--- summary: "Connect OpenClaw agents to Buzz rooms" read_when: - You want people to reach an OpenClaw agent from Buzz - You are setting up a Buzz bot identity and room access - You are troubleshooting a Buzz connection title: "Buzz" --- Buzz is an official channel plugin that connects OpenClaw agents to team rooms in a hosted or self-hosted Buzz workspace. ## What it does - Receives normal, rich-content, and structured-diff messages from approved Buzz rooms - Replies in the same room and thread - Shows typing while an accepted agent turn is running - Preserves Markdown in replies and sends text through OpenClaw's built-in `message` tool - Supports mention requirements and sender allowlists - Discovers rooms after the bot has been approved - Resolves current Buzz profile names, avatars, room names, and room membership through OpenClaw's directory commands - Reconnects and avoids processing the same message twice The current plugin supports group rooms, Markdown text, and inbound structured diffs. Direct messages, media and files, native reactions, room creation, and automatic admin approval are not supported yet. ## Buzz identity and room model Buzz uses Nostr keypairs for identity: - The **private key** lets OpenClaw authenticate and sign messages. It stays with the Gateway. - The **public key** identifies the bot. Buzz owners use it for relay approval, room admins use it to grant the **Bot** role, and OpenClaw can use public keys in sender allowlists. The relay URL points to one Buzz workspace. Each room has a UUID, and OpenClaw treats each configured UUID as a separate group conversation. One Gateway and bot identity can serve many rooms; you do not need a Gateway per agent or room. ## Before you start You need: 1. The `wss://` relay URL for your Buzz workspace. 2. A Buzz owner or admin who can approve a bot identity. 3. At least one room where the bot can be added with the **Bot** role. Never give OpenClaw a human Buzz owner's private key. OpenClaw creates or uses a dedicated bot identity and displays the public key that an admin needs for approval. ## Install ```bash openclaw plugins install @openclaw/buzz ``` Restart the Gateway after installing or updating the plugin. ## Guided setup Run: ```bash openclaw channels add --channel buzz ``` The setup flow walks through the following steps: 1. Enter the Buzz relay URL if one is not already configured. 2. OpenClaw reuses the configured bot identity or generates one automatically. 3. If the bot does not have room access yet, give the displayed public key to a Buzz room owner or admin. 4. OpenClaw waits for Buzz to confirm the **Bot** role and continues automatically. If the automatic wait expires, retry authenticated discovery or go back without changing the generated identity. 5. If Buzz returns one room, OpenClaw selects it. If Buzz returns several, select the rooms to use and the default outbound room. 6. OpenClaw saves the configuration and silently verifies the authenticated room when the Gateway is running. Fresh setup accepts normal messages from current members of the configured rooms without requiring a composer mention. Existing explicit mention and sender-allowlist settings are preserved when setup is rerun. The automatic room-access wait is bounded. If access is not granted in time, setup remains open and offers authenticated Retry/Back controls. Every retry reuses the same relay and bot identity; the timeout does not disable Buzz or exit setup. ### Bot approval Every target room must contain the bot identity with the **Bot** role. An existing human member or ordinary room member role is not sufficient. Buzz desktop cannot reliably assign the Bot role to an externally managed OpenClaw identity. Use the Buzz CLI as the existing human room owner or admin: ```bash buzz channels add-member \ --channel \ --pubkey \ --role bot ``` Run that command as the existing human owner or admin. Never give OpenClaw that human private key. After the Gateway connects, OpenClaw preserves an existing non-empty Buzz profile display name. For a new profile it uses the configured Buzz channel account name, then the identity name of the single agent routed to the configured Buzz rooms, and finally `OpenClaw`. This replaces the shortened public key in Buzz after its profile cache refreshes. OpenClaw also registers the same public identity in Buzz's agent directory. It preserves an existing agent-directory profile and channel-add policy; for a new profile it allows authorized Buzz users to add the identity. This lets Buzz assign the **Bot** role when the identity is invited to additional rooms instead of treating it as a normal member. OpenClaw still receives messages only from rooms explicitly selected in `channels.buzz.groups`. Buzz displays `owner unavailable` when the bot profile has no valid NIP-OA owner attestation. This does not mean room access failed. When `channels.buzz.authTag` is configured, OpenClaw includes that attestation in the published profile so Buzz can show the verified human owner. While the Gateway is connected, OpenClaw publishes and refreshes the bot's ephemeral Buzz presence every 30 seconds. Buzz removes the presence when the last authenticated Gateway connection for that bot identity closes, so multiple Gateway instances do not incorrectly mark one another offline. The local Buzz `just dev` relay does not require separate relay membership by default. A hosted or closed relay may require the bot public key to be added to the workspace community first. Adding community membership grants relay access; it does