Broadcast groups

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

Configuration

Basic setup

Add a top-level

• group chats: group JID (e.g.
  text

  Copy

  120363403215116621@g.us
  )
• DMs: E.164 phone number (e.g.
  text

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  +15551234567
  )

json
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{
  "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:

text
Copy
```json}
{
  "broadcast": {
    "strategy": "parallel",
    "120363403215116621@g.us": ["alfred", "baerbel"]
  }
}
```

text
Copy
```json}
{
  "broadcast": {
    "strategy": "sequential",
    "120363403215116621@g.us": ["alfred", "baerbel"]
  }
}
```

Complete example

json
Copy
{
  "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

Session isolation

Each agent in a broadcast group maintains completely separate:

• Session keys (
  text

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  agent:alfred:whatsapp:group:120363...
  vs
  text

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  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

Best practices

Compatibility

Providers

Broadcast groups currently work with:

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

Routing

Broadcast groups work alongside existing routing:

json
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{
  "bindings": [
    {
      "match": { "channel": "whatsapp", "peer": { "kind": "group", "id": "GROUP_A" } },
      "agentId": "alfred"
    }
  ],
  "broadcast": {
    "GROUP_B": ["agent1", "agent2"]
  }
}

• text

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  GROUP_A
  : Only alfred responds (normal routing).
• text

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  GROUP_B
  : agent1 AND agent2 respond (broadcast).

Troubleshooting

Examples

API reference

Config schema

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

Fields

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)

Related

• Channel routing
• Groups
• Multi-agent sandbox tools
• Pairing
• Session management