@inline-openclaw/inline

OpenClaw channel plugin for interacting with an OpenClaw agent via Inline.

Status: beta (solid foundation; expect iteration).

Quick setup guide: docs/openclaw-setup.md. Create bot/token guide: docs/create-inline-bot.md.

Supports:

• Inline DMs (ChatType=direct)
• Inline chats as conversations (ChatType=group)
• Message replies: OpenClaw replyToId is mapped to Inline replyToMsgId (message id).
• Optional native reply threads: enable channels.inline.capabilities.replyThreads: true to expose Inline reply-thread chats as OpenClaw threads.
• Native media upload/send for images, videos, and documents from mediaUrl payloads.
• Emoji reactions via message tool actions (react, reactions).
• Reaction events on bot-authored messages are surfaced back to the agent as inbound context.

By default, native reply threads stay off to preserve the old compatibility behavior. When disabled:

• replyToId remains an Inline message reply only.
• thread-reply keeps the legacy compatibility path.
• thread-create keeps the legacy chat-creation alias behavior.

When enabled:

• inbound reply-thread messages use the parent chat as the base conversation target and the child reply-thread chat id as MessageThreadId
• outbound thread-reply sends into the child reply-thread chat
• thread-create creates a real Inline reply thread instead of a plain chat alias

Install

Requires OpenClaw 2026.3.28 or newer.

From npm (once published):

openclaw plugins install @inline-openclaw/inline

If the plugin is already installed, update in place:

openclaw config set plugins.installs.inline.spec '"@inline-openclaw/inline@latest"'
openclaw plugins update inline

From a local checkout (dev):

cd /path/to/inline/packages/openclaw
bun run build
openclaw plugins install --link /path/to/inline/packages/openclaw

Configure

Channel config lives under channels.inline (supports account settings, block streaming/chunking, and group tool policy).

Plugin id is inline (for plugins.entries.*). If you enable explicitly, use:

plugins:
  entries:
    inline:
      enabled: true

Minimal setup (token field only):

channels:
  inline:
    enabled: true
    token: "<INLINE_BOT_TOKEN>"

baseUrl defaults to https://api.inline.chat. dmPolicy defaults to pairing (recommended starting point). requireMention defaults to false for groups (set true to require explicit mentions).

Example:

channels:
  inline:
    enabled: true
    baseUrl: "https://api.inline.chat"
    token: "<INLINE_BOT_TOKEN>"

    # DMs:
    dmPolicy: "pairing" # pairing|open|disabled
    allowFrom:
      - "inline:123" # or "user:123" or just "123"

    # Group threads/chats:
    groupPolicy: "allowlist" # allowlist|open|disabled
    groupAllowFrom:
      - "inline:123" # or "user:123" or just "123"
    capabilities:
      replyThreads: false # optional, default false; enable native Inline reply-thread support
    requireMention: true # optional: default is false
    replyToBotWithoutMention: true # if true, replies to bot messages can bypass mention requirement

    # Inbound context history (used to build richer thread context for the agent):
    historyLimit: 50      # group chats
    dmHistoryLimit: 6     # direct messages

    # Streaming + chunking:
    mediaMaxMb: 20
    blockStreaming: true
    streamViaEditMessage: true # optional: paragraph-level text streaming via send+edit fallback; off by default
    chunkMode: "newline" # length|newline
    blockStreamingCoalesce:
      minChars: 600
      idleMs: 700
      maxChars: 2200

    # Group-level tool policy (for agent tool access in group sessions):
    groups:
      "88":
        requireMention: false
        tools:
          allow: ["message", "web.search"]
        toolsBySender:
          "42":
            allow: ["message"]

Per-account override:

channels:
  inline:
    capabilities:
      replyThreads: false
    accounts:
      work:
        token: "<INLINE_BOT_TOKEN>"
        capabilities:
          replyThreads: true

Reply behavior summary:

• replyToId is always an Inline message id.
• Native reply threads are separate and use OpenClaw threadId.
• Keep replyThreads off if you only want classic message replies.

