Agents keep hanging on every request.

[topaz kite]

No matter what model I try my agents will very sparingly reply, I mainly see the "ERROR" in their execution symbol in the control UI. I've tried switching models but it doesn't seem to help. I'm not sure if this is related but it happened after I deleted a bunch of threads from a telegram chat that my main agent is hooked up to.
How can I fix this?

[thorn vale]

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[rustic galleon]

Model switching usually won’t help here — if the run is erroring in the Control UI, it’s almost always gateway/channel/policy (or provider auth/rate-limit), not “the model is bad”.

Can you grab 3 things first (copy/paste output)?

1. Version

openclaw --version

2. Is the gateway actually healthy

openclaw gateway status
openclaw doctor

You’re looking for Runtime: running + RPC probe: ok, and no big red flags in doctor.

3. Probe Telegram connectivity + policy

openclaw channels status --probe
openclaw logs --follow

Then, while logs --follow is running, send a fresh “test” message to the bot in Telegram and paste the first error stack / error line you see.

---

Telegram-specific gotchas that match “only replies sparingly”

These are the common ones (esp. in groups / topics):

• Telegram Bot “Privacy Mode”: in many groups the bot will only receive commands/mentions unless you disable privacy mode (BotFather /setprivacy) or make the bot an admin. Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/channels/telegram (see “Privacy mode and group visibility”)

• OpenClaw group mention gating: OpenClaw defaults to requireMention: true for groups in many setups, so it’ll ignore anything that doesn’t mention the bot. (Logs will literally say something like “mention required” / dropped.) Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/channels/telegram (see “Mention behavior”)

• Telegram “topics/threads”: if you deleted a forum topic and created a new one, it’s a new threadId, so any per-topic config under channels.telegram.groups.<groupId>.topics.<threadId> won’t match anymore. Docs mention topic isolation + thread IDs on that same page.

---

If you paste:

• openclaw --version
• openclaw gateway status (just the status lines)
• the exact error from openclaw logs --follow right after sending a test message

…I can tell you the precise fix (pairing/allowlist vs privacy/mention vs provider auth/429, etc.).

[topaz kite]

version: 2026.2.21-2

Runtime: running (pid 122397, state active, sub running, last exit 0, reason 0)
RPC probe: ok

Telegram: ok (@yuckyvela_bot) (861ms)
Agents: mombot, delivery-agent, coding-agent, planning-agent, wise-old-man, study-buddy, vela, technical-agent, career-agent, review-agent, main (default), testing-agent
Heartbeat interval: 30m (main)
Session store (main): /home/yucky/.openclaw/agents/main/sessions/sessions.json (87 entries)

• agent:main:main (11m ago)
• agent:main:main🧵3517 (14m ago)
• agent:main:main🧵3506 (15m ago)
• agent:main:main🧵3369 (59m ago)
• agent:main:main🧵3439 (238m ago)
  │
  ◇ Channel warnings ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
  │ │
  │ - telegram default: Config allows unmentioned group messages (requireMention=false). │
  │ Telegram Bot API privacy mode will block most group messages unless disabled. (In │
  │ BotFather run /setprivacy → Disable for this bot (then restart the gateway).) │
  │ - telegram default: Group -5102302271 not reachable by bot. status=left: bot not in │
  │ group (matchKey=-5102302271 matchSource=id) (Invite the bot to the group, then DM the │
  │ bot once (/start) and restart the gateway.) │
  │ - telegram default: Group -5183041766 not reachable by bot. status=left: bot not in │
  │ group (matchKey=-5183041766 matchSource=id) (Invite the bot to the group, then DM the │
  │ bot once (/start) and restart the gateway.) │
  │

[rustic galleon]

Those warnings basically explain the “replies only sometimes / lots of ERROR runs” behavior — it’s not the model.

What’s happening

1. Telegram privacy mode is still ON

• Your config says it’s OK to respond to unmentioned group messages (requireMention=false).
• But with Telegram Bot API privacy mode enabled, the bot simply won’t receive most group messages unless you mention it / use commands / make it admin.
• So it looks “sparingly responsive”.

2. The bot is not in some groups you have configured

• Group -5102302271 not reachable … status=left
• Group -5183041766 not reachable … status=left
  If OpenClaw tries to reply into those chats, Telegram will error (bot left / not in group), which shows up as failed executions.

Fix

Do this in order:

1. In Telegram @BotFather:

• /setprivacy
• select your bot (@yuckyvela_bot)
• set to Disable

2. In each affected group:

• Remove + re-add the bot (Telegram often only applies privacy changes after re-add)
• Or alternatively: make the bot an admin (also bypasses most “can’t see messages” issues)

3. DM the bot once and run /start (helps ensure the bot has an active DM + updates flow cleanly)

4. Restart the gateway:

openclaw gateway restart

Quick sanity check

• Test a DM to the bot → should reply reliably.

• Test a group message without mentioning the bot → should now show up and get a reply.

Docs reference (covers exactly this): https://docs.openclaw.ai/channels/telegram (see “Privacy mode and group visibility” + “Mention behavior”)

If you still see ERROR in the Control UI after doing the above, paste the first relevant lines from:

openclaw logs --follow

right after triggering a message in the group (the Telegram error text will usually point to the exact cause, e.g. “bot was kicked”, “chat not found”, “forbidden”, etc.).

[topaz kite]

am i safe to just update openclaw?

[rustic galleon]

Yep — in general it’s safe to update OpenClaw, and you’re already on a fairly recent build (2026.2.21-2).

A few practical notes so it doesn’t bite you:

1. Updating won’t fix the Telegram issue you’re seeing
   Your channels status --probe warnings are configuration/Telegram-side (privacy mode + bot not in group). You’ll still want to do the BotFather /setprivacy + re-add bot to the groups + openclaw gateway restart.

2. Do a quick pre-check

openclaw --version
openclaw doctor

If doctor shows anything scary, fix that first.

3. Update + restart
   Use whatever install method you used originally (npm vs git). After updating, always: