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Broadcast Groups

Broadcast Groups

Status: Experimental
Version: 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

1. Specialized Agent Teams

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.

2. Multi-Language Support

Group: "International Support"
Agents:
  - Agent_EN (responds in English)
  - Agent_DE (responds in German)
  - Agent_ES (responds in Spanish)

3. Quality Assurance Workflows

Group: "Customer Support"
Agents:
  - SupportAgent (provides answer)
  - QAAgent (reviews quality, only responds if issues found)

4. Task Automation

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:

Parallel (Default)

All agents process simultaneously:

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

Sequential

Agents process in order (one waits for previous to finish):

{
  "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

  1. Incoming message arrives in a WhatsApp group
  2. Broadcast check: System checks if peer ID is in broadcast
  3. If in broadcast list:
    • All listed agents process the message
    • Each agent has its own session key and isolated context
    • Agents process in parallel (default) or sequentially
  4. If not in broadcast list:
    • Normal routing applies (first matching binding)

Note: 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"]:

Alfred’s context:

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

Bärbel’s context:

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

Best Practices

1. Keep Agents Focused

Design each agent with a single, clear responsibility:

{
  "broadcast": {
    "DEV_GROUP": ["formatter", "linter", "tester"]
  }
}

✅ Good: Each agent has one job
❌ Bad: One generic “dev-helper” agent

2. Use Descriptive Names

Make it clear what each agent does:

{
  "agents": {
    "security-scanner": { "name": "Security Scanner" },
    "code-formatter": { "name": "Code Formatter" },
    "test-generator": { "name": "Test Generator" }
  }
}

3. Configure Different Tool Access

Give agents only the tools they need:

{
  "agents": {
    "reviewer": {
      "tools": { "allow": ["read", "exec"] } // Read-only
    },
    "fixer": {
      "tools": { "allow": ["read", "write", "edit", "exec"] } // Read-write
    }
  }
}

4. Monitor Performance

With many agents, consider:

  • Using "strategy": "parallel" (default) for speed
  • Limiting broadcast groups to 5-10 agents
  • Using faster models for simpler agents

5. Handle Failures Gracefully

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

Agents Not Responding

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:

Terminal window
tail -f ~/.openclaw/logs/gateway.log | grep broadcast

Only One Agent Responding

Cause: Peer ID might be in bindings but not broadcast.

Fix: Add to broadcast config or remove from bindings.

Performance Issues

If slow with many agents:

  • Reduce number of agents per group
  • Use lighter models (sonnet instead of opus)
  • Check sandbox startup time

Examples

Example 1: Code Review Team

{
  "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”

Example 2: Multi-Language Support

{
  "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

  • strategy (optional): How to process agents
    • "parallel" (default): All agents process simultaneously
    • "sequential": Agents process in array order
  • [peerId]: WhatsApp group JID, E.164 number, or other peer ID
    • Value: 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)

See Also

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