If you set dmPolicy: "open", set allowFrom: ["*"].

Outbound Target Semantics

For message send/plugin outbound sends:

• chat:<id> targets a chat id.
• user:<id> targets a user id (DM peer).
• inline:user:<id> and inline:chat:<id> are accepted and normalized.
• User directory IDs and channels resolve --kind user outputs are returned as user:<id> to keep DM targets explicit.
• Bare numeric ids are disambiguated against Inline directory data:
  • matches chat only -> sent as chat id
  • matches user only -> sent as user id
  • matches both -> rejected (use explicit chat: or user:)
  • matches neither -> treated as chat id (legacy behavior)

Message Tool RPC Actions

The plugin exposes Inline RPC-backed actions through OpenClaw's message tool. Most Inline RPC-backed actions use a numeric chat id via to, chatId, or channelId. Direct DM sends can also target user:<id>.

• Sending: send, sendAttachment
• Replying: reply, thread-reply
• Reactions: react, reactions
• Reading/searching: read, search
• Editing: edit
• Channels/threads: channel-info, channel-edit, renameGroup, channel-list, channel-create, channel-delete, channel-move, thread-list, thread-create
• Participants: addParticipant, removeParticipant, kick, leaveGroup, member-info
• Message lifecycle: delete, unsend
• Pins: pin, unpin, list-pins
• Space permissions: permissions

Native thread semantics are behind channels.inline.capabilities.replyThreads:

• disabled: thread-reply behaves like the old compatibility reply path
• enabled: thread-reply expects threadId to be the child reply-thread chat id, while to stays the parent chat id
• enabled: thread-create creates a real reply thread from a parent chat and optional replyToId anchor

You can gate action groups from config:

channels:
  inline:
    actions:
      send: true
      reply: true
      reactions: true
      read: true
      search: true
      edit: true
      channels: true
      participants: true
      delete: true
      pins: true
      permissions: true

Extra Agent Tools

The plugin also registers a dedicated inline_members tool for space-member discovery outside the message action surface.

• Required input: spaceId
• Optional filters: query, userId, limit, accountId
• Returned members include explicit DM targets like user:123

The plugin also registers inline_bot_commands for bot slash command management (v1):

• action: "get" -> calls getMyCommands
• action: "set" -> calls setMyCommands with Telegram-style commands[]
• action: "delete" -> calls deleteMyCommands
• Limits follow Inline Bot API: max 100 commands, command max 32, description max 256, charset ^[a-z0-9_]+$

Native command sync (Telegram-style startup behavior):

• On gateway_start, the plugin clears + re-registers default native commands for each enabled/configured Inline account.
• Default commands now mirror OpenClaw native defaults (for example: /status, /model, /exec, /usage, etc.).
• When available in openclaw/plugin-sdk, the plugin uses the same command + skill sources as native providers (Telegram/Slack/Discord), including plugin command specs.
• Disable startup sync globally with commands.native: false, or per-channel with channels.inline.commands.native: false.
• Disable native skill command inclusion with commands.nativeSkills: false, or per-channel with channels.inline.commands.nativeSkills: false.

Multi-account:

channels:
  inline:
    accounts:
      default:
        baseUrl: "https://api.inline.chat"
        token: "<BOT_TOKEN_A>"
      work:
        baseUrl: "https://api.inline.chat"
        token: "<BOT_TOKEN_B>"

Quick Troubleshooting

• plugin not found: inline / plugins.entries.inline: plugin not found: inline
  • Ensure the plugin is installed and discovered (openclaw plugins list).
• doctor --fix suggests Inline changes even though channel is healthy
  • Plugin entry id should be inline.
• Inline: SETUP / no token
  • Ensure channels.inline.token is set and plugin is updated (openclaw plugins update inline).
  • If using dmPolicy: "open", ensure allowFrom: ["*"].