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Multi-agent

Multi-agent routing

Status: active

Run multiple isolated agents in one Gateway process, each with its own workspace, state directory (agentDir), and SQLite-backed session history, plus multiple channel accounts (e.g. two WhatsApp numbers). Inbound messages route to the right agent through bindings.

An agent is the full per-persona scope: workspace files, auth profiles, model registry, and session store. A binding maps a channel account (a Slack workspace, a WhatsApp number, etc.) to one of those agents.

What is one agent

Each agent has its own:

  • Workspace: files, AGENTS.md/SOUL.md/USER.md, local notes, persona rules.
  • State directory (agentDir): auth profiles, model registry, per-agent config.
  • Session store: chat history and routing state in ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/agent/openclaw-agent.sqlite.

Auth profiles are per-agent, read from:

text
~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/agent/auth-profiles.json

Skills load from each agent workspace plus shared roots such as ~/.openclaw/skills, then filter by the effective agent skill allowlist. Use agents.defaults.skills for a shared baseline and agents.list[].skills for a per-agent replacement (explicit entries replace the default, they do not merge). See Skills: per-agent vs shared and Skills: agent allowlists.

Plugin-owned storage follows that plugin's configuration; adding a second agent does not automatically split every global plugin store. For example, configure Memory Wiki per-agent vaults when personas must not share compiled wiki knowledge.

Paths

What Default Override
Config ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json OPENCLAW_CONFIG_PATH
State dir ~/.openclaw OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR
Default agent's workspace ~/.openclaw/workspace (or workspace-<profile> when OPENCLAW_PROFILE is set) agents.list[].workspace, then agents.defaults.workspace, or OPENCLAW_WORKSPACE_DIR
Other agents' workspace <stateDir>/workspace-<agentId> (or <agents.defaults.workspace>/<agentId> when set) agents.list[].workspace
Agent dir ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/agent agents.list[].agentDir
Sessions and transcripts ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/agent/openclaw-agent.sqlite —
Legacy/archive session artifacts ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/sessions —

Single-agent mode (default)

If you configure nothing, OpenClaw runs one agent:

  • agentId defaults to main.
  • Sessions key as agent:main:<mainKey> (default mainKey is main).
  • Workspace defaults to ~/.openclaw/workspace (or workspace-<profile> when OPENCLAW_PROFILE is set to something other than default).
  • State defaults to ~/.openclaw/agents/main/agent.

Agent helper

Add a new isolated agent:

bash
openclaw agents add work

Flags: --workspace <dir>, --model <id>, --agent-dir <dir>, --bind <channel[:accountId]> (repeatable), --non-interactive (requires --workspace).

Add bindings to route inbound messages (the wizard offers to do this for you), then verify:

bash
openclaw agents list --bindings

Quick start

  • Create each agent workspace

    bash
    openclaw agents add codingopenclaw agents add social

    Each agent gets its own workspace with SOUL.md, AGENTS.md, and optional USER.md, plus a dedicated agentDir and session store under ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>.

  • Create channel accounts

    Create one account per agent on your preferred channels:

    • Discord: one bot per agent, enable Message Content Intent, copy each token.
    • Telegram: one bot per agent via BotFather, copy each token.
    • WhatsApp: link each phone number per account.
    bash
    openclaw channels login --channel whatsapp --account work

    See channel guides: Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp.

  • Add agents, accounts, and bindings

    Add agents under agents.list, channel accounts under channels.<channel>.accounts, and connect them with bindings (examples below).

  • Restart and verify

    bash
    openclaw gateway restartopenclaw agents list --bindingsopenclaw channels status --probe

    • Multiple agents, multiple personas

    Each configured agentId is a distinct persona boundary for core agent state:

    • Different accounts per channel (per accountId).
    • Different personalities (per-agent AGENTS.md/SOUL.md).
    • Separate auth and sessions, with cross-agent access enabled only through explicit features or plugin configuration.

