Access groups are named sender lists you define once under accessGroups and reference from channel allowlists with accessGroup:<name>.

Use them when the same people should be allowed across several message channels, or when one trusted set should apply to both DMs and group sender authorization.

A group grants nothing by itself. It only matters where an allowlist field references it.

Static message sender groups

Static sender groups use type: "message.senders". members is keyed by message-channel id, plus "*" for entries shared by every channel:

{
  accessGroups: {
    operators: {
      type: "message.senders",
      members: {
        "*": ["global-owner-id"],
        discord: ["discord:123456789012345678"],
        telegram: ["987654321"],
        whatsapp: ["+15551234567"],
      },
    },
  },
}

Entries are matched with the destination channel's normal allowFrom rules. OpenClaw does not translate sender ids between channels: if Alice has a Telegram id and a Discord id, list both ids under the matching channel keys.

Reference groups from allowlists

Reference a group with accessGroup:<name> anywhere the message channel path supports sender allowlists.

DM allowlist example:

{
  accessGroups: {
    operators: {
      type: "message.senders",
      members: {
        discord: ["discord:123456789012345678"],
        telegram: ["987654321"],
      },
    },
  },
  channels: {
    discord: {
      dmPolicy: "allowlist",
      allowFrom: ["accessGroup:operators"],
    },
    telegram: {
      dmPolicy: "allowlist",
      allowFrom: ["accessGroup:operators"],
    },
  },
}

Group sender allowlist example:

{
  accessGroups: {
    oncall: {
      type: "message.senders",
      members: {
        whatsapp: ["+15551234567"],
        googlechat: ["users/1234567890"],
      },
    },
  },
  channels: {
    whatsapp: {
      groupPolicy: "allowlist",
      groupAllowFrom: ["accessGroup:oncall"],
    },
    googlechat: {
      groups: {
        "spaces/AAA": {
          users: ["accessGroup:oncall"],
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

You can mix groups and direct entries:

{
  channels: {
    discord: {
      dmPolicy: "allowlist",
      allowFrom: ["accessGroup:operators", "discord:123456789012345678"],
    },
  },
}

Supported message-channel paths

Access groups work in the shared message-channel authorization paths:

• DM sender allowlists such as channels.<channel>.allowFrom
• group sender allowlists such as channels.<channel>.groupAllowFrom
• channel-specific per-room sender allowlists that use the same sender matching rules (for example Google Chat groups.<space>.users)
• command authorization paths that reuse message-channel sender allowlists

Channel support depends on whether that channel is wired through the shared OpenClaw sender-authorization helpers. Current bundled support includes ClickClack, Discord, Feishu, Google Chat, iMessage, IRC, LINE, Mattermost, Microsoft Teams, Nextcloud Talk, Nostr, QQ Bot, Signal, Slack, SMS, Telegram, WhatsApp, Zalo, and Zalo Personal. Static message.senders groups are channel-agnostic, so new message channels get them by using the shared plugin SDK ingress helpers instead of custom allowlist expansion.

Discord channel audiences

Discord also supports a dynamic access group type:

{
  accessGroups: {
    maintainers: {
      type: "discord.channelAudience",
      guildId: "1456350064065904867",
      channelId: "1456744319972282449",
      membership: "canViewChannel",
    },
  },
  channels: {
    discord: {
      dmPolicy: "allowlist",
      allowFrom: ["accessGroup:maintainers"],
    },
  },
}

discord.channelAudience means "allow Discord DM senders who can currently view this guild channel." OpenClaw resolves the sender through Discord at authorization time and applies Discord ViewChannel permission rules. membership is optional and defaults to canViewChannel.

Use this when a Discord channel is already the source of truth for a team, such as #maintainers or #on-call.

Requirements and failure behavior:

• The bot needs access to the guild and channel.
• The bot needs the Discord Developer Portal Server Members Intent.
• The access group fails closed when Discord returns Missing Access, the sender cannot be resolved as a guild member, or the channel belongs to another guild.

More Discord-specific examples: Discord access control

Plugin diagnostics

Plugin authors can inspect structured access-group state without expanding it back into a flat allowlist:

import { resolveAccessGroupAllowFromState } from "openclaw/plugin-sdk/access-groups";

const state = await resolveAccessGroupAllowFromState({
  accessGroups: cfg.accessGroups,
  allowFrom: channelConfig.allowFrom,
  channel: "my-channel",
  accountId: "default",
  senderId,
  isSenderAllowed,
});

The result reports referenced, matched, missing, unsupported, and failed groups. Use it for diagnostics or conformance tests. Use expandAllowFromWithAccessGroups(...) only for compatibility paths that still expect a flat allowFrom array.

Security notes

• Access groups are allowlist aliases, not roles. They do not create owners, approve pairing requests, or grant tool permissions by themselves.
• dmPolicy: "open" still requires "*" in the effective DM allowlist. Referencing an access group is not the same as public access.
• Missing group names fail closed. If allowFrom contains accessGroup:operators and accessGroups.operators is absent, that entry authorizes nobody.
• Keep channel ids stable. Prefer numeric/user ids over display names when the channel supports both.

Troubleshooting

If a sender should match but is blocked:

1. Confirm the allowlist field contains the exact accessGroup:<name> reference.
2. Confirm accessGroups.<name>.type is correct.
3. Confirm the sender id is listed under the matching channel key, or under "*".
4. Confirm the entry uses that channel's normal allowlist syntax.
5. For Discord channel audiences, confirm the bot can see the guild channel and has Server Members Intent enabled.

Run openclaw doctor after editing access-control config. It catches many invalid allowlist and policy combinations before runtime.

Source: docs/channels/access-groups.md