openclaw/docs/channels/buzz.md

summary, read_when, title

summary	read_when	title
Connect OpenClaw agents to Buzz rooms	You want people to reach an OpenClaw agent from Buzz You are setting up a Buzz bot identity and room access You are troubleshooting a Buzz connection	Buzz

Buzz is an official channel plugin that connects OpenClaw agents to team rooms in a hosted or self-hosted Buzz workspace.

What it does

• Receives normal, rich-content, and structured-diff messages from approved Buzz rooms
• Replies in the same room and thread
• Shows typing while an accepted agent turn is running
• Preserves Markdown in replies and sends text through OpenClaw's built-in message tool
• Sends native Buzz mentions to current room members from replies and proactive messages
• Supports mention requirements and sender allowlists
• Discovers rooms after the bot has been approved
• Resolves current Buzz profile names, avatars, room names, and room membership through OpenClaw's directory commands
• Reconnects and avoids processing the same message twice

The current plugin supports group rooms, Markdown text, and inbound structured diffs. Direct messages, media and files, native reactions, room creation, and automatic admin approval are not supported yet.

Buzz identity and room model

Buzz uses Nostr keypairs for identity:

• The private key lets OpenClaw authenticate and sign messages. It stays with the Gateway.
• The public key identifies the bot. Buzz owners use it for relay approval, room admins use it to grant the Bot role, and OpenClaw can use public keys in sender allowlists.

The relay URL points to one Buzz workspace. Each room has a UUID, and OpenClaw treats each configured UUID as a separate group conversation. One Gateway and bot identity can serve many rooms; you do not need a Gateway per agent or room.

Before you start

You need:

1. The wss:// relay URL for your Buzz workspace.
2. A Buzz owner or admin who can approve a bot identity.
3. At least one room where the bot can be added with the Bot role.

Never give OpenClaw a human Buzz owner's private key. OpenClaw creates or uses a dedicated bot identity and displays the public key that an admin needs for approval.

Install

openclaw plugins install @openclaw/buzz

Restart the Gateway after installing or updating the plugin.

Guided setup

Run:

openclaw channels add --channel buzz

The setup flow walks through the following steps:

1. Enter the Buzz relay URL if one is not already configured.
2. OpenClaw reuses the configured bot identity or generates one automatically.
3. If the bot does not have room access yet, give the displayed public key to a Buzz room owner or admin.
4. OpenClaw waits for Buzz to confirm the Bot role and continues automatically. If the automatic wait expires, retry authenticated discovery or go back without changing the generated identity.
5. If Buzz returns one room, OpenClaw selects it. If Buzz returns several, select the rooms to use and the default outbound room.
6. OpenClaw saves the configuration and silently verifies the authenticated room when the Gateway is running.

Fresh setup accepts normal messages from current members of the configured rooms without requiring a composer mention. Existing explicit mention and sender-allowlist settings are preserved when setup is rerun.

The automatic room-access wait is bounded. If access is not granted in time, setup remains open and offers authenticated Retry/Back controls. Every retry reuses the same relay and bot identity; the timeout does not disable Buzz or exit setup.

Bot approval

Every target room must contain the bot identity with the Bot role. An existing human member or ordinary room member role is not sufficient.

Buzz desktop cannot reliably assign the Bot role to an externally managed OpenClaw identity. Use the Buzz CLI as the existing human room owner or admin:

buzz channels add-member \
  --channel <ROOM_UUID> \
  --pubkey <BOT_PUBLIC_KEY> \
  --role bot

Run that command as the existing human owner or admin. Never give OpenClaw that human private key.

After the Gateway connects, OpenClaw preserves an existing non-empty Buzz profile display name. For a new profile it uses the configured Buzz channel account name, then the identity name of the single agent routed to the configured Buzz rooms, and finally OpenClaw. This replaces the shortened public key in Buzz after its profile cache refreshes.

