openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: Discord channel config rejects channel-level agentId and can abort gateway reload [1 participants]

Bug type

Behavior bug (incorrect output/state without crash)

Beta release blocker

No

Summary

On OpenClaw 2026.4.5, if agentId is added under a Discord channel entry at channels.discord.guilds.<guildId>.channels.<channelId>, config reload becomes invalid and the gateway can abort with Unrecognized key: "agentId".

This is easy to hit when trying to route one Discord channel to a specific agent. The supported routing path appears to be bindings[] with match.channel = "discord" and peer.kind = "channel", but the invalid channel-level config shape is not self-healing and the runtime guidance is minimal.

Steps to reproduce

1. Start from a valid Discord config on OpenClaw 2026.4.5.
2. Add a channel entry like this:

{
  channels: {
    discord: {
      guilds: {
        "<guildId>": {
          channels: {
            "<channelId>": {
              requireMention: false,
              agentId: "video"
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

1. Let the gateway hot-reload or restart the gateway.

Expected behavior

One of these should happen:

• channel-level agentId is supported, or
• config validation fails with an actionable migration hint pointing to the supported bindings[] shape for per-channel agent routing, or
• openclaw doctor --fix can repair or rewrite the unsupported config automatically.

Actual behavior

Config reload is skipped as invalid, and the gateway can abort with:

channels.discord.guilds.<guildId>.channels.<channelId>: Unrecognized key: "agentId"

Observed in local logs on April 7, 2026:

config reload skipped (invalid config): channels.discord.guilds.<guildId>.channels.<channelId>: Unrecognized key: "agentId"
Gateway aborted: config is invalid.
channels.discord.guilds.<guildId>.channels.<channelId>: Unrecognized key: "agentId"
Fix the config and retry, or run "openclaw doctor" to repair.

OpenClaw version

2026.4.5

Operating system

macOS

Install method

npm global

Model

N/A

Provider / routing chain

N/A

Additional provider/model setup details

No response

Logs, screenshots, and evidence

Relevant docs/examples show per-channel Discord routing via bindings[], for example a Discord binding with peer: { kind: "channel", id: "..." }, rather than channels.discord.guilds...channels...agentId.

That suggests the current failure mode is a config-surface mismatch / usability trap rather than simply user typo.

Impact and severity

A single unsupported key under Discord channel config can break hot reload and abort the gateway until the config is repaired.

Additional information

If the intended behavior is "use bindings, never channel.agentId", it would help if validation/doctor returned a migration hint that explicitly says that.

lobster-biscuit