Bug type

Regression (worked before, now fails)

Summary

In the OpenClaw web control UI, internal control outputs such as NO_REPLY are sometimes rendered as normal visible assistant messages.

Steps to reproduce

1. Use the web-based openclaw-control-ui chat surface.
2. Trigger maintenance/system turns such as pre-compaction memory flushes or other internal control-only responses.
3. Observe the rendered assistant output in the chat UI.
4. In affected cases, the UI shows a line like "NO" before the actual reply, or directly shows tokens like "NO_REPLY".

Expected behavior

Users should only see the actual assistant reply content. Internal control tokens such as NO_REPLY, HEARTBEAT_OK, or reply tags should be filtered out and never rendered in visible chat bubbles.

Actual behavior

The web control UI sometimes displays internal control content as visible chat output. Users may see:

NO

or directly see NO_REPLY.

This exposes internal protocol details and makes replies look malformed.

OpenClaw version

2026.3.2

Operating system

Windows 10 (webchat / openclaw-control-ui)

Install method

npm global

Logs, screenshots, and evidence

Impact and severity

Affected: webchat users in openclaw-control-ui
Severity: Medium
Frequency: Reproducible across multiple maintenance turns
Consequence: Visible reply formatting is corrupted and internal control/protocol details leak into the user-facing chat stream.

Additional information

Likely a frontend/control UI rendering issue rather than core assistant content generation. Possible causes: internal control-only outputs are being rendered as normal chat bubbles, or NO_REPLY is being partially displayed/truncated as NO.