OpenClaw also registers the same public identity in Buzz's agent directory. It preserves an existing agent-directory profile and channel-add policy; for a new profile it allows authorized Buzz users to add the identity. This lets Buzz assign the Bot role when the identity is invited to additional rooms instead of treating it as a normal member. OpenClaw still receives messages only from rooms explicitly selected in channels.buzz.groups.

Buzz displays owner unavailable when the bot profile has no valid NIP-OA owner attestation. This does not mean room access failed. When channels.buzz.authTag is configured, OpenClaw includes that attestation in the published profile so Buzz can show the verified human owner.

While the Gateway is connected, OpenClaw publishes and refreshes the bot's ephemeral Buzz presence every 30 seconds. Buzz removes the presence when the last authenticated Gateway connection for that bot identity closes, so multiple Gateway instances do not incorrectly mark one another offline. If the relay stops acknowledging presence, OpenClaw reconnects the affected Buzz account instead of leaving an open but stalled connection marked ready. An explicit presence rejection remains a warning, not a reconnect trigger.

The local Buzz just dev relay does not require separate relay membership by default. A hosted or closed relay may require the bot public key to be added to the workspace community first. Adding community membership grants relay access; it does not add the identity to a room with the Bot role.

buzz-admin add-member --pubkey <BOT_PUBLIC_KEY> --role member

OpenClaw cannot grant room or relay access. It displays only the bot public key needed by the authorized human.

Agent tools and messaging

The Buzz plugin does not add a separate Buzz-only agent tool. It registers Buzz as a destination for OpenClaw's built-in message tool and normal reply delivery.

Agents can:

• Reply to an incoming Buzz message in its room or thread
• Show room- or thread-scoped typing while generating a reply
• Receive Buzz kind 9 normal messages, kind 40002 rich-content messages, and kind 40008 structured diffs
• Send Markdown text to an approved Buzz room as a normal kind 9 message
• Send native room-member mentions from normal replies and proactive messages
• Use the configured default room when a workflow does not specify a target
• Use the routed agent's normal skills, memory, and allowed tools

Structured diffs include their repository, commit, file, branch, pull request, language, description, truncation status, and unified-diff content in the agent context when those fields are present. Diff content is not interpreted as an OpenClaw command or textual mention.

Typing uses Buzz's ephemeral kind 20002 on the active authenticated Gateway connection. Ordinary replies refresh it every three seconds; heartbeat-driven replies use OpenClaw's shared typing interval, which defaults to six seconds. OpenClaw stops refreshing when the turn completes, is cancelled, fails, or the Gateway shuts down. Typing failures do not block the reply or reconnect the Gateway solely to send an ephemeral event.

Humans and automations can test the same outbound path from the CLI:

openclaw message send \
  --channel buzz \
  --target buzz:<ROOM_UUID> \
  --message "Hello from OpenClaw"

Native mentions

Write a unique current room member's profile name as @Display Name. OpenClaw keeps the visible text unchanged and adds the native Buzz p tag, including on threaded replies. Names are resolved only against the target room's current relay-signed membership and bounded profile snapshot.

For an explicit identity, include its NIP-27 reference in the message:

openclaw message send \
  --channel buzz \
  --target engineering \
  --message "Please review this, nostr:npub1..."

The referenced public key must be a current member of the target room. Without an explicit identity, unknown names and duplicate profile names fail visibly instead of sending text that looks like a mention without notifying anyone. When the message contains an explicit identity, unresolved or ambiguous labels remain presentation text; include every intended identity explicitly. Ambiguous errors list candidate public keys so the sender can retry with the intended nostr:npub... identity. Out-of-room public keys always fail. Mention-like text inside inline or fenced Markdown code is ignored, and one message can carry at most 50 native mentions.

Connected Gateways resolve names from their existing in-memory directory snapshot and do not query the relay per message. Profiles beyond the bounded snapshot require an explicit nostr:npub... identity. A standalone mention send loads membership and profiles through one bounded authenticated relay session, publishes, and closes it; standalone messages without mention syntax keep the existing direct publish path.