not add the identity to a room with the Bot role. ```bash buzz-admin add-member --pubkey --role member ``` OpenClaw cannot grant room or relay access. It displays only the bot public key needed by the authorized human. ## Agent tools and messaging The Buzz plugin does not add a separate Buzz-only agent tool. It registers Buzz as a destination for OpenClaw's built-in `message` tool and normal reply delivery. Agents can: - Reply to an incoming Buzz message in its room or thread - Show room- or thread-scoped typing while generating a reply - Receive Buzz kind `9` normal messages, kind `40002` rich-content messages, and kind `40008` structured diffs - Send Markdown text to an approved Buzz room as a normal kind `9` message - Use the configured default room when a workflow does not specify a target - Use the routed agent's normal skills, memory, and allowed tools Structured diffs include their repository, commit, file, branch, pull request, language, description, truncation status, and unified-diff content in the agent context when those fields are present. Diff content is not interpreted as an OpenClaw command or textual mention. Typing uses Buzz's ephemeral kind `20002` on the active authenticated Gateway connection. Ordinary replies refresh it every three seconds; heartbeat-driven replies use OpenClaw's shared typing interval, which defaults to six seconds. OpenClaw stops refreshing when the turn completes, is cancelled, fails, or the Gateway shuts down. Typing failures do not block the reply or reconnect the Gateway solely to send an ephemeral event. Humans and automations can test the same outbound path from the CLI: ```bash openclaw message send \ --channel buzz \ --target buzz: \ --message "Hello from OpenClaw" ``` ### Directory and sender labels OpenClaw keeps a bounded snapshot of the configured rooms, their current relay-signed member lists, room metadata, and kind `0` member profiles. Incoming agent context uses the current profile and room names when available, while the sender public key remains the stable authorization, routing, and session identity. Inspect the same data from the CLI: ```bash openclaw directory self --channel buzz openclaw directory peers list --channel buzz --query "alice" openclaw directory groups list --channel buzz --query "engineering" openclaw directory groups members \ --channel buzz \ --group-id buzz: ``` When the Gateway is connected, directory reads reuse its authenticated Buzz connection and in-memory snapshot. A standalone directory command opens one bounded authenticated connection, loads the current snapshot, and closes it. Ordinary directory errors are logged without reconnecting. If a directory or profile subscription does not reach EOSE within 10 seconds, OpenClaw treats the Buzz relay session as stalled and recycles only that Buzz account connection; the Gateway keeps running. Archived rooms are omitted from directory results and live room subscriptions. If a configured room is archived or restored while OpenClaw is connected, the plugin recycles only its Buzz connection so the subscription set matches the relay's current metadata. The Gateway keeps running. Each configured room uses one room-scoped relay subscription. OpenClaw reserves four of Buzz's 1,024 connection subscriptions for membership notifications and concurrent profile, membership, and metadata queries, so one account can configure up to 1,020 rooms. Near that limit, optional member profile subscriptions are reduced first; directory entries continue to work with stable public keys and deterministic fallback labels. Unique current room names can resolve as outbound targets through OpenClaw's shared directory lookup. The canonical `buzz:` target remains the safest choice for automation and for rooms with duplicate names. ### Route rooms to different agents Standard OpenClaw bindings can send each Buzz room to a different agent, workspace, or model while one Gateway and Buzz bot serve all of them: ```json5 { agents: { list: [ { id: "support", workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace-support" }, { id: "engineering", workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace-engineering" }, ], }, bindings: [ { agentId: "support", match: { channel: "buzz", peer: { kind: "group", id: "buzz:" }, }, }, { agentId: "engineering", match: { channel: "buzz", peer: { kind: "group", id: "buzz:" }, }, }, ], } ``` Without a room-specific binding, normal OpenClaw routing selects the default agent. See [Channel routing](/channels/channel-routing) for matching precedence. ## Access control Buzz applies two independent controls: - **Require mentions**: the agent responds only when the bot is mentioned. - **Sender access**: allow every current member of an approved room, disable room ingress, or additionally restrict room members to selected Buzz public keys. Fresh guided setup allows normal messages from current members of the selected rooms. OpenClaw loads Buzz's relay-signed room roster before accepting messages, checks membership in memory before persistent dedupe or agent work, and refreshes the roster after Buzz membership-change events. There is no per-message relay query or Gateway polling. Use `groupPolicy: "allowlist"` with `groupAllowFrom` in manual configuration when only specific room members should be able to activate the agent. Set `requireMention: true` only when the Buzz client used by those members can address the bot identity. These controls decide who can start an agent run; they do not limit what the routed agent can do after a message is