#Handle discord notifications

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

vocal ravine
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I am using discord as my channel, and have various cron tasks. I like the ability to see status, but also am getting to many notifications . I would like to make it so openclaw agents do send to discord channel status, but also can tag me for stuff that I am should look at immediately. What is a good way to do this?

astral vigilBOT
dreamy wharfBOT
#

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astral vigilBOT
iron bridgeBOT
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Best pattern is a two-lane setup:

  1. Routine status -> a dedicated Discord status channel

    • Point normal cron --announce output to channel:<statusChannelId>
    • Mute that channel in Discord

  2. Urgent stuff -> DM or a separate alerts channel

    • For hard failures, use cron failure alerts
    • For “semantic urgent” stuff, use a second alert-only job that returns NO_REPLY unless something actually needs attention

A solid setup looks like this:

# normal status
openclaw cron edit <job-id> \
  --announce \
# 
  --channel discord \
  --to "channel:<statusChannelId>"

# urgent failures -> DM you
openclaw cron edit <job-id> \
  --failure-alert \
  --failure-alert-after 1 \
  --failure-alert-channel discord \
  --failure-alert-to "user:<yourUserId>"

A few notes:

  • Discord DM targets are user:<id>
  • Discord channel targets are channel:<id>
  • If you want fewer false alarms, set --failure-alert-after 2 or 3
#

For non-failure urgent signals, I’d do a separate isolated cron (or heartbeat) with a prompt like:

“Only alert me if something needs immediate attention. Otherwise reply exactly NO_REPLY.”

That works well because isolated cron runs suppress delivery when the result is just NO_REPLY.

Also, if some of your current crons are just periodic checks, move those to heartbeat instead of cron. Heartbeat already supports silent OKs, alerts on, which is much better for low-noise monitoring.

Docs:

If you want, I can help sketch the exact cron/heartbeat layout for your setup.

vocal ravine
#

I wonder if I should use multiple channels? If I spin up my own mattermost server, is it have all the same features in terms of openclaw?

iron bridgeBOT
#

Yeah, I’d try multiple Discord channels first.

That’s the cleanest setup:

  • #agent-status: routine cron output, mute this channel
  • DM or #agent-alerts: only urgent/failure stuff, leave this unmuted
  • Optional: move “periodic checks” to heartbeat so you get silent OKs and only alerts when something matters

I would not switch to Mattermost just for this unless you specifically want self-hosting.

OpenClaw’s Mattermost support is solid, but it is not feature-parity with Discord. Mattermost gives you:

  • channels, groups, DMs
  • threading
  • reactions
  • inline buttons
  • opt-in native slash commands
#

Discord has a broader surface in OpenClaw, including things like:

  • richer interactive components/forms
  • forum/thread workflows + thread bindings
  • polls
  • pins/search/permissions/channel admin actions
  • voice support
  • stickers/emoji/event tooling

Also, Mattermost has a bit more setup friction because slash commands and button callbacks need a reachable callback URL from the Mattermost server.

So my recommendation is:

  1. Stay on Discord
  2. Split status and alerts into separate destinations
  3. Use DM for urgent stuff if you really want it impossible to miss
vocal ravine
#

Any other self-hosted options have openclaw parity with discord?

iron bridgeBOT
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Short version: no self-hosted option has full Discord parity in OpenClaw right now.

The closest is probably Matrix.

Rough ranking

1. Matrix, closest

  • supports DMs, rooms, threads, media, reactions, polls, location, E2EE
  • has thread bindings / durable ACP workspace support
  • supports pins, read/edit/delete-style message actions, approvals, member/channel info

What it still does not match from Discord:

  • voice
  • Discord-style components/modals
  • forum-channel workflows
  • Discord-specific admin/event/sticker/emoji surface
#

2. Mattermost, decent but clearly smaller

  • channels, groups, DMs
  • threading
  • reactions
  • inline buttons
  • opt-in native slash commands

But it is behind Discord and behind Matrix on overall OpenClaw surface.

3. Nextcloud Talk / Synology Chat, much narrower

  • useful if you already live there
  • not close to Discord parity

So my recommendation would be:

  • If your goal is just better notification hygiene: stay on Discord and split status vs alerts
  • If you want self-hosted and closest parity: choose Matrix
vocal ravine
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Any of them have thinking cards, and tool cards?

iron bridgeBOT
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Not really, no.

If by thinking cards / tool cards you mean the richer inspectable UI, that is mainly in:

  • Control UI
  • TUI

Those surfaces have the real “card” treatment for tool calls/output.

On chat channels, including the self-hosted ones, OpenClaw mostly falls back to:

  • reasoning as a separate message with /reasoning on
  • tool summaries as separate bubbles with /verbose on or /verbose full

A few specifics:

  • Discord has the richest chat UI stuff overall, but that is mostly components/approval cards/custom UI, not full Control-UI-style tool cards