[Bug]: Slack top level messages treated as new treads for every message, losing all history and context #32103
Description
Bug type
Regression (worked before, now fails)
Summary
every message in slack is treated by openclaw as a new thread
Steps to reproduce
- configure channel slack
- talk to the bot in a single channel, no threads
- bot gets confused
Expected behavior
yesterday, i had a slack chat for 12+ hours with my bot, and everything was continuous and perfect
today i talk to the bot .. the bot says ok we have 2 options A or B
i choose choose option B
The bot says "I don't have context on what "Option B" refers to — I don't see a prior conversation in this session laying out options A and B.
Can you remind me what we were choosing between? I want to make sure I log the right decision and move forward correctly."
basically have any conversation over slack ... and every few messages (it doesn't seem like every time .. but a lot ... 7 sessions in like 13 minutes) the bot has amnesia and gets lost.
i tracked it down to sessions and "new threads"
i expect a consistent conversation like yesterday.
Actual behavior
i ran openclaw update this morning
now when i try to talk to the bot for 15 minutes i have 7 different sessions.
(i don't remember how to reproduce everything with krill, you can probably find my ticket twizz0742 in discord.
the gist is every top level message sent is being treated like a new thread by openclaw, and the curl command above was to test and prove that slack is not sending thread_ts or other thread markers. i'm happy to work with a dev and help any way i can.
OpenClaw version
2026.3.01
Operating system
Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS Release: 24.04 Codename: noble
Install method
No response
Logs, screenshots, and evidence
sessions:
[agent:main:slack:channel:c0ahh4n47u4:thread:1772470493.555199](http://127.0.0.1:18789/chat?session=agent%3Amain%3Aslack%3Achannel%3Ac0ahh4n47u4%3Athread%3A1772470493.555199)
[agent:main:slack:channel:c0ahh4n47u4:thread:1772470074.297379](http://127.0.0.1:18789/chat?session=agent%3Amain%3Aslack%3Achannel%3Ac0ahh4n47u4%3Athread%3A1772470074.297379)
[agent:main:slack:channel:c0ahh4n47u4:thread:1772469876.806819](http://127.0.0.1:18789/chat?session=agent%3Amain%3Aslack%3Achannel%3Ac0ahh4n47u4%3Athread%3A1772469876.806819)
[agent:main:slack:channel:c0ahh4n47u4:thread:1772469509.754209](http://127.0.0.1:18789/chat?session=agent%3Amain%3Aslack%3Achannel%3Ac0ahh4n47u4%3Athread%3A1772469509.754209)
[agent:main:slack:channel:c0ahh4n47u4:thread:1772469375.176739](http://127.0.0.1:18789/chat?session=agent%3Amain%3Aslack%3Achannel%3Ac0ahh4n47u4%3Athread%3A1772469375.176739)
[agent:main:slack:channel:c0ahh4n47u4:thread:1772469419.665139](http://127.0.0.1:18789/chat?session=agent%3Amain%3Aslack%3Achannel%3Ac0ahh4n47u4%3Athread%3A1772469419.665139)
[agent:main:slack:channel:c0ahh4n47u4:thread:1772469194.349199](http://127.0.0.1:18789/chat?session=agent%3Amain%3Aslack%3Achannel%3Ac0ahh4n47u4%3Athread%3A1772469194.349199)
- Version: 2026.3.1 (regressed from 2026.2.26)
-
- ` curl -sS -G https://slack.com/api/conversations.replies \
> -H "Authorization: Bearer $SLACK_BOT_TOKEN" \
> --data-urlencode channel=C0AHH4N47U4 \
> --data-urlencode ts=1772469375.176739 \
> | jq '{ok, error, count: (.messages|length), thread_fields: (.messages // [] | map({ts, thread_ts, parent_user_id, subtype}))}'`
output
`{
"ok": true,
"error": null,
"count": 1,
"thread_fields": [
{
"ts": "1772469375.176739",
"thread_ts": null,
"parent_user_id": null,
"subtype": null
}
]
}`Impact and severity
No response
Additional information
No response