Broadcast groups

Broadcast a WhatsApp message to multiple agents

**Status:** Experimental. Added in 2026.1.9.

Overview

Broadcast Groups enable multiple agents to process and respond to the same message simultaneously. This allows you to create specialized agent teams that work together in a single WhatsApp group or DM — all using one phone number.

Current scope: WhatsApp only (web channel).

Broadcast groups are evaluated after channel allowlists and group activation rules. In WhatsApp groups, this means broadcasts happen when OpenClaw would normally reply (for example: on mention, depending on your group settings).

Use cases

Deploy multiple agents with atomic, focused responsibilities: 
```
Group: "Development Team"
Agents:
  - CodeReviewer (reviews code snippets)
  - DocumentationBot (generates docs)
  - SecurityAuditor (checks for vulnerabilities)
  - TestGenerator (suggests test cases)
```

Each agent processes the same message and provides its specialized perspective.
``` Group: "International Support" Agents: - Agent_EN (responds in English) - Agent_DE (responds in German) - Agent_ES (responds in Spanish) ``` ``` Group: "Customer Support" Agents: - SupportAgent (provides answer) - QAAgent (reviews quality, only responds if issues found) ``` ``` Group: "Project Management" Agents: - TaskTracker (updates task database) - TimeLogger (logs time spent) - ReportGenerator (creates summaries) ```

Configuration

Basic setup

Add a top-level broadcast section (next to bindings). Keys are WhatsApp peer ids:

  • group chats: group JID (e.g. 120363403215116621@g.us)
  • DMs: E.164 phone number (e.g. +15551234567)
{
  "broadcast": {
    "120363403215116621@g.us": ["alfred", "baerbel", "assistant3"]
  }
}

Result: When OpenClaw would reply in this chat, it will run all three agents.

Processing strategy

Control how agents process messages:

All agents process simultaneously: 
```json
{
  "broadcast": {
    "strategy": "parallel",
    "120363403215116621@g.us": ["alfred", "baerbel"]
  }
}
```
Agents process in order (one waits for previous to finish): 
```json
{
  "broadcast": {
    "strategy": "sequential",
    "120363403215116621@g.us": ["alfred", "baerbel"]
  }
}
```

Complete example

{
  "agents": {
    "list": [
      {
        "id": "code-reviewer",
        "name": "Code Reviewer",
        "workspace": "/path/to/code-reviewer",
        "sandbox": { "mode": "all" }
      },
      {
        "id": "security-auditor",
        "name": "Security Auditor",
        "workspace": "/path/to/security-auditor",
        "sandbox": { "mode": "all" }
      },
      {
        "id": "docs-generator",
        "name": "Documentation Generator",
        "workspace": "/path/to/docs-generator",
        "sandbox": { "mode": "all" }
      }
    ]
  },
  "broadcast": {
    "strategy": "parallel",
    "120363403215116621@g.us": ["code-reviewer", "security-auditor", "docs-generator"],
    "120363424282127706@g.us": ["support-en", "support-de"],
    "+15555550123": ["assistant", "logger"]
  }
}

How it works

Message flow

A WhatsApp group or DM message arrives. System checks if peer ID is in `broadcast`. - All listed agents process the message. - Each agent has its own session key and isolated context. - Agents process in parallel (default) or sequentially. Normal routing applies (first matching binding). Broadcast groups do not bypass channel allowlists or group activation rules (mentions/commands/etc). They only change _which agents run_ when a message is eligible for processing.

Session isolation

Each agent in a broadcast group maintains completely separate:

  • Session keys (agent:alfred:whatsapp:group:120363... vs agent:baerbel:whatsapp:group:120363...)
  • Conversation history (agent doesn't see other agents' messages)
  • Workspace (separate sandboxes if configured)
  • Tool access (different allow/deny lists)
  • Memory/context (separate IDENTITY.md, SOUL.md, etc.)
  • Group context buffer (recent group messages used for context) is shared per peer, so all broadcast agents see the same context when triggered

This allows each agent to have:

  • Different personalities
  • Different tool access (e.g., read-only vs. read-write)
  • Different models (e.g., opus vs. sonnet)
  • Different skills installed

Example: isolated sessions

In group 120363403215116621@g.us with agents ["alfred", "baerbel"]:

``` Session: agent:alfred:whatsapp:group:120363403215116621@g.us History: [user message, alfred's previous responses] Workspace: /Users/user/openclaw-alfred/ Tools: read, write, exec ``` ``` Session: agent:baerbel:whatsapp:group:120363403215116621@g.us History: [user message, baerbel's previous responses] Workspace: /Users/user/openclaw-baerbel/ Tools: read only ```

Best practices

Design each agent with a single, clear responsibility: 
```json
{
  "broadcast": {
    "DEV_GROUP": ["formatter", "linter", "tester"]
  }
}
```

