PR #66041: fix(telegram): keep ack reactions without mentions

• Repository: openclaw/openclaw
• Author: Rohan5commit
• State: open | merged: False
• Link: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/pull/66041

Description (problem / solution / changelog)

Summary

• Problem: Telegram ack reactions stop when group requireMention is disabled, even though those group messages still trigger runs.
• Why it matters: always-on Telegram groups look ignored while the agent is actually working.
• What changed: when Telegram is using the default messages.ackReactionScope: "group-mentions", groups with requireMention: false now keep ack reactions; added a focused regression test and docs note.
• What did NOT change (scope boundary): no change to non-Telegram channels, and no change to explicit ack scopes such as all, direct, group-all, off, or none.

Change Type (select all)

• Bug fix
• Feature
• Refactor required for the fix
• Docs
• Security hardening
• Chore/infra

Scope (select all touched areas)

• Gateway / orchestration
• Skills / tool execution
• Auth / tokens
• Memory / storage
• Integrations
• API / contracts
• UI / DX
• CI/CD / infra

Linked Issue/PR

• Closes #65808
• Related #65808
• This PR fixes a bug or regression

Root Cause (if applicable)

• Root cause: the shared ack-reaction gate required requireMention=true for group-mentions, so Telegram groups configured to process unmentioned messages stopped qualifying for the ack emoji.
• Missing detection / guardrail: there was no regression test covering ack reactions in Telegram groups with requireMention: false.
• Contributing context (if known): Telegram already treats those messages as reply-worthy once mention gating is disabled, so the ack surface drifted from actual processing behavior.

Regression Test Plan (if applicable)

• Coverage level that should have caught this:
  • Unit test
  • Seam / integration test
  • End-to-end test
  • Existing coverage already sufficient
• Target test or file: extensions/telegram/src/bot.create-telegram-bot.test.ts
• Scenario the test should lock in: a group message without a mention still receives the ack reaction when Telegram group config sets requireMention: false.
• Why this is the smallest reliable guardrail: the behavior depends on the Telegram message pipeline, config resolution, and reaction dispatch, so the existing create-bot harness is the smallest seam that exercises the full path.
• Existing test that already covers this (if any): the adjacent mention-gated ack reaction test in the same file.
• If no new test is added, why not: N/A

User-visible / Behavior Changes

• Telegram groups configured with requireMention: false now keep the ack emoji while the message is being processed, even when the global ack scope remains group-mentions.

Diagram (if applicable)

Before:
[group message, no mention] -> [Telegram run starts] -> [no ack reaction shown]

After:
[group message, no mention] -> [Telegram run starts] -> [ack reaction shown] -> [reply arrives]

Security Impact (required)

• New permissions/capabilities? (Yes/No) No
• Secrets/tokens handling changed? (Yes/No) No
• New/changed network calls? (Yes/No) No
• Command/tool execution surface changed? (Yes/No) No
• Data access scope changed? (Yes/No) No
• If any Yes, explain risk + mitigation:

Repro + Verification

Environment

• OS: macOS
• Runtime/container: local pnpm workspace
• Model/provider: N/A
• Integration/channel (if any): Telegram
• Relevant config (redacted): messages.ackReaction="👀", messages.ackReactionScope="group-mentions", channels.telegram.groups["*"].requireMention=false

Steps

1. Configure Telegram with messages.ackReaction enabled and channels.telegram.groups["*"].requireMention=false.
2. Send a normal group message without mentioning the bot.
3. Observe whether the ack reaction appears before the reply is delivered.

Expected

• The bot acknowledges the inbound group message because that message is eligible to trigger a run.

Actual

• Before this change, no ack reaction was sent for that message path.

Evidence

• Failing test/log before + passing after
• Trace/log snippets
• Screenshot/recording
• Perf numbers (if relevant)

Focused verification after the patch:

$ npx --yes pnpm exec vitest run extensions/telegram/src/bot.create-telegram-bot.test.ts
Test Files  1 passed (1)
Tests       51 passed (51)

Human Verification (required)

• Verified scenarios: mention-gated Telegram group messages still ack; Telegram groups with requireMention: false now ack without a mention.
• Edge cases checked: the change is gated to Telegram and only rewrites the effective scope when the current scope is group-mentions.
• What you did not verify: live Telegram Bot API behavior against a real bot account; multi-account Telegram setups.

Review Conversations

• I replied to or resolved every bot review conversation I addressed in this PR.
• I left unresolved only the conversations that still need reviewer or maintainer judgment.

Compatibility / Migration

• Backward compatible? (Yes/No) Yes
• Config/env changes? (Yes/No) No
• Migration needed? (Yes/No) No
• If yes, exact upgrade steps:

Risks and Mitigations

• Risk: Telegram users who intentionally paired requireMention: false with group-mentions may now see more ack reactions in always-on groups.
  • Mitigation: the change is limited to Telegram groups already configured to process every visible message, and users can still opt into off, none, direct, group-all, or all explicitly.

AI-assisted: Yes (Codex). I attempted codex review --base origin/main, but the local Codex CLI review could not complete because the authenticated Codex session had hit its usage limit.

Changed files

• docs/channels/telegram.md (modified, +1/-0)
• extensions/telegram/src/bot-message-context.ts (modified, +5/-1)
• extensions/telegram/src/bot.create-telegram-bot.test.ts (modified, +30/-0)