    This lets multiple people share one Gateway while keeping core agent state separate.

    Per-agent Memory Wiki vaults

    Memory Wiki uses one global vault by default. To keep a support agent's compiled knowledge separate from a marketing agent's, set plugins.entries.memory-wiki.config.vault.scope to agent:

    json5
    {  plugins: {    entries: {      "memory-wiki": {        enabled: true,        config: {          vault: {            scope: "agent",            path: "~/.openclaw/wiki",          },        },      },    },  },}

    The configured path is the parent directory. OpenClaw appends the normalized agent id, producing paths such as ~/.openclaw/wiki/support and ~/.openclaw/wiki/marketing. Agent-scoped CLI and Gateway operations require an explicit agent when multiple agents are configured. See Memory Wiki per-agent vaults for bridge filtering, migration, and trust-boundary details.

    To let one agent search another agent's QMD session transcripts, add extra collections under agents.list[].memorySearch.qmd.extraCollections. Use agents.defaults.memorySearch.qmd.extraCollections when every agent should share the same collections.

    json5
    {  agents: {    defaults: {      workspace: "~/workspaces/main",      memorySearch: {        qmd: {          extraCollections: [{ path: "~/agents/family/sessions", name: "family-sessions" }],        },      },    },    list: [      {        id: "main",        workspace: "~/workspaces/main",        memorySearch: {          qmd: {            extraCollections: [{ path: "notes" }], // resolves inside workspace -> collection named "notes-main"          },        },      },      { id: "family", workspace: "~/workspaces/family" },    ],  },  memory: {    backend: "qmd",    qmd: { includeDefaultMemory: false },  },}

    An extra-collection path can be shared across agents, but its name stays explicit when the path is outside the agent workspace. Paths inside the workspace stay agent-scoped so each agent keeps its own transcript search set.

    One WhatsApp number, multiple people (DM split)

    Route different WhatsApp DMs to different agents on one WhatsApp account by matching sender E.164 (+15551234567) with peer.kind: "direct". Replies still come from the same WhatsApp number — there is no per-agent sender identity.

    json5
    {  agents: {    list: [      { id: "alex", workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace-alex" },      { id: "mia", workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace-mia" },    ],  },  bindings: [    {      agentId: "alex",      match: { channel: "whatsapp", peer: { kind: "direct", id: "+15551230001" } },    },    {      agentId: "mia",      match: { channel: "whatsapp", peer: { kind: "direct", id: "+15551230002" } },    },  ],  channels: {    whatsapp: {      dmPolicy: "allowlist",      allowFrom: ["+15551230001", "+15551230002"],    },  },}

    DM access control (pairing/allowlist) is global per WhatsApp account, not per agent. For shared groups, bind the group to one agent or use Broadcast groups.

    Routing rules

    Bindings are deterministic and most-specific wins. See Channel routing for the full tier order (exact peer, parent peer, peer wildcard, guild+roles, guild, team, account, channel, default agent). A few rules worth calling out here:

    • If multiple bindings match within the same tier, the first one in config order wins.
    • If a binding sets multiple match fields (for example peer + guildId), all specified fields must match (AND semantics).
    • A binding that omits accountId matches only the default account, not every account. Use accountId: "*" for a channel-wide fallback, or accountId: "<name>" for one account. Adding the same binding again with an explicit account id upgrades the existing channel-only binding instead of duplicating it.

    Multiple accounts / phone numbers

    Channels that support multiple accounts (e.g. WhatsApp) use accountId to identify each login. Each accountId routes to its own agent, so one server can host multiple phone numbers without mixing sessions.

    Set channels.<channel>.defaultAccount to choose the account used when accountId is omitted. When unset, OpenClaw falls back to default if present, otherwise the first configured account id (sorted).

    Channels supporting multiple accounts: discord, feishu, googlechat, imessage, irc, line, mattermost, matrix, nextcloud-talk, nostr, signal, slack, telegram, whatsapp, zalo, zalouser.

