Telegram: bot is in a group but never responds

Symptoms

• The bot is added to a Telegram group, but never replies.
• It replies in DMs, but not in groups.
• It only replies when you mention it (or not even then).

Cause

Common causes fall into two buckets:

A) Telegram-side

• Telegram privacy mode is ON (bot only receives mentions), or
• the bot is not an admin (so it can’t see all messages depending on group settings).

B) OpenClaw-side configuration

• You configured channels.telegram.groups as an allowlist but did not include the current group id (and didn’t include "*").
• The group is configured with requireMention: true and you are not mentioning the bot.

Fix

1) Quick test: mention the bot

In the group:

• @your_bot hello

If it only replies to mentions, you’re in mention-only mode (either Telegram privacy mode or requireMention).

2) Confirm allowlist/group id

Find the group chat id safely by checking gateway logs:

openclaw logs --follow

Look for chat.id after sending a message in the group.

Then configure:

{
  channels: {
    telegram: {
      groups: {
        "-1001234567890": { requireMention: false }
      }
    }
  }
}

Important: once you set channels.telegram.groups, it becomes an allowlist. If you want to allow all groups:

{
  channels: {
    telegram: {
      groups: {
        "*": { requireMention: false }
      }
    }
  }
}

3) Fix Telegram privacy mode / permissions

If you need the bot to receive non-mention messages:

• disable privacy mode in BotFather (and re-add bot), or
• grant the bot admin rights (depending on group requirements).

Verify

• Send a non-mention message; bot replies (if configured).
• openclaw channels status --probe shows Telegram healthy.