Summary

WhatsApp outbound messages do not support quote-replies or @mentions. Both features work correctly on inbound (OpenClaw parses quoted messages and mentionedJid from incoming messages), but the outbound sendMessage implementation does not wire them up.

Current Behavior

Quote-replies

The agent can use [[reply_to_current]] tags, and the reply pipeline parses replyToId / replyToCurrent correctly. However, createWebSendApi().sendMessage() in channel-web-*.js builds a payload with just { text } (or media fields) and never passes a quoted key to sock.sendMessage().

Result: The [[reply_to_current]] tag is stripped from the message text, but the outbound message is sent as a standalone message with no quote context.

@mentions

The agent can include @+1234567890 in message text, but sendMessage() never sets contextInfo.mentionedJid on the outbound payload.

Result: The phone number appears as literal text instead of rendering as a tappable WhatsApp mention that resolves to the contact name.

Expected Behavior

Quote-replies

When replyToId is available in the outbound context, sendMessage() should pass it as the quoted key in the Baileys message payload:

const payload = {
  text,
  ...(replyToId ? { quoted: { key: { remoteJid: jid, id: replyToId } } } : {})
};

@mentions

When the message text contains @+<number> patterns, sendMessage() should:

1. Extract the mentioned numbers
2. Convert them to JIDs (e.g., [email protected])
3. Include them in contextInfo.mentionedJid

const payload = {
  text,
  ...(mentionedJids.length > 0 ? {
    contextInfo: { mentionedJid: mentionedJids }
  } : {})
};

Affected Code

• createWebSendApi() in the WhatsApp channel web module (channel-web-*.js)
• sendMessageWhatsApp() in the outbound module (outbound-*.js)

Impact

Without these features, AI agents in WhatsApp group chats cannot:

• Thread replies to specific messages (making conversations hard to follow)
• Properly mention group participants (mentions show as raw phone numbers)

This significantly reduces the usefulness of agents in group chat contexts.

Environment

• OpenClaw 2026.3.13 (61d171a)
• WhatsApp Web (Baileys)