    Concepts

    • agentId: one "brain" (workspace, per-agent auth, per-agent session store).
    • accountId: one channel account instance (e.g. WhatsApp account personal vs biz).
    • binding: routes inbound messages to an agentId by (channel, accountId, peer), and optionally guild/team ids.
    • Direct chats collapse to agent:<agentId>:<mainKey> (per-agent "main"; see session.mainKey).

    Platform examples

    Discord bots per agent

    Each Discord bot account maps to a unique accountId. Bind each account to an agent and keep allowlists per bot.

    json5
    {  agents: {    list: [      { id: "main", workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace-main" },      { id: "coding", workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace-coding" },    ],  },  bindings: [    { agentId: "main", match: { channel: "discord", accountId: "default" } },    { agentId: "coding", match: { channel: "discord", accountId: "coding" } },  ],  channels: {    discord: {      groupPolicy: "allowlist",      accounts: {        default: {          token: "DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN_MAIN",          guilds: {            "123456789012345678": {              channels: {                "222222222222222222": { allow: true, requireMention: false },              },            },          },        },        coding: {          token: "DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN_CODING",          guilds: {            "123456789012345678": {              channels: {                "333333333333333333": { allow: true, requireMention: false },              },            },          },        },      },    },  },}
    • Invite each bot to the guild and enable Message Content Intent.
    • Tokens live in channels.discord.accounts.<id>.token (default account can use DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN).
    Telegram bots per agent
    json5
    {  agents: {    list: [      { id: "main", workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace-main" },      { id: "alerts", workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace-alerts" },    ],  },  bindings: [    { agentId: "main", match: { channel: "telegram", accountId: "default" } },    { agentId: "alerts", match: { channel: "telegram", accountId: "alerts" } },  ],  channels: {    telegram: {      accounts: {        default: {          botToken: "123456:ABC...",          dmPolicy: "pairing",        },        alerts: {          botToken: "987654:XYZ...",          dmPolicy: "allowlist",          allowFrom: ["tg:123456789"],        },      },    },  },}
    • Create one bot per agent with BotFather and copy each token.
    • Tokens live in channels.telegram.accounts.<id>.botToken (default account can use TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN).
    • For multiple bots in the same Telegram group, invite each bot and mention the one that should answer.
    • Disable BotFather Privacy Mode for each group bot (/setprivacy -> Disable), then remove and re-add the bot so Telegram applies the setting.
    • Allow groups with channels.telegram.groups, or use groupPolicy: "open" only for trusted group deployments.
    • Put sender user IDs in groupAllowFrom. Group and supergroup IDs belong in channels.telegram.groups, not groupAllowFrom.
    • Bind by accountId so each bot routes to its own agent.
    WhatsApp numbers per agent

    Link each account before starting the gateway:

    bash
    openclaw channels login --channel whatsapp --account personalopenclaw channels login --channel whatsapp --account biz

    ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json (JSON5):

    js
    {  agents: {    list: [      {        id: "home",        default: true,        name: "Home",        workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace-home",        agentDir: "~/.openclaw/agents/home/agent",      },      {        id: "work",        name: "Work",        workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace-work",        agentDir: "~/.openclaw/agents/work/agent",      },    ],  },   // Deterministic routing: first match wins (most-specific first).  bindings: [    { agentId: "home", match: { channel: "whatsapp", accountId: "personal" } },    { agentId: "work", match: { channel: "whatsapp", accountId: "biz" } },     // Optional per-peer override (example: send a specific group to work agent).    {      agentId: "work",      match: {        channel: "whatsapp",        accountId: "personal",        peer: { kind: "group", id: "1203630...@g.us" },      },    },  ],   // Off by default: agent-to-agent messaging must be explicitly enabled + allowlisted.  tools: {    agentToAgent: {      enabled: false,      allow: ["home", "work"],    },  },   channels: {    whatsapp: {      accounts: {        personal: {          // Optional override. Default: ~/.openclaw/credentials/whatsapp/personal          // authDir: "~/.openclaw/credentials/whatsapp/personal",        },        biz: {          // Optional override. Default: ~/.openclaw/credentials/whatsapp/biz          // authDir: "~/.openclaw/credentials/whatsapp/biz",        },      },    },  },}

