openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Feature]: Discord - auto-inject @mention for guild message replies [1 comments, 2 participants]

Summary

In a multi-agent Discord setup with replyToMode: all and requireMention: true, agents often fail to include <@userID> mentions in their replies. This means the original message author does not receive a Discord notification, even though the bot is replying to them.

Problem

When an agent replies to a message in a guild channel:

1. replyToMode: all adds message_reference (quote reply) — ✅ works
2. But the agent LLM does not reliably include <@originalAuthorID> in the message text
3. Discord reply notifications depend on allowed_mentions.replied_user being true (which is the default), BUT many users expect an explicit <@ID> mention for visibility
4. When agents are triggered via sessions_send or new thread sessions, there may be no replyTo context at all, so even message_reference is missing

Proposed Solution

Add a new config option channels.discord.autoMentionReply (default: false):

{
  "channels": {
    "discord": {
      "autoMentionReply": true
    }
  }
}

When enabled, the gateway automatically prepends <@originalAuthorID> to the first outbound message chunk when:

• The message is a reply (has message_reference)
• The message text does not already contain <@originalAuthorID>
• The channel is a guild channel (not DM)

This ensures the original author always gets notified, regardless of whether the LLM remembered to include the mention.

Alternatives Considered

1. SOUL.md rules: Unreliable — LLMs do not consistently follow mention formatting rules
2. allowed_mentions.replied_user: true: Already default, but does not add visible @ in message text
3. Post-processing middleware: Would work but adds complexity outside the gateway

Environment

• OpenClaw version: 2026.3.8
• Setup: 26 Discord bots, single gateway, allowBots: "mentions", requireMention: true, replyToMode: all
• Use case: Multi-agent team collaboration server where bots need to notify each other and human users reliably