openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: WebChat message-tool replies expose raw citation markers instead of rendering citations [1 pull requests]

Bug type

Behavior bug (rendering / user-visible formatting)

Summary

When an assistant response delivered to WebChat through the message tool contains citation markup such as citeturn3view0, WebChat displays the raw internal citation token to the user instead of rendering it as a link/citation or stripping it. This leaks implementation-specific citation syntax into the visible chat UI.

Environment

• OpenClaw version: 2026.5.20 (e510042)
• Install method: npm global
• Surface/channel: WebChat direct conversation
• Delivery path observed: message tool, sourceReplyDeliveryMode: "message_tool_only", sourceReplySink: "internal-ui"

Steps to reproduce

1. In a WebChat direct conversation, ask the assistant to research something that uses web citations.
2. Have the assistant send the visible reply with the OpenClaw message tool, as required by WebChat delivery discipline.
3. Include citation markup in the message text, for example: citeturn3view0.
4. View the delivered WebChat message.

Expected behavior

WebChat should not show raw citation control tokens to the user. It should either:

• render citation markers as clickable citations/links, or
• strip/degrade them into a clean human-readable form when the WebChat renderer does not support citations.

Actual behavior

The visible WebChat message contains raw citation markup inline at the end of lines, for example:

v2026.5.19 ... citeturn3view0
v2026.5.20 ... citeturn2view0

This makes the reply look broken and exposes internal source-reference tokens that are not meaningful to end users.

Impact

• User-visible formatting regression in WebChat.
• Makes cited research answers look broken or unpolished.
• Can confuse users because the raw turn...view... IDs are not usable in WebChat.
• Affects research/release-note summaries where citations are common.

Notes

This may be a renderer mismatch between citation-aware model output and the WebChat/message-tool delivery path. If WebChat cannot render these markers, the message delivery layer should sanitize or transform them before display.