Directory and sender labels

OpenClaw keeps a bounded snapshot of the configured rooms, their current relay-signed member lists, room metadata, and kind 0 member profiles. Incoming agent context uses the current profile and room names when available, while the sender public key remains the stable authorization, routing, and session identity.

Inspect the same data from the CLI:

openclaw directory self --channel buzz
openclaw directory peers list --channel buzz --query "alice"
openclaw directory groups list --channel buzz --query "engineering"
openclaw directory groups members \
  --channel buzz \
  --group-id buzz:<ROOM_UUID>

When the Gateway is connected, directory reads reuse its authenticated Buzz connection and in-memory snapshot. A standalone directory command opens one bounded authenticated connection, loads the current snapshot, and closes it. Ordinary directory errors are logged without reconnecting. If a directory or profile subscription does not reach EOSE within 10 seconds, OpenClaw treats the Buzz relay session as stalled and recycles only that Buzz account connection; the Gateway keeps running.

Archived rooms are omitted from directory results and live room subscriptions. If a configured room is archived or restored while OpenClaw is connected, the plugin recycles only its Buzz connection so the subscription set matches the relay's current metadata. The Gateway keeps running.

Each configured room uses one room-scoped relay subscription. OpenClaw reserves four of Buzz's 1,024 connection subscriptions for membership notifications and concurrent profile, membership, and metadata queries, so one account can configure up to 1,020 rooms. Near that limit, optional member profile subscriptions are reduced first; directory entries continue to work with stable public keys and deterministic fallback labels.

Unique current room names can resolve as outbound targets through OpenClaw's shared directory lookup. The canonical buzz:<ROOM_UUID> target remains the safest choice for automation and for rooms with duplicate names.

Route rooms to different agents

Standard OpenClaw bindings can send each Buzz room to a different agent, workspace, or model while one Gateway and Buzz bot serve all of them:

{
  agents: {
    entries: {
      support: { default: true, workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace-support" },
      engineering: { workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace-engineering" },
    },
  },
  bindings: [
    {
      agentId: "support",
      match: {
        channel: "buzz",
        peer: { kind: "group", id: "buzz:<SUPPORT_ROOM_UUID>" },
      },
    },
    {
      agentId: "engineering",
      match: {
        channel: "buzz",
        peer: { kind: "group", id: "buzz:<ENGINEERING_ROOM_UUID>" },
      },
    },
  ],
}

Without a room-specific binding, normal OpenClaw routing selects the default agent. See Channel routing for matching precedence.

Access control

Buzz applies two independent controls:

• Require mentions: the agent responds only when the bot is mentioned.
• Sender access: allow every current member of an approved room, disable room ingress, or additionally restrict room members to selected Buzz public keys.

Fresh guided setup allows normal messages from current members of the selected rooms. OpenClaw loads Buzz's relay-signed room roster before accepting messages, checks membership before queuing and again after asynchronous admission, and follows live relay-signed roster updates, including role changes. A removal invalidates queued messages immediately; cancelled admission is not committed as processed. Bounded snapshot refreshes confirm membership-change notifications. There is no per-message relay query or Gateway polling. Removing a sender does not cancel a room turn already admitted for that sender; losing the bot's own Bot role or stopping its connection still fences output.

Startup and reconnect recover eligible messages from the last 24 hours, but never from before that room's first activation by this Buzz account. That activation floor survives restarts; sender-supplied timestamps do not advance it. Replay deduplication prevents completed messages from running again.

Use groupPolicy: "allowlist" with groupAllowFrom in manual configuration when only specific room members should be able to activate the agent. Each room can override groupPolicy, groupAllowFrom, or both. An omitted room setting inherits the account-wide value; an explicitly empty room allowlist denies every sender when its effective policy is "allowlist". Set requireMention: true only when the Buzz client used by those members can address the bot identity.

