discord reaction | Friends of the Crustacean 🦞🤝 | Page 1

prime spear Apr 19, 2026, 5:36 PM

#

My bot can see when I have added reactions on messages, but only if I explicitly ask it.

For example this sequence.

I add a heart on a message
I send the message "I did a reaction on your message, what did you see?"
It responds basicly that I have added a heart.

But what if I want the heart to trigger the bot?

like this.

I add a heart on a message
Bot response something like "Oh, a heart, soo cuute!" 😛

lime vigilBOT Apr 19, 2026, 5:36 PM

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warm larkBOT Apr 19, 2026, 5:39 PM

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Short version, not as a built-in auto-trigger on Discord right now.

What Discord reactions do today:

OpenClaw can ingest them via reactionNotifications
They become system events attached to the routed session
So the bot can mention the ❤️ when you ask next

What they do not do today:

they do not automatically wake the agent and send a reply immediately just because someone reacted

So this works:

channels: {
  discord: {
    guilds: {

#

      "<guildId>": {
        reactionNotifications: "all" // or "own"
      }
    }
  }
}

But that only changes what reactions get noticed, not whether they trigger a spontaneous reply.

Docs:

If you want the exact “❤️ -> bot says ‘soo cuute!’” behavior, I think that is a feature gap / custom plugin change today, not a config switch.

#

If you want, paste openclaw --version and I can sanity-check this against your version. If this fixed the question, please right-click the solution message → Apps → ✅ Mark Solution so Answer Overflow can index it.

prime spear Apr 19, 2026, 5:40 PM

#

OpenClaw 2026.4.19-beta.2

warm larkBOT Apr 19, 2026, 5:42 PM

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Yep, on 2026.4.19-beta.2 this still looks like the same behavior.

So, you’re not missing a config knob here.

On Discord today:

reactionNotifications controls whether reactions are noticed
those reactions are queued as system events
but they do not auto-wake the agent for an immediate reply

So this can make the bot see reactions:

channels: {
  discord: {
    guilds: {
      "<guildId>": {

#

        reactionNotifications: "all"
      }
    }
  }
}

But it still will not do:

user adds ❤️
bot instantly replies “soo cuute!”

That part would need a code change / new feature.

Docs:

https://docs.openclaw.ai/channels/discord#reaction-notifications

#

https://docs.openclaw.ai/gateway/configuration-reference

If you want that behavior, I’d file a feature request here:

https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/issues

If this answered it, please right-click the solution message → Apps → ✅ Mark Solution so Answer Overflow can index it.

prime spear Apr 19, 2026, 5:42 PM

#

What is the default of reactionNotifications and what does the setting do?

warm larkBOT Apr 19, 2026, 5:44 PM

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Default is own.

For Discord, channels.discord.guilds.<guildId>.reactionNotifications controls which reactions get turned into system events for that routed session.

Modes:

off: ignore reaction notifications
own (default): only notify when someone reacts to a bot-authored message
all: notify for all reactions
allowlist: only notify for reactions from users allowed by guilds.<id>.users

What it does:

it makes the reaction available to the agent as a system event / context
it does not by itself force an instant reply

Docs:

#discord reaction