openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix Feature: Minimal inbound metadata mode for DM (direct) chats to reduce context bloat and hallucinations [1 participants]

Problem

In Telegram DM (1:1) chats, buildInboundUserContextPrefix injects full metadata blocks with every single user message:

Conversation info (untrusted metadata):
{"message_id": "697", "sender_id": "292593739", "sender": "Vit Gruver", "timestamp": "Mon 2026-04-06 16:55 UTC"}

Sender (untrusted metadata):
{"label": "Vit Gruver (292593739)", "id": "292593739", "name": "Vit Gruver", "username": "VitGruver"}

In a DM chat, sender never changes. Yet this ~500-800 char block repeats with every message. Over a 100+ message session, this adds 50-80KB of redundant metadata to the context window.

Consequences

1. Context window waste — redundant metadata displaces useful conversation history, triggers compaction earlier
2. Hallucination trigger — after 100+ repetitions of the identical JSON structure, the model learns the pattern and starts generating fake user messages (complete with fabricated message_id, sender_id, timestamps) within its own responses. We've observed this across multiple agents (different models, different personas) in long Telegram DM sessions. The hallucinated content includes the full metadata envelope, incrementing message_id values, and realistic fake user text.

Root cause in code

In inbound-meta.ts, the shouldIncludeConversationInfo check:

const isDirect = !chatType || chatType === "direct";
const shouldIncludeConversationInfo = !isDirect || Boolean(directChannelValue && directChannelValue !== "webchat");

For Telegram DMs, directChannelValue is "telegram" (not "webchat"), so the full metadata is always included even in 1:1 conversations.

Proposed Solution

Add a configuration option to use minimal metadata in DM chats:

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "envelopeMode": "full"
    }
  }
}

Where envelopeMode could be:

• "full" (default) — current behavior, all metadata on every message
• "minimal-dm" — in DM chats, include sender info only once at session start; subsequent messages get only [msg:697 16:55] or similar compact format
• "minimal" — compact format for all chat types

Alternatively, a per-agent override:

{
  "agents": {
    "myAgent": {
      "envelopeMode": "minimal-dm"
    }
  }
}

Environment

• OpenClaw 2026.4.2
• Telegram channel
• Multiple agents (claude-opus-4-6, claude-sonnet-4-6)
• Observed on both long sessions (300+ messages) and medium sessions (100+ messages)