These controls decide who can start an agent run; they do not limit what the routed agent can do after a message is accepted. Treat room messages as untrusted input, and configure that agent's sandbox and tool policy for the room's trust level.

Bot conversations

Authorized room members with the relay-assigned Bot role can activate the agent under the same mention and sender rules. Within each Gateway, OpenClaw limits repeated exchanges between each bot pair in the same relay and room: the default budget is 20 accepted messages in 60 seconds, followed by a 60-second cooldown. Changing threads does not reset the budget. Restarting the Gateway clears this in-memory budget; separate Gateways have separate budgets. Human messages are unaffected, and suppressed bot turns are logged without starting an agent run.

Use the shared channels.defaults.botLoopProtection settings to adjust maxEventsPerWindow, windowSeconds, or cooldownSeconds. Setting enabled: false disables this protection. Bot classification comes from the latest received relay-signed room roster, never a display name or message content. If an authorized bot stops replying during a busy exchange, check the suppression log and allow the cooldown to expire before adjusting the budget.

Passive room context

Set channels.buzz.historyLimit to a number from 1 to 20 to include recent unmentioned messages with the next accepted turn (mention or authorized command) in the same room and thread. The default is 0 (off). A new reply thread does not import top-level room history. Sender access still applies: denied senders are never recorded, and senders no longer in the current room roster are removed before context is included.

Passive messages do not start an agent run, record a session, or send typing. History stays in memory for the current connection, separately for each room and thread, and is cleared on reconnect or restart. Each message is truncated to 512 UTF-8 bytes; the newest complete entries fit within a 1,024-byte rendered context budget, including labels and markers. Older entries are discarded. An accepted turn consumes its context without deleting messages that arrived while the reply was running.

Membership is checked against the latest received roster when context is used. If the same identity leaves and rejoins before then, its previously authorized messages can remain in the window; leaving does not erase conversation history.

Reply placement

Buzz keeps automatic replies threaded by default (channels.buzz.replyToMode: "all"). Set replyToMode: "off" to send automatic replies at the top level of the room, including replies to messages inside existing threads. Typing indicators follow the same placement, including heartbeat typing.

This changes delivery only: inbound thread context and session identity remain intact. Explicit message-tool or CLI sends with a thread or reply target still honor that target. To restore the default, use "all" or remove the setting.

Manual configuration

Guided setup is recommended. The equivalent configuration looks like:

{
  channels: {
    buzz: {
      name: "OpenClaw",
      relayUrl: "wss://buzz.example.com",
      privateKey: "nsec1...",
      groupPolicy: "open",
      groups: {
        "7c4a6d2a-2ed9-4b4e-a5e2-4d705ee9b34c": {
          requireMention: false,
        },
      },
      defaultTo: "7c4a6d2a-2ed9-4b4e-a5e2-4d705ee9b34c",
    },
  },
}

For a narrower sender policy:

{
  channels: {
    buzz: {
      groupPolicy: "allowlist",
      groupAllowFrom: ["<64_CHARACTER_HEX_SENDER_PUBLIC_KEY>"],
    },
  },
}

To restrict one room while keeping other configured rooms open:

{
  channels: {
    buzz: {
      groupPolicy: "open",
      groups: {
        "7c4a6d2a-2ed9-4b4e-a5e2-4d705ee9b34c": {
          groupPolicy: "allowlist",
          groupAllowFrom: ["<64_CHARACTER_HEX_SENDER_PUBLIC_KEY>"],
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Room UUIDs are the canonical targets. Use the UUID shown during discovery or ask a room admin for it. A unique current room name can resolve through the live directory, but automation should use buzz:<ROOM_UUID> to avoid ambiguity.

For manual configuration, groupAllowFrom entries must use the 64-character hexadecimal form.

