openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: Tool calls invisible in Telegram DM despite verbose: on — user cannot see agent activity [1 participants]

Bug Report: Tool calls invisible in Telegram DM despite reasoning: on + verbose: on

Summary

When /reasoning on and /verbose on are active in a Telegram DM session, tool calls (e.g. exec, web_fetch, web_search) are never rendered as visible messages in Telegram. Only the final assistant text reply is delivered. The user has no visibility into:

• Which tools the agent invokes
• What commands are executed
• What the tool results contain

This makes it impossible to follow the agent's workflow in real-time.

Environment

• OpenClaw: 2026.4.24 (cbcfdf6)
• Surface: Telegram direct chat (DM)
• Channel: channels.telegram.enabled: true
• Config:

{
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "streaming": { "mode": "off" },  // also tested with "partial"
      "dmPolicy": "allowlist",
      "timeoutSeconds": 600
    }
  },
  "agents": {
    "list": [{
      "id": "telegram-chat",
      "model": { "primary": "ollama/glm-5.1:cloud" },
      "workspace": "/Users/botje/.openclaw/workspace"
    }]
  }
}

Steps to reproduce

1. Start a Telegram DM session with agent telegram-chat
2. Type /reasoning on → confirmed active
3. Type /verbose on → confirmed active
4. Send a message that triggers a tool call, e.g. "Check the weather" or "Run a command"
5. Observe: only the final text reply appears in Telegram

Expected behavior

With reasoning: on and verbose: on, the agent's thinking process and tool call activity should be visible in Telegram, similar to how it appears in the Web Control UI.

Actual behavior

Only the final assistant text is delivered to Telegram. Tool call execution is completely invisible to the user.

Tests performed

Conclusion: Tool call visibility is independent of model. Reasoning visibility depends on the model (GLM-5.1 via Ollama sends few thinking blocks), but tool calls are never rendered regardless of model or streaming mode.

Related issues

• #53384 — streaming: partial drops text blocks for [thinking, text] turns
• #66459 — Telegram transcript contains final reply but no outbound send for [thinking, text]
• #37816 — [Feature]: Telegram full agent activity visibility (Web UI parity)

Why this is a bug, not a feature request

The /verbose on command implies that tool activity becomes visible. If the intent was that tool calls remain invisible in Telegram, /verbose should not exist as a per-session toggle for Telegram users. The current behavior is inconsistent with user expectations.

Screenshot/context

Session transcript confirms tool calls executed (visible in Web Control UI chat.history), but zero outbound sendMessage calls for tool execution steps in Telegram gateway logs.

Reporter: Johannes Huijbregts (via Echo assistant) Date: 2026-04-27