accepted. Treat room messages as untrusted input, and configure that agent's [sandbox and tool policy](/gateway/sandbox-vs-tool-policy-vs-elevated) for the room's trust level. ## Manual configuration Guided setup is recommended. The equivalent configuration looks like: ```json5 { channels: { buzz: { name: "OpenClaw", relayUrl: "wss://buzz.example.com", privateKey: "nsec1...", groupPolicy: "open", groups: { "7c4a6d2a-2ed9-4b4e-a5e2-4d705ee9b34c": { requireMention: false, }, }, defaultTo: "7c4a6d2a-2ed9-4b4e-a5e2-4d705ee9b34c", }, }, } ``` For a narrower sender policy: ```json5 { channels: { buzz: { groupPolicy: "allowlist", groupAllowFrom: ["<64_CHARACTER_HEX_SENDER_PUBLIC_KEY>"], }, }, } ``` Room UUIDs are the canonical targets. Use the UUID shown during discovery or ask a room admin for it. A unique current room name can resolve through the live directory, but automation should use `buzz:` to avoid ambiguity. For manual configuration, `groupAllowFrom` entries must use the 64-character hexadecimal form. ### Bot key storage The default guided path reuses the current bot identity or generates a private key and stores it in `channels.buzz.privateKey`, following OpenClaw's current plaintext config convention. For an existing key, setup can use plaintext or an existing `env`, `file`, or `exec` SecretRef. See [Secrets management](/gateway/secrets) for provider setup. The default account can also read: ```bash export BUZZ_RELAY_URL="wss://buzz.example.com" export BUZZ_PRIVATE_KEY="nsec1..." ``` If a hosted workspace operator gives you an identity authorization value, set `channels.buzz.authTag` or `BUZZ_AUTH_TAG`. It can use the same plaintext or SecretRef forms as the private key. Treat this delegated, reusable value as a secret: keep it out of logs, screenshots, chat, and source control, and prefer a SecretRef for persistent deployments. Request a replacement and revoke the old value whenever the bot identity or relay authorization changes, or if either credential may have been exposed. Self-hosted operators can generate a key manually for recovery or advanced setup: ```bash buzz-admin generate-key ``` ## Verify the connection Run the authenticated channel probe: ```bash openclaw channels status --channel buzz --probe ``` A successful probe confirms that the bot can authenticate and that Buzz reports the selected room with the **Bot** role. Then send a real message: ```bash openclaw message send \ --channel buzz \ --target buzz: \ --message "OpenClaw Buzz test" ``` For a full round trip, have an allowed Buzz user mention the bot and confirm that OpenClaw replies in the room. ### QA Lab round trip Source checkouts can exercise the production Buzz channel path with two dedicated test identities: ```bash pnpm openclaw qa buzz \ --credential-file /secure/path/buzz-qa-credentials.json \ --provider-mode mock-openai ``` The command runs a real relay canary and mention-gating check while using the deterministic mock model. The private JSON credential file contains `relayUrl`, `roomId`, `driverPrivateKey`, and `sutPrivateKey`, plus optional `driverAuthTag` and `sutAuthTag` values for closed relays. Both test public keys must be room members, and the SUT public key must have the **Bot** role. A closed relay may require both public keys to be enrolled separately. Use `--credential-source convex` for pooled QA credentials. Use `wss://` for hosted relays. Plaintext `ws://` credential URLs are accepted only for loopback development relays. Never use a human owner or admin private key. Private keys and optional authorization values are parent-harness secrets and must not appear in logs, artifacts, screenshots, shell history, or source control. ## Rotate the bot identity Bot identity rotation requires admin approval for the new public key: 1. Generate a new dedicated bot identity. 2. Have an admin approve its public key for the relay and every configured room. 3. Replace the configured private key and restart or reload the Gateway. 4. Test outbound and inbound messages. 5. Remove the old public key from the rooms and relay. Complete approval before switching keys to minimize downtime. Rotation is not automatic today. ## Current limits and roadmap These follow-up areas are planned but are not part of the current plugin: - Direct messages - Media and file upload or download - Native emoji reactions - Creating or administering rooms from OpenClaw - Automatic relay membership and room-role approval - Guided bot identity rotation ## Troubleshooting | Symptom | What to check | | -------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | No rooms are discovered | Confirm this exact bot public key is in the room with the **Bot** role, then rerun the same setup command. | | Authentication fails | Check the relay URL, bot private key, closed-relay membership, and any authorization value supplied by the operator. | | A message cannot be sent | Confirm the bot is a room member with the **Bot** role and that the UUID is configured. | | The bot receives messages but does not reply | Confirm the sender is still a room member, then check the optional sender allowlist and mention requirement. | | Setup says the Gateway is not running | Start it with `openclaw gateway`, then run `openclaw channels status --probe`. | | Automatic room discovery expires | Grant the Bot role, then choose Retry; the same identity remains active. | ## Related - [Channel overview](/channels) - [Channel access controls](/channels/groups) - [Secrets management](/gateway/secrets) - [Channel troubleshooting](/channels/troubleshooting)