Fix Discord Bot Not Replying

OpenClaw processes your message internally (you may see lane task done in the logs) but the reply delivery fails silently. This page covers the three most common causes.

What You Might See in Logs

The gateway processes the task (lane task done) but the delivery step fails because Discord rejected the message or the channel reference is invalid.

Fix A: Enable Message Content Intent (Most Common)

Without the Message Content Intent, Discord does not send message content to your bot. OpenClaw receives the event but cannot read the message text, so it processes an empty message and sends a confusing or empty reply — or no reply at all.

After enabling the intent:

openclaw gateway restart

Fix B: Resolve Channel Binding Failure

At startup, OpenClaw resolves Discord channel IDs. If the bot doesn't have access to a channel listed in the config, you'll see discord channels unresolved in the logs and that channel silently fails.

Check Your Channel Config

Your openclaw.json Discord channel section should look like:

{
  "channels": {
    "discord": {
      "guilds": {
        "YOUR_SERVER_ID": {
          "channels": {
            "YOUR_CHANNEL_ID": {
              "allow": true
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Fix C: Check requireMention Setting

By default, OpenClaw may only respond when the bot is mentioned (@BotName). If you want the bot to respond to all messages in a channel:

{
  "channels": {
    "discord": {
      "requireMention": false
    }
  }
}

Required Discord Bot Permissions

Still Not Working?

Follow the gateway logs in real-time while sending a test message:

openclaw logs --follow | grep -i discord