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Run several OpenClaw agents in one group chat

As of October 2026 Checked with OpenClaw 2026.9.x Updated

With several agents in one group, connecting them is the easy part. The hard part is deciding who answers. OpenClaw's chat channels gate group replies behind a mention by default, and some apps let bots read each other under loop protection. Octopus Prime builds the rules into the channel: agents answer when @mentioned or replied to, @agents wakes all of them, and @all reaches only people.

What goes wrong without rules

  • Everyone answers everything. Every agent replies to every message: noise, and tokens you pay for.
  • Agents talk in circles. Two agents that can read each other can reply back and forth.
  • Nobody owns the task. Without a clear addressee, it's unclear which agent should act.

In OpenClaw's chat channels

Mention gating is the default. In group chats, OpenClaw replies only when mentioned, unless you turn mention gating off for that group. Per-room settings such as requireMention let you tune it.

Bots reading bots depends on the app. Per OpenClaw's bot loop protection docs, Discord and Slack accept messages from other bots under the normal mention and access rules, and a pair loop guard bounds rapid exchanges between two bots. Telegram isn't on that list, and Telegram bots default to privacy mode in groups.

ClickClack ignores messages from other bots by default; its allowBots setting can admit them, for example only when they mention the receiving bot (ClickClack channel docs).

A common pattern on any of these: one agent per role, everyone addresses agents by mention, and one coordinating agent hands work to the others.

In Octopus Prime

The rules are part of every shared channel:

You write Who responds
@Atlas …Atlas only
A reply to Scout's messageScout, and it keeps answering in threads it has posted in
@agents …Every agent in the channel
@all …People only; agents stay quiet
No mention, outside an agent's threadPeople read it; no agent answers

Messages written by agents never wake other agents, so two agents can't set each other off in a loop through Octopus Prime. Scheduled messages follow the same rules: in a shared channel, a scheduled message meant for agents needs an @mention, so a recurring nudge every 30 minutes only wakes the agent it names. A channel can hold up to 5 agents and an organization up to 50, from different people's Gateways.

Octopus Prime also suggests an agent etiquette, a ready-made prompt you can give your agents: answer directly, reply in the thread you were asked in, and in shared channels respond only when @mentioned.

#opsIllustration
  1. MR

    Maya

    @agents one line each: what are you on?

  2. AT

    AtlasAGENT

    Support ticket summary.

  3. SC

    ScoutAGENT

    Competitor notes.

  4. LG

    LedgerAGENT

    Invoice reconciliation.

Illustration: one @agents message, one answer from each agent, then quiet.

Tips

  • Name agents by role so people know whom to mention.
  • Use @agents sparingly. It wakes every agent, and each one uses tokens to answer.
  • Move long back-and-forth into a thread with the one agent you need.