    Common patterns

    WhatsApp daily + Telegram deep work

    Split by channel: route WhatsApp to a fast everyday agent and Telegram to an Opus agent.

    json5
    {  agents: {    list: [      {        id: "chat",        name: "Everyday",        workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace-chat",        model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",      },      {        id: "opus",        name: "Deep Work",        workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace-opus",        model: "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6",      },    ],  },  bindings: [    { agentId: "chat", match: { channel: "whatsapp", accountId: "*" } },    { agentId: "opus", match: { channel: "telegram", accountId: "*" } },  ],}

    These examples use accountId: "*" so the bindings keep working if you add accounts later. To route a single DM/group to Opus while keeping the rest on chat, add a match.peer binding for that peer — peer matches always win over channel-wide rules.

    Same channel, one peer to Opus

    Keep WhatsApp on the fast agent, but route one DM to Opus:

    json5
    {  agents: {    list: [      {        id: "chat",        name: "Everyday",        workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace-chat",        model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",      },      {        id: "opus",        name: "Deep Work",        workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace-opus",        model: "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6",      },    ],  },  bindings: [    {      agentId: "opus",      match: { channel: "whatsapp", accountId: "*", peer: { kind: "direct", id: "+15551234567" } },    },    { agentId: "chat", match: { channel: "whatsapp", accountId: "*" } },  ],}

    Peer bindings always win, so keep them above the channel-wide rule.

    Family agent bound to a WhatsApp group

    Bind a dedicated family agent to a single WhatsApp group, with mention gating and a tighter tool policy:

    json5
    {  agents: {    list: [      {        id: "family",        name: "Family",        workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace-family",        identity: { name: "Family Bot" },        groupChat: {          mentionPatterns: ["@family", "@familybot", "@Family Bot"],        },        sandbox: {          mode: "all",          scope: "agent",        },        tools: {          allow: [            "exec",            "read",            "sessions_list",            "sessions_history",            "sessions_send",            "sessions_spawn",            "session_status",          ],          deny: ["write", "edit", "apply_patch", "browser", "canvas", "nodes", "cron"],        },      },    ],  },  bindings: [    {      agentId: "family",      match: {        channel: "whatsapp",        peer: { kind: "group", id: "120363999999999999@g.us" },      },    },  ],}

    Tool allow/deny lists are tools, not skills. If a skill needs to run a binary, ensure exec is allowed and the binary exists in the sandbox. For stricter gating, set agents.list[].groupChat.mentionPatterns and keep group allowlists enabled for the channel.

    Per-agent sandbox and tool configuration

    Each agent can have its own sandbox and tool restrictions:

    js
    {  agents: {    list: [      {        id: "personal",        workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace-personal",        sandbox: {          mode: "off",  // No sandbox for personal agent        },        // No tool restrictions - all tools available      },      {        id: "family",        workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace-family",        sandbox: {          mode: "all",     // Always sandboxed          scope: "agent",  // One container per agent          docker: {            // Optional one-time setup after container creation            setupCommand: "apt-get update && apt-get install -y git curl",          },        },        tools: {          allow: ["read"],                    // Only read tool          deny: ["exec", "write", "edit", "apply_patch"],    // Deny others        },      },    ],  },}

    This gives you:

    • Security isolation: restrict tools for untrusted agents.
    • Resource control: sandbox specific agents while keeping others on host.
    • Flexible policies: different permissions per agent.

    See Multi-agent sandbox and tools for detailed examples.

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