Progress Drafts: Live Status Updates for Agent Runs

Progress drafts convert a single channel message into a live status line while an agent is running, rather than posting multiple temporary "still working" messages. When channels.<channel>.streaming.mode: "progress" is set and OpenClaw begins actual work, it creates the message, updates it as the agent reads, plans, uses tools, or waits for approval, and finally transforms it into the completed response.

Working...
📖 from docs/concepts/progress-drafts.md
🔎 Web Search: for "discord edit message"
🛠️ Bash: run tests

Note

Discord already uses streaming.mode: "progress" by default when channels.discord.streaming is not configured, so progress drafts appear there without any setup. All other channels default to partial or off; the full per-channel default table is in Streaming and chunking.

Quick start

{
  channels: {
    discord: {
      streaming: {
        mode: "progress",
      },
    },
  },
}

The defaults are: a 5 second start delay, compact progress lines while the agent is doing useful work, and suppression of older standalone progress messages for that turn. Raw tool line drafts use an automatic single word label; a status headline omits that redundant title unless you explicitly provide one.

This page describes the progress draft experience and its configuration options. For the complete streaming mode matrix, per channel runtime notes, and legacy key migration, see Streaming and chunking.

What users see

For raw tool progress, the label appears once the agent starts meaningful work and remains busy for the initial delay. It sits at the top of the rolling progress line list, so it scrolls away once enough concrete work lines appear. A status headline shows only the agent's plain language status unless a label is explicitly configured. Plain text only replies never show a progress draft; a line appears only for real work updates, for example 🛠️ Bash: run tests, 🔎 Web Search: for "discord edit message", or ✍️ Write: to /tmp/file.

The final answer replaces the draft in place when the channel can safely do that; otherwise OpenClaw sends the final answer through normal delivery and cleans up or stops updating the draft (see Finalization).

Choose a mode

channels.<channel>.streaming.mode controls the visible in progress behavior:

Choose progress when users care more about "what is happening" than watching answer text stream token by token; partial when the answer text itself is the progress signal; block for larger preview chunks. On Discord and Telegram, streaming.mode: "block" is still preview streaming, not normal block reply delivery, use streaming.block.enabled for that.

Configure labels

Progress labels are located under channels.<channel>.streaming.progress. The default raw tool line label is "auto", which uses the plain built in Working label. A status headline hides that implicit label; set label: "auto" explicitly if you want a label above it too:

Working

Use a fixed label:

{
  channels: {
    discord: {
      streaming: {
        mode: "progress",
        progress: {
          label: "Investigating",
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Use your own label pool (still picked at random or by seed when label: "auto"):

{
  channels: {
    discord: {
      streaming: {
        mode: "progress",
        progress: {
          label: "auto",
          labels: ["Checking", "Reading", "Testing", "Finishing"],
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Hide the label and show only progress lines:

{
  channels: {
    discord: {
      streaming: {
        mode: "progress",
        progress: {
          label: false,
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Control progress lines

Progress lines come from real run events: tool starts, item updates, task plans, approvals, command output, patch summaries, and similar agent activity. They are enabled by default (progress.toolProgress, default true).

Tools can also emit typed progress while a single call is still running. That is how a slow fetch or search updates the visible draft before the tool returns its final result. The progress update is a partial tool result with empty model content and explicit public channel metadata:

{
  "content": [],
  "progress": {
    "text": "Fetching page content...",
    "visibility": "channel",
    "privacy": "public",
    "id": "web_fetch:fetching"
  }
}

OpenClaw renders only progress.text in the channel progress UI. The normal tool result still arrives later as content or details and is the only part returned to the model.

When adding progress to a tool, emit a short, generic message and delay it until the operation has been pending long enough to be useful. web_fetch does exactly this with a 5 second delay:

const clearProgressTimer = scheduleToolProgress(
  onUpdate,
  { text: "Fetching page content...", id: "web_fetch:fetching" },
  5_000,
  { signal },
);

try {
  return await runToolWork();
} finally {
  clearProgressTimer();
}

Fast calls show no progress line; long calls show one while still pending; canceled calls clear the timer before stale progress can appear. Progress text is a public UI side channel, so it must never include secrets, raw arguments, fetched content, command output, or page text.

Detail mode

OpenClaw uses the same formatter for progress drafts and /verbose:

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      toolProgressDetail: "explain", // explain | raw
    },
  },
}

"explain" is the default and keeps drafts stable with concise labels. "raw" appends the underlying command when available, which is useful while debugging but noisier in chat. For example, a node --check /tmp/app.js call renders differently by mode:

Command/exec text

streaming.progress.commandText (default "raw") determines how much command detail appears next to exec/bash progress lines, separate from the detail mode described earlier. Setting it to "status" keeps a tool progress line visible while completely hiding the command text:

{
  channels: {
    discord: {
      streaming: {
        mode: "progress",
        progress: {
          commandText: "status",
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Commentary lane

streaming.progress.commentary (default false) inserts the model's pre-tool commentary and preamble narration (💬, such as "I'll check... then...") between tool lines in the draft. See Streaming and chunking for the shared configuration structure across channels.

When the commentary lane is enabled, preambles appear only as those interleaved 💬 lines. The status headline below stays out of the way, preserving the lane's documented shape.