Reply prefix

Set channels.buzz.responsePrefix to prefix automatic agent replies, for example "[Support]". Use "auto" for the routed agent's identity name, "[{model}]" for its selected model, or "" to disable an inherited global prefix. Explicit message tool and CLI text sends also apply literal and identity prefixes; see shared prefix behavior for model-dependent templates. Buzz uses one account per Gateway, so there is no nested accounts override.

Bot key storage

The default guided path reuses the current bot identity or generates a private key and stores it in channels.buzz.privateKey, following OpenClaw's current plaintext config convention.

For an existing key, setup can use plaintext or an existing env, file, or exec SecretRef. See Secrets management for provider setup. The default account can also read:

export BUZZ_RELAY_URL="wss://buzz.example.com"
export BUZZ_PRIVATE_KEY="nsec1..."

If a hosted workspace operator gives you an identity authorization value, set channels.buzz.authTag or BUZZ_AUTH_TAG. It can use the same plaintext or SecretRef forms as the private key. Treat this delegated, reusable value as a secret: keep it out of logs, screenshots, chat, and source control, and prefer a SecretRef for persistent deployments. Request a replacement and revoke the old value whenever the bot identity or relay authorization changes, or if either credential may have been exposed.

Self-hosted operators can generate a key manually for recovery or advanced setup:

buzz-admin generate-key

Verify the connection

Run the authenticated channel probe:

openclaw channels status --channel buzz --probe

A successful probe confirms that the bot can authenticate and that Buzz reports the selected room with the Bot role.

Then send a real message:

openclaw message send \
  --channel buzz \
  --target buzz:<ROOM_UUID> \
  --message "OpenClaw Buzz test"

For a full round trip, have an allowed Buzz user mention the bot and confirm that OpenClaw replies in the room.

QA Lab round trip

Source checkouts can exercise the production Buzz channel path with two dedicated test identities:

pnpm openclaw qa buzz \
  --credential-file /secure/path/buzz-qa-credentials.json \
  --provider-mode mock-openai

The command runs a real relay canary and mention-gating check while using the deterministic mock model. The private JSON credential file contains relayUrl, roomId, driverPrivateKey, and sutPrivateKey, plus optional driverAuthTag and sutAuthTag values for closed relays. Both test public keys must be room members, and the SUT public key must have the Bot role. A closed relay may require both public keys to be enrolled separately. Use --credential-source convex for pooled QA credentials.

Use wss:// for hosted relays. Plaintext ws:// credential URLs are accepted only for loopback development relays.

Never use a human owner or admin private key. Private keys and optional authorization values are parent-harness secrets and must not appear in logs, artifacts, screenshots, shell history, or source control.

Rotate the bot identity

Bot identity rotation requires admin approval for the new public key:

1. Generate a new dedicated bot identity.
2. Have an admin approve its public key for the relay and every configured room.
3. Replace the configured private key and restart or reload the Gateway.
4. Test outbound and inbound messages.
5. Remove the old public key from the rooms and relay.

Complete approval before switching keys to minimize downtime. Rotation is not automatic today.

Current limits and roadmap

These follow-up areas are planned but are not part of the current plugin:

• Direct messages
• Media and file upload or download
• Native emoji reactions
• Creating or administering rooms from OpenClaw
• Automatic relay membership and room-role approval
• Guided bot identity rotation

Troubleshooting

Symptom	What to check
No rooms are discovered	Confirm this exact bot public key is in the room with the Bot role, then rerun the same setup command.
Authentication fails	Check the relay URL, bot private key, closed-relay membership, and any authorization value supplied by the operator.
A message cannot be sent	Confirm the bot is a room member with the Bot role and that the UUID is configured.
The bot receives messages but does not reply	Confirm the sender is still a room member, then check the optional sender allowlist and mention requirement.
Setup says the Gateway is not running	Start it with openclaw gateway, then run openclaw channels status --probe.
Automatic room discovery expires	Grant the Bot role, then choose Retry; the same identity remains active.

Related

• Channel overview
• Channel access controls
• Secrets management
• Channel troubleshooting