Connect OpenClaw Agents to Buzz Rooms with the Buzz Channel Plugin

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 text messages from approved Buzz rooms
• Replies in the same room and thread
• Sends text messages through OpenClaw's built-in message tool
• Supports mention requirements and sender allowlists
• Discovers rooms after the bot has been approved
• Reconnects and avoids processing the same message twice

The current plugin supports group rooms and text messages. 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.

Warning

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

openclaw plugins install @openclaw/buzz

Restart the Gateway after installing or updating the plugin.

Guided setup

Run:

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:

buzz channels add-member \
  --channel <ROOM_UUID> \
  --pubkey <BOT_PUBLIC_KEY> \
  --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.

buzz-admin add-member --pubkey <BOT_PUBLIC_KEY> --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
• Send text to an approved Buzz room
• Use the configured default room when a workflow does not specify a target
• Use the routed agent's normal skills, memory, and allowed tools

Humans and automations can test the same outbound path from the CLI:

openclaw message send \
  --channel buzz \
  --target buzz:<ROOM_UUID> \
  --message "Hello from OpenClaw"

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:

{
  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:<SUPPORT_ROOM_UUID>" },
      },
    },
    {
      agentId: "engineering",
      match: {
        channel: "buzz",
        peer: { kind: "group", id: "buzz:<ENGINEERING_ROOM_UUID>" },
      },
    },
  ],
}

Without a room-specific binding, normal OpenClaw routing selects the default agent. See 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 for the room's trust level.

Manual configuration

Guided setup is recommended. The equivalent configuration looks like:

{
  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:

{
  channels: {
    buzz: {
      groupPolicy: "allowlist",
      groupAllowFrom: ["<64_CHARACTER_HEX_SENDER_PUBLIC_KEY>"],
    },
  },
}

Room targets are UUIDs. Use the room UUID shown during discovery or ask a room admin for it; a display name such as general is not a valid target.

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 for provider setup. The default account can also read:

export BUZZ_RELAY_URL="wss://buzz.example.com"
export BUZZ_PRIVATE_KEY="nsec1..."

If a hosted workspace operator provides you with an identity authorization value, configure channels.buzz.authTag or BUZZ_AUTH_TAG. This value supports the same plaintext or SecretRef formats as the private key. Treat this reusable delegated credential as sensitive: exclude it from logs, screenshots, chat, and source control, and use a SecretRef for long-lived deployments. Request a replacement and revoke the old value whenever the bot identity or relay authorization changes, or if either credential may have been compromised.

Self-hosted operators can manually generate a key for recovery or advanced configuration:

buzz-admin generate-key

Verify the connection

Execute the authenticated channel probe:

openclaw channels status --channel buzz --probe

A successful probe verifies that the bot can authenticate and that Buzz reports the selected room with the Bot role.

Then send a real message:

openclaw message send \
  --channel buzz \
  --target buzz:<ROOM_UUID> \
  --message "OpenClaw Buzz test"

For a complete round trip, have an allowed Buzz user mention the bot and verify that OpenClaw replies in the room.

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 reduce downtime. Rotation is not automatic at this time.

Current limits and roadmap

These follow-up areas are planned but are not included in 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

Related

• Channel overview
• Channel access controls
• Secrets management
• Channel troubleshooting