MESSAGING.md & Routing

Control how your agent routes messages and automations across multiple channels.

Read this when you have two or more channels and want to control which content goes where.

The routing problem

Once you have Telegram, Slack, and WhatsApp all connected, you need to decide:

Where does the morning briefing go?
Where do price alerts go?
If your agent wants to send a follow-up, which channel?
What if someone messages from two channels — are they the same person?

This is what routing solves.

MESSAGING.md

MESSAGING.md is the routing configuration file for your agent. Create it at ~/.openclaw/MESSAGING.md:

# Messaging Configuration

## Default channel
Telegram — use this for everything unless specified below.

## Channel purposes
- Telegram: personal assistant, casual messages, quick tasks
- Slack (#general): work-related updates, meeting prep, email summaries
- Slack (#alerts): price alerts, system notifications, urgent items
- Email: weekly digests, long reports, anything I'll want to archive

## Routing rules
- Morning briefing → Telegram
- Price alerts → Slack #alerts
- Work automations (meeting prep, email triage) → Slack DM
- Weekly reports → Email
- Voice fallback links → Telegram

## Cross-channel identity
My accounts:
- Telegram: @myusername
- Slack: U0123456789
- Email: me@example.com
These are all me. If someone sends from multiple channels, they're the same person.

Your agent reads this file and applies routing decisions accordingly.

Per-automation channel config

The most explicit way to route: specify the channel per automation.

{
  "automations": [
    {
      "id": "morning-briefing",
      "channel": "telegram",
      "schedule": "0 7 * * 1-5",
      "prompt": "..."
    },
    {
      "id": "meeting-prep",
      "channel": "slack",
      "slackChannel": "D0123456789",
      "schedule": "0 8 * * 1-5",
      "prompt": "..."
    },
    {
      "id": "price-alerts",
      "channel": "slack",
      "slackChannel": "#alerts",
      "schedule": "*/30 9-16 * * 1-5",
      "prompt": "..."
    },
    {
      "id": "weekly-digest",
      "channel": "email",
      "emailTo": "me@example.com",
      "schedule": "0 16 * * 5",
      "prompt": "..."
    }
  ]
}

Handling replies across channels

If someone sends a message on Telegram and you reply on Slack, threads get confusing. By default, your agent replies on the same channel where it received the message.

To override this in SOUL.md:

## Channel reply policy
Always reply on the channel where the message was received.
Exception: if someone messages on Telegram asking about a Slack thread, reply on Telegram but include the Slack context.

Channel personas (optional)

Some people prefer their agent to behave slightly differently per channel — more formal on Slack, more casual on WhatsApp.

Add to SOUL.md:

## Channel personas
Slack: Professional tone. Concise. Suitable for a work context.
Telegram/WhatsApp: Casual. Short. Like texting a smart friend.
Email: Formal. Complete sentences. Proper salutation.

Debugging routing issues

If a message ends up in the wrong channel or doesn't arrive:

openclaw logs --filter routing

This shows the routing decisions made for each message and automation, including which channel was selected and why.

Common issues:

slackChannel is a channel name but should be a channel ID (or vice versa)
Automation has no valid channel specified — check that the channel name matches a configured channel
Automation has no channel specified and falls back to the default