openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: Duplicate Inbound Message Delivery [1 participants]

Bug type

Behavior bug (incorrect output/state without crash)

Beta release blocker

No

Summary

A single Telegram message is injected into the agent session 2–3 times as separate inbound events ~60s apart, causing the agent to send duplicate replies and re-run expensive operations.

Steps to reproduce

1. Run OpenClaw 2026.3.31 (213a704) with a Telegram group chat (forum/topics) channel.
2. Have a user send a single message in the Telegram group topic.
3. Observe the agent session history — the same message appears as 2–3 separate inbound events ~60s apart.
4. The agent responds to each duplicate event separately.

Expected behavior

Each Telegram message should be delivered exactly once to the agent session, deduplicated by Telegram message_id.

Actual behavior

The same Telegram message (same sender, same message_id) is delivered as 2–3 separate inbound events with different internal timestamps spaced ~60s apart. This was observed consistently on 2026-04-02 across multiple messages and sessions.

OpenClaw version

2026.3.31 (213a704)

Operating system

Ubuntu 24.04 (Hetzner VPS, Helsinki — ubuntu-4gb-hel1-1)

Install method

npm

Model

claude-opus-4.6

Provider / routing chain

telegram gateway -> agent:main session

Additional provider/model setup details

{ "agents": { "defaults": { "timeoutSeconds": 1800, "heartbeat": { "every": "6h", "isolatedSession": true } } }, "telegram": { "execApprovals": { "enabled": true, "approvers": ["428450616"] }, "streaming": "partial", "heartbeat": { "showOk": true } } }

Logs, screenshots, and evidence

sessions_history evidence showing the 3 duplicate entries:
seq 1067 — timestamp: 1775161793245 (20:29:53 UTC)
seq 1068 — timestamp: 1775161853551 (20:30:53 UTC)
seq 1069 — timestamp: 1775161914209 (20:31:54 UTC)
All three: identical message text, same sender 428450616, same Telegram message_id 3585, but different OpenClaw event timestamps ~60s apart. Also mention: no duplicate delivery entries visible at INFO level in /tmp/openclaw/openclaw-2026-04-02.log.

Impact and severity

Affected: Any agent using a Telegram group/topics channel on 2026.3.31 Severity: High — blocks correct agent behavior Frequency: Always/consistent — observed repeatedly throughout 2026-04-02 Consequence: Agent sends duplicate replies to users; re-runs expensive operations (e.g., a 17-minute content engine cycle was re-triggered unnecessarily by a duplicate event)

Additional information

The ~60s retry spacing suggests a webhook retry mechanism: either Telegram retrying unacknowledged webhooks, OpenClaw gateway inbound retry logic, or session message queue replay. The gateway does not appear to deduplicate by message_id before injecting into the session. No regression baseline is noted (no prior version confirmed as working).