "|claw: hello", mentioned: true },
+    { label: "RFC1459 vertical bar", nick: "|Claw", text: "\\claw: hello", mentioned: true },
+    { label: "RFC1459 caret", nick: "^Claw", text: "~claw: hello", mentioned: true },
+    { label: "RFC1459 tilde", nick: "~Claw", text: "^claw: hello", mentioned: true },
+    { label: "ordinary nick suffix", nick: "Claw", text: "Clawbot: hello", mentioned: false },
+    { label: "ordinary nick prefix", nick: "Claw", text: "overClaw: hello", mentioned: false },
+    { label: "IRC nick punctuation suffix", nick: "Claw", text: "Claw-bot: hi", mentioned: false },
+    { label: "RFC1459 tilde nick suffix", nick: "Claw", text: "Claw~bot: hi", mentioned: false },
+    {
+      label: "punctuated nick inside a longer nick",
+      nick: "[Claw]",
+      text: "prefix[Claw]: hello",
+      mentioned: false,
+    },
+  ])(
+    "recognizes only complete IRC nickname mentions: $label",
+    async ({ nick, text, mentioned }) => {
+      const coreRuntime = createPluginRuntimeMock();
+      const runtime = createRuntimeEnv();
+      setIrcRuntime(coreRuntime as never);
+
+      await handleIrcInbound({
+        message: createMessage({
+          target: "#ops",
+          isGroup: true,
+          text,
+        }),
+        account: createAccount({
+          nick,
+          config: {
+            dmPolicy: "open",
+            allowFrom: ["*"],
+            groupPolicy: "open",
+            groupAllowFrom: [],
+            groups: {
+              "#ops": { enabled: true, requireMention: true },
+            },
+          },
+        }),
+        config: { channels: { irc: {} } } as CoreConfig,
+        runtime,
+        sendReply: vi.fn(async () => {}),
+      });
+
+      expect(coreRuntime.channel.inbound.dispatch).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(mentioned ? 1 : 0);
+      if (!mentioned) {
+        expect(runtime.log).toHaveBeenCalledWith("irc: drop channel #ops (missing-mention)");
+      }
+    },
+  );
+
   it("drops a spoofed sender for a host-less nick!user DM allowlist entry", async () => {
     const coreRuntime = createPluginRuntimeMock();
     const runtime = createRuntimeEnv();
diff --git a/extensions/irc/src/inbound.ts b/extensions/irc/src/inbound.ts
index 919630c59f6e..d15d01490293 100644
--- a/extensions/irc/src/inbound.ts
+++ b/extensions/irc/src/inbound.ts
@@ -81,6 +81,27 @@ const ircIngressIdentity = defineStableChannelIngressIdentity({
 });
 
 const escapeIrcRegexLiteral = (value: string) => value.replace(/[.*+?^${}()|[\]\\]/g, "\\$&");
+// IRC nicknames permit punctuation, so ASCII word boundaries lose valid leading/trailing chars.
+const IRC_NICK_CHARACTER = String.raw`[A-Za-z0-9_\-\[\]\\\x60^{}|~]`;
+const IRC_RFC1459_CASE_EQUIVALENTS = new Map([
+  ["[", "{"],
+  ["{", "["],
+  ["]", "}"],
+  ["}", "]"],
+  ["\\", "|"],
+  ["|", "\\"],
+  ["^", "~"],
+  ["~", "^"],
+]);
+
+function buildIrcNickMentionPattern(value: string): string {
+  return Array.from(value, (character) => {
+    const equivalent = IRC_RFC1459_CASE_EQUIVALENTS.get(character);
+    return equivalent
+      ? `[${escapeIrcRegexLiteral(character)}${escapeIrcRegexLiteral(equivalent)}]`
+      : escapeIrcRegexLiteral(character);
+  }).join("");
+}
 
 function isBareNick(value: string): boolean {
   return !value.includes("!") && !value.includes("@");
@@ -266,7 +287,10 @@ export async function handleIrcInbound(params: {
   const mentionRegexes = core.channel.mentions.buildMentionRegexes(config as OpenClawConfig);
   const mentionNick = connectedNick?.trim() || account.nick;
   const explicitMentionRegex = mentionNick
-    ? new RegExp(`\\b${escapeIrcRegexLiteral(mentionNick)}\\b[:,]?`, "i")
+    ? new RegExp(
+        `(?<!${IRC_NICK_CHARACTER})${buildIrcNickMentionPattern(mentionNick)}(?!${IRC_NICK_CHARACTER})[:,]?`,
+        "i",
+      )
     : null;
   const wasMentioned =
     core.channel.mentions.matchesMentionPatterns(rawBody, mentionRegexes) ||