Bug type

Behavior bug / message ordering regression

Summary

In Telegram direct chats with channels.telegram.streaming.mode = "progress", the progress bubble/status preview is created near the start of the turn and then remains above later assistant-visible messages and the final answer.

As a result, the progress bubble looks stale and out of order: the user sees the progress/status container higher in the chat, while later assistant text appears below it. This is confusing for normal OpenClaw conversations because the progress indicator no longer tracks the visible turn flow.

This appears to be a regression from an earlier version where the progress UX did not leave the progress/status bubble stranded above later messages.

Environment

• OpenClaw: 2026.6.1 (2e08f0f)
• Channel: Telegram direct chat
• Model/session: openai/gpt-5.5 via OpenAI Codex runtime
• Telegram streaming config:

{
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "streaming": {
        "mode": "progress"
      }
    }
  }
}

Steps to reproduce

1. Configure Telegram streaming mode as progress.
2. Use a Telegram direct chat session pinned to openai/gpt-5.5.
3. Send a request that takes long enough for the progress bubble/status preview to appear.
4. Let the assistant produce normal visible text/final response after the progress bubble has been created.
5. Observe the Telegram message order.

Expected behavior

The progress bubble should either:

• be updated/removed/resolved so it does not remain as a stale message above later assistant output, or
• be positioned/handled so the final visible answer appears in a coherent order relative to progress/status output.

In progress mode, the chat history should not leave an old progress bubble above newer assistant messages in a way that makes the turn appear out of order.

Actual behavior

The progress bubble is created first and remains above subsequent assistant-visible messages/final response. Later text appears below it, so the progress indicator stays higher in the chat and visually looks stale/out of order.

Related issues

• Related but closed older ordering issue: Telegram: Final assistant reply appears above tool call progress messages (streaming mode) #77727 (Telegram: Final assistant reply appears above tool call progress messages)
• Related stale-preview issue, but for reasoning previews: Telegram uses multiple sendMessage previews instead of editMessageText, leaving stale reasoning messages #80862
• Related progress/status leakage issue, but for disabled progress: [Bug]: Internal tool/status messages leak into Telegram chat even when streaming/tool progress is disabled #79804
• Related Telegram progress-preview product request: Feature: Telegram temporary tool-progress previews with final native quote replies #82089

This report is specifically about normal Telegram direct-chat progress streaming on openai/gpt-5.5 / OpenClaw 2026.6.1, where channels.telegram.streaming.mode = "progress" is enabled and the progress bubble remains above subsequent assistant-visible messages.