✅ **Good:** Each agent has one job. ❌ **Bad:** One generic "dev-helper" agent.
Make it clear what each agent does: 
```json
{
  "agents": {
    "security-scanner": { "name": "Security Scanner" },
    "code-formatter": { "name": "Code Formatter" },
    "test-generator": { "name": "Test Generator" }
  }
}
```
Give agents only the tools they need: 
```json
{
  "agents": {
    "reviewer": {
      "tools": { "allow": ["read", "exec"] }
    },
    "fixer": {
      "tools": { "allow": ["read", "write", "edit", "exec"] }
    }
  }
}
```

`reviewer` is read-only. `fixer` can read and write.
With many agents, consider: 
- Using `"strategy": "parallel"` (default) for speed
- Limiting broadcast groups to 5-10 agents
- Using faster models for simpler agents
Agents fail independently. One agent's error doesn't block others: 
```
Message → [Agent A ✓, Agent B ✗ error, Agent C ✓]
Result: Agent A and C respond, Agent B logs error
```

Compatibility

Providers

Broadcast groups currently work with:

  • ✅ WhatsApp (implemented)
  • 🚧 Telegram (planned)
  • 🚧 Discord (planned)
  • 🚧 Slack (planned)

Routing

Broadcast groups work alongside existing routing:

{
  "bindings": [
    {
      "match": { "channel": "whatsapp", "peer": { "kind": "group", "id": "GROUP_A" } },
      "agentId": "alfred"
    }
  ],
  "broadcast": {
    "GROUP_B": ["agent1", "agent2"]
  }
}
  • GROUP_A: Only alfred responds (normal routing).
  • GROUP_B: agent1 AND agent2 respond (broadcast).
**Precedence:** `broadcast` takes priority over `bindings`.

Troubleshooting

**Check:** 
1. Agent IDs exist in `agents.list`.
2. Peer ID format is correct (e.g., `120363403215116621@g.us`).
3. Agents are not in deny lists.

**Debug:**

```bash
tail -f ~/.openclaw/logs/gateway.log | grep broadcast
```
**Cause:** Peer ID might be in `bindings` but not `broadcast`. 
**Fix:** Add to broadcast config or remove from bindings.
If slow with many agents: 
- Reduce number of agents per group.
- Use lighter models (sonnet instead of opus).
- Check sandbox startup time.

Examples

```json { "broadcast": { "strategy": "parallel", "120363403215116621@g.us": [ "code-formatter", "security-scanner", "test-coverage", "docs-checker" ] }, "agents": { "list": [ { "id": "code-formatter", "workspace": "~/agents/formatter", "tools": { "allow": ["read", "write"] } }, { "id": "security-scanner", "workspace": "~/agents/security", "tools": { "allow": ["read", "exec"] } }, { "id": "test-coverage", "workspace": "~/agents/testing", "tools": { "allow": ["read", "exec"] } }, { "id": "docs-checker", "workspace": "~/agents/docs", "tools": { "allow": ["read"] } } ] } } ``` 
**User sends:** Code snippet.

**Responses:**

- code-formatter: "Fixed indentation and added type hints"
- security-scanner: "⚠️ SQL injection vulnerability in line 12"
- test-coverage: "Coverage is 45%, missing tests for error cases"
- docs-checker: "Missing docstring for function `process_data`"
```json { "broadcast": { "strategy": "sequential", "+15555550123": ["detect-language", "translator-en", "translator-de"] }, "agents": { "list": [ { "id": "detect-language", "workspace": "~/agents/lang-detect" }, { "id": "translator-en", "workspace": "~/agents/translate-en" }, { "id": "translator-de", "workspace": "~/agents/translate-de" } ] } } ```

API reference

Config schema

interface OpenClawConfig {
  broadcast?: {
    strategy?: "parallel" | "sequential";
    [peerId: string]: string[];
  };
}

Fields

How to process agents. `parallel` runs all agents simultaneously; `sequential` runs them in array order. WhatsApp group JID, E.164 number, or other peer ID. Value is the array of agent IDs that should process messages.

Limitations

  1. Max agents: No hard limit, but 10+ agents may be slow.
  2. Shared context: Agents don't see each other's responses (by design).
  3. Message ordering: Parallel responses may arrive in any order.
  4. Rate limits: All agents count toward WhatsApp rate limits.

Future enhancements

Planned features:

  • Shared context mode (agents see each other's responses)
  • Agent coordination (agents can signal each other)
  • Dynamic agent selection (choose agents based on message content)
  • Agent priorities (some agents respond before others)
  • [Channel routing](/docs/openclaw-docs/channels/channel-routing
  • [Groups](/docs/openclaw-docs/channels/groups
  • [Multi-agent sandbox tools](/docs/openclaw-docs/tools/multi-agent-sandbox-tools
  • [Pairing](/docs/openclaw-docs/channels/pairing
  • [Session management](/docs/openclaw-docs/concepts/session