Group messages (web provider)

Goal: let Clawd sit in WhatsApp groups, wake up only when pinged, and keep that thread separate from the personal DM session.

What’s implemented (2025-12-03)

Activation modes: mention (default) or always. mention requires a ping (real WhatsApp @-mentions via mentionedJids, regex patterns, or the bot’s E.164 anywhere in the text). always wakes the agent on every message but it should reply only when it can add meaningful value; otherwise it returns the silent token NO_REPLY. Activation is controlled per group (command or UI), not via config.
Group allowlist bypass: we still enforce allowFrom on the participant at inbox ingest, but group JIDs themselves no longer block replies.
Per-group sessions: session keys look like group:<jid> so commands such as /verbose on or /think:high are scoped to that group; personal DM state is untouched. Heartbeats are skipped for group threads.
Context injection: last N (default 50) group messages are prefixed under [Chat messages since your last reply - for context], with the triggering line under [Current message - respond to this].
Sender surfacing: every group batch now ends with [from: Sender Name (+E164)] so Pi knows who is speaking.
Ephemeral/view-once: we unwrap those before extracting text/mentions, so pings inside them still trigger.
New session primer: on the first turn of a group session we now prepend a short blurb to the model like You are replying inside the WhatsApp group "<subject>". Group members: Alice (+44...), Bob (+43...), … Activation: trigger-only … Address the specific sender noted in the message context. If metadata isn’t available we still tell the agent it’s a group chat.

Config for Clawd UK (+447700900123)

Add a groupChat block to ~/.clawdis/clawdis.json so display-name pings work even when WhatsApp strips the visual @ in the text body:

{
  "inbound": {
    "groupChat": {
      "historyLimit": 50,
      "mentionPatterns": [
        "@?clawd",
        "@?clawd\\s*uk",
        "@?clawdbot",
        "\\+?447700900123"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Notes:

The regexes are case-insensitive; they cover @clawd, @clawd uk, clawdbot, and the raw number with or without +/spaces.
WhatsApp still sends canonical mentions via mentionedJids when someone taps the contact, so the number fallback is rarely needed but is a good safety net.

Activation command (owner-only)

Use the group chat command:

/activation mention
/activation always

Only the owner number (from allowFrom, defaulting to the bot’s own E.164 when unset) can change this. /status in the group shows the current activation mode.

How to use

Add Clawd UK (+447700900123) to the group.
Say @clawd … (or @clawd uk, @clawdbot, or include the number). Anyone in the group can trigger it.
The agent prompt will include recent group context plus the trailing [from: …] marker so it can address the right person.
Session-level directives (/verbose on, /think:high, /new or /reset) apply only to that group’s session; your personal DM session remains independent.

Testing / verification

Automated: pnpm test -- src/web/auto-reply.test.ts --runInBand (covers mention gating, history injection, sender suffix).
Manual smoke:
- Send an @clawd ping in the group and confirm a reply that references the sender name.
- Send a second ping and verify the history block is included then cleared on the next turn.
Check gateway logs (run with --verbose) to see inbound web message entries showing from: <groupJid> and the [from: …] suffix.

Known considerations

Heartbeats are intentionally skipped for groups to avoid noisy broadcasts.
Echo suppression uses the combined batch string; if you send identical text twice without mentions, only the first will get a response.
Session store entries will appear as group:<jid> in the session store (~/.clawdis/sessions/sessions.json by default); a missing entry just means the group hasn’t triggered a run yet.

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