Status headline

On Discord and Telegram in progress mode, the model's typed pre-tool preamble becomes the draft's status headline whenever available. Other progress mode channels keep their existing status behavior. The headline is enabled by default and does not bypass the normal activity gate for short turns. Enabling streaming.progress.commentary sends preambles to the interleaved commentary lane instead.

On Discord, when a utility model resolves for the agent (either an explicit utilityModel or the primary provider's declared small model default: OpenAI → gpt-5.6-luna, Anthropic → claude-haiku-4-5), it provides a short plain language filler when the model emits no preamble or has been silent for roughly 20 seconds. Telegram's headline currently uses preamble only:

Updating the default model in your config, then restarting the gateway to pick
it up. One agent listing call failed and is being retried.

Utility narration is enabled by default (streaming.progress.narration, default true) and never falls back to the primary model. It runs only with an explicit utilityModel or a provider declared default for the agent's primary provider. Set utilityModel: "" to disable utility routing entirely. Tool lines continue accumulating underneath and return if both status sources stop. Draft edits still wait for the normal activity gate and an actual text change, preventing flashes on fast turns and reducing edit churn in busy channels. Set narration: false to disable only the utility model filler; model preamble headlines remain enabled:

{
  channels: {
    discord: {
      streaming: {
        mode: "progress",
        progress: {
          narration: false,
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Narration input is bounded and redacted. The utility model receives the inbound request text plus the same compact, redacted tool summaries the draft would render, never raw command output or tool results. With commandText: "status", narration input also omits exec/bash command text, matching what the draft shows.

Line limits

Limit the number of visible lines (default 8):

{
  channels: {
    discord: {
      streaming: {
        mode: "progress",
        progress: {
          maxLines: 4,
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Progress lines are compacted automatically to reduce chat bubble reflow during draft editing. OpenClaw truncates long lines so repeated draft edits do not wrap differently on each update. The default per line budget is 120 characters. Prose cuts at a word boundary, while long details like paths or raw commands are shortened with a middle ellipsis so the suffix remains visible.

Tune the per line budget:

{
  channels: {
    discord: {
      streaming: {
        mode: "progress",
        progress: {
          maxLineChars: 160,
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Rich rendering (Slack)

Slack can render progress lines as structured Block Kit fields instead of plain text:

{
  channels: {
    slack: {
      streaming: {
        mode: "progress",
        progress: {
          render: "rich",
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Rich rendering always sends the same plain text body alongside the Block Kit fields, so clients that cannot render the richer shape still show the compact progress text.

Hide tool/task lines

Keep the single progress draft but hide tool and task lines:

{
  channels: {
    discord: {
      streaming: {
        mode: "progress",
        progress: {
          toolProgress: false,
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

With toolProgress: false, OpenClaw still suppresses the older standalone tool progress messages for that turn. The channel stays visually quiet until the final answer, except for the label if one is configured.

Channel behavior

Channels without safe edit support fall back to typing indicators or final only delivery. See Streaming and chunking for the full runtime behavior breakdown per channel.

Finalization

When the final answer is ready, OpenClaw tries to keep the chat clean:

• In progress mode on Discord, the final answer is sent as a fresh message with a small -# activity receipt appended (for example -# 🧠 2 thoughts · 🛠️ 5 tool calls · ⏱️ 12s), and the status draft is deleted once that answer is delivered. Busy channels keep no orphaned tool log above the reply. Error finals keep the draft as the visible record of the failed turn.
• If the draft can safely become the final answer (partial/block modes), OpenClaw edits it in place.
• If the channel uses native progress streaming, OpenClaw finalizes that stream when the native transport accepts the final text.
• Otherwise (media, an approval prompt, an explicit reply target, too many chunks, or a failed edit/send) OpenClaw sends the final answer through the normal channel delivery path instead of overwriting the draft.

The fallback is intentional. Sending a fresh final answer beats losing text, mis threading a reply, or overwriting a draft with a payload the channel cannot represent safely.

Troubleshooting

I only see the final answer.

Check that channels.<channel>.streaming.mode is progress for the account or channel that handled the message. Some group or quote reply paths disable draft previews for a turn when the channel cannot safely edit the right message.

I see the label but no tool lines.

Check streaming.progress.toolProgress. If it is false, OpenClaw keeps the single draft behavior but hides tool and task progress lines.

I see a fresh final message instead of an edited draft.

That is the safety fallback described in Finalization. It can happen for media replies, long answers, explicit reply targets, old Telegram drafts, missing Slack thread targets, deleted preview messages, or failed native stream finalization.

I still see standalone progress messages.

Progress mode suppresses default standalone tool progress messages whenever a draft is active. If standalone messages still appear, confirm the turn is actually using progress mode and not streaming.mode: "off" or a channel path that cannot create a draft for that message.

Teams behaves differently from Discord or Telegram.

Microsoft Teams uses a native stream in personal chats instead of the generic send and edit preview transport, and maps streaming.mode: "block" to Teams block delivery because it has no draft preview block mode like Discord and Telegram.

Related

• Chunking and streaming
• Message handling
• Channel setup
• Discord integration
• Matrix support
• Microsoft Teams connection
• Slack configuration
• Telegram setup
• Mattermost integration