openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix Slack block_actions not dispatched as inbound messages — buttons never wake session [1 participants]

Summary

Slack button clicks (block_actions) are handled via enqueueSystemEvent() but never wake the agent session. The event sits in the queue until the next human message arrives, making interactive buttons effectively dead.

This was previously reported in #21221 (auto-closed by stale bot — the bug is still present).

Current behavior (v2026.3.24)

1. Agent posts a Slack message with Block Kit buttons
2. User clicks a button
3. block_actions handler fires, calls enqueueSystemEvent(formatSlackInteractionSystemEvent(eventPayload), { sessionKey, contextKey })
4. Nothing happens — no session wake, no response
5. Next time a human sends a message, the queued system event finally gets processed

Expected behavior

Button clicks should dispatch as real inbound messages (like Telegram callback_query does), waking the session immediately.

Root cause

In registerSlackEvents(), handleSlackMessage is passed to registerSlackMessageEvents() but not to registerSlackInteractionEvents():

// Line ~18616 — message events get handleSlackMessage ✅
registerSlackMessageEvents({
    ctx: params.ctx,
    handleSlackMessage: params.handleSlackMessage
});

// Line ~18634 — interaction events do NOT ❌
registerSlackInteractionEvents({ ctx: params.ctx });

Suggested fix

1. Pass handleSlackMessage into registerSlackInteractionEvents()
2. In the block_actions handler, call handleSlackMessage() with a synthetic message (similar to how Telegram dispatches callback_query):

await handleSlackMessage({
    type: "message",
    user: userId,
    channel: channelId,
    text: `Slack interaction: ${JSON.stringify(eventPayload)}`,
    ts: String(Date.now() / 1000),
    thread_ts: threadTs ?? messageTs
}, { source: "block_action", wasMentioned: true });

This mirrors the Telegram pattern where callback_query is dispatched as a real message with wasMentioned: true.

Workaround

We have a working local patch that applies the above fix to the dist files after each npm update. Happy to share if helpful.

Environment

• OpenClaw v2026.3.24
• Slack channel (Socket Mode)
• Block Kit buttons via chat.postMessage
• macOS, Node v25.5.0

Related

• #21221 (same issue, auto-closed by stale bot)