docs: clarify IRC managed proxy coverage (#76822)

Summary:
- The PR adds a changelog note plus IRC and network-proxy documentation stating that IRC raw TCP/TLS egress is outside operator-managed forward proxy routing and should be disabled unless direct egress is approved.
- Reproducibility: not applicable. for this docs-only PR. Source inspection establishes the documented premise ... kets while managed proxy routing covers normal HTTP/WebSocket paths and documents raw-socket bypass limits.

Automerge notes:
- PR branch already contained follow-up commit before automerge: fix(clawsweeper): address review for automerge-openclaw-openclaw-7682…

Validation:
- ClawSweeper review passed for head 7dde35adb9.
- Required merge gates passed before the squash merge.

Prepared head SHA: 7dde35adb9
Review: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/pull/76822#issuecomment-4366671907

Co-authored-by: jesse-merhi <79823012+jesse-merhi@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: clawsweeper <274271284+clawsweeper[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Agents/commands: add `/steer <message>` for queue-independent steering of the active current-session run without starting a new turn when the session is idle. (#76934)
 - Tools/BTW: add `/side` as a text and native slash-command alias for `/btw` side questions.
 - Doctor/config: `doctor --fix` now commits safe legacy migrations even when unrelated validation issues (e.g. a missing plugin) prevent full validation from passing, so `agents.defaults.llm` and other known-legacy keys are always cleaned up by `doctor --fix` regardless of other config problems. Fixes #76798. (#76800) Thanks @hclsys.
+- Docs: clarify that IRC uses raw TCP/TLS sockets outside operator-managed forward proxy routing, so direct IRC egress should be explicitly approved before enabling IRC. Thanks @jesse-merhi.
 - Agents/tools: skip optional media and PDF tool factories when the effective tool denylist already blocks them, avoiding unnecessary hot-path setup for tools that will be filtered out before model use. (#76773) Thanks @dorukardahan.
 - Discord/status: let explicit reaction tool calls opt into tracking subsequent tool progress on the reacted message with `trackToolCalls: true`, and use the shared tool display emoji table for status reactions.
 - Gateway/config: stop Gateway startup and hot reload from auto-restoring invalid config; invalid config now fails closed and `openclaw doctor --fix` owns last-known-good repair.

docs/channels/irc.md

@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ openclaw gateway run
 
 ## Security defaults
 
+- IRC uses raw TCP/TLS sockets outside OpenClaw operator-managed forward proxy routing. In deployments that require all egress through that forward proxy, set `channels.irc.enabled=false` unless direct IRC egress is explicitly approved.
 - `channels.irc.dmPolicy` defaults to `"pairing"`.
 - `channels.irc.groupPolicy` defaults to `"allowlist"`.
 - With `groupPolicy="allowlist"`, set `channels.irc.groups` to define allowed channels.

docs/security/network-proxy.md

@@ -193,6 +193,7 @@ proxy:
 
 - The proxy improves coverage for process-local JavaScript HTTP and WebSocket clients, but it is not an OS-level network sandbox.
 - Raw `net`, `tls`, and `http2` sockets, native addons, and child processes may bypass Node-level proxy routing unless they inherit and respect proxy environment variables.
+- IRC is a raw TCP/TLS channel outside operator-managed forward proxy routing. In deployments that require all egress through that forward proxy, set `channels.irc.enabled=false` unless direct IRC egress is explicitly approved.
 - User local WebUIs and local model servers should be allowlisted in the operator proxy policy when needed; OpenClaw does not expose a general local-network bypass for them.
 - Gateway control-plane proxy bypass is intentionally limited to `localhost` and literal loopback IP URLs. Use `ws://127.0.0.1:18789`, `ws://[::1]:18789`, or `ws://localhost:18789` for local direct Gateway control-plane connections; other hostnames route like ordinary hostname-based traffic.
 - OpenClaw does not inspect, test, or certify your proxy policy.