fix(ui): strip injected inbound metadata from user messages in history by Mellowambience · Pull Request #22142 · openclaw/openclaw

Mellowambience · 2026-02-20T19:36:44Z

Summary

OpenClaw prepends structured metadata blocks (Conversation info, Sender:, reply-context) to user messages before sending them to the LLM. These blocks are intentionally AI-context-only and must never reach the chat history that users see.

Root Cause

buildInboundUserContextPrefix in inbound-meta.ts prepends the blocks directly to the stored user message content string, so they are persisted verbatim and later shown in webchat, TUI, and every other rendering surface.

Fix

src/auto-reply/reply/strip-inbound-meta.ts — new utility with a 6-sentinel fast-path strip (zero-alloc on miss) + 9-test suite.

src/tui/tui-session-actions.ts — wraps chatLog.addUser(...) with stripInboundMetadata() so the TUI never stores the prefix.

ui/src/ui/chat/message-normalizer.ts — strips user-role text content items during normalisation so webchat renders clean messages.

Change Type

Bug fix

Scope

UI/UX
TUI

Linked Issues

Fixes #21106
Fixes #21109
Fixes #22116

🤖 AI-Assisted: Yes (via OpenClaw / MIST)

Note: This is a clean resubmission of the previously closed PR #21138. The original branch had accumulated unrelated commits from the fork — this branch contains only the 4 relevant files.

Greptile Summary

Implements metadata stripping across all UI surfaces (TUI, webchat, Swift) to prevent AI-context-only metadata blocks from appearing in user-visible chat history.

Key Changes:

Created stripInboundMetadata() utility with fast-path optimization (zero-alloc when no metadata present) and comprehensive test suite
Applied stripping in 4 locations: TUI session actions, webchat message normalizer, webchat message extractor, and Swift ChatViewModel
Swift and TypeScript implementations use identical line-by-line state machine parsers
Strips 6 sentinel types: Conversation info, Sender, Thread starter, Replied message, Forwarded message, Chat history

Observations:

TypeScript version splits on \n only, while Swift normalizes \r\n to \n first - potential inconsistency if messages contain CRLF line endings
All 6 sentinels match those defined in buildInboundUserContextPrefix() in inbound-meta.ts:103-189
Fast-path regex prevents unnecessary parsing when no sentinels are present

Confidence Score: 4/5

This PR is safe to merge with minor concerns around line ending handling
The implementation correctly strips metadata from user messages across all platforms (TypeScript, Swift, TUI, webchat). The core logic is sound with comprehensive test coverage (9 tests for TS, 3 tests for Swift). However, the TypeScript implementation lacks CRLF normalization that the Swift version includes, which could cause issues if messages contain Windows-style line endings.
Pay attention to src/auto-reply/reply/strip-inbound-meta.ts for potential line ending edge case

_{Last reviewed commit: deb3674}

chatgpt-codex-connector · 2026-02-20T19:36:50Z

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vincentkoc · 2026-02-20T23:55:17Z

Implemented on this PR:

Normalized message extraction for user messages to apply inbound metadata stripping in UI chat extraction path (ui/src/ui/chat/message-extract.ts).
Preserved indentation semantics in metadata trimming (src/auto-reply/reply/strip-inbound-meta.ts) and added regression coverage.
Kept PR formatting-clean via oxfmt@0.33.0 and added follow-up visibility in canonical issue.

Closed duplicate cluster items remain tracked at canonical issue #21109:

21106, 22116, 22156, 22202, 21030, 19718, 20297, and PR 21121.

Open/scope-overlap relateds remain on hold: #20903, #20807.

Post-merge follow-up surfaces (still monitored): #21643, #21548, #22147.

greptile-apps

_{8 files reviewed, 1 comment}

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vincentkoc · 2026-02-21T01:14:21Z

@greptileai review

greptile-apps

_{10 files reviewed, 1 comment}

_{Edit Code Review Agent Settings | Greptile}

Fixes openclaw#21106 Fixes openclaw#21109 Fixes openclaw#22116 OpenClaw prepends structured metadata blocks ("Conversation info", "Sender:", reply-context) to user messages before sending them to the LLM. These blocks are intentionally AI-context-only and must never reach the chat history that users see. Root cause: `buildInboundUserContextPrefix` in `inbound-meta.ts` prepends the blocks directly to the stored user message content string, so they are persisted verbatim and later shown in webchat, TUI, and every other rendering surface. Fix: • `src/auto-reply/reply/strip-inbound-meta.ts` — new utility with a 6-sentinel fast-path strip (zero-alloc on miss) + 9-test suite. • `src/tui/tui-session-actions.ts` — wraps `chatLog.addUser(...)` with `stripInboundMetadata()` so the TUI never stores the prefix. • `ui/src/ui/chat/message-normalizer.ts` — strips user-role text content items during normalisation so webchat renders clean messages.

openclaw#22142) * fix(ui): strip injected inbound metadata from user messages in history Fixes openclaw#21106 Fixes openclaw#21109 Fixes openclaw#22116 OpenClaw prepends structured metadata blocks ("Conversation info", "Sender:", reply-context) to user messages before sending them to the LLM. These blocks are intentionally AI-context-only and must never reach the chat history that users see. Root cause: `buildInboundUserContextPrefix` in `inbound-meta.ts` prepends the blocks directly to the stored user message content string, so they are persisted verbatim and later shown in webchat, TUI, and every other rendering surface. Fix: • `src/auto-reply/reply/strip-inbound-meta.ts` — new utility with a 6-sentinel fast-path strip (zero-alloc on miss) + 9-test suite. • `src/tui/tui-session-actions.ts` — wraps `chatLog.addUser(...)` with `stripInboundMetadata()` so the TUI never stores the prefix. • `ui/src/ui/chat/message-normalizer.ts` — strips user-role text content items during normalisation so webchat renders clean messages. * fix(ui): strip inbound metadata for user messages in display path * test: fix discord component send test spread typing * fix: strip inbound metadata from mac chat history decode * fix: align Swift metadata stripping parser with TS implementation * fix: normalize line endings in inbound metadata stripper * chore: document Swift/TS metadata-sentinel ownership * chore: update changelog for inbound metadata strip fix * changelog: credit Mellowambience for 22142 --------- Co-authored-by: Vincent Koc <vincentkoc@ieee.org>

openclaw-barnacle Bot added app: web-ui App: web-ui size: S labels Feb 20, 2026

openclaw-barnacle Bot added size: M and removed size: S labels Feb 20, 2026

vincentkoc force-pushed the fix/strip-inbound-metadata-v2 branch 2 times, most recently from 5015afa to 961f631 Compare February 20, 2026 23:52

vincentkoc force-pushed the fix/strip-inbound-metadata-v2 branch from 961f631 to 3b62f4e Compare February 21, 2026 00:18

openclaw-barnacle Bot added the channel: discord Channel integration: discord label Feb 21, 2026

vincentkoc self-assigned this Feb 21, 2026

greptile-apps Bot reviewed Feb 21, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread src/discord/send.components.test.ts Outdated

greptile-apps Bot reviewed Feb 21, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread src/auto-reply/reply/strip-inbound-meta.ts

vincentkoc force-pushed the fix/strip-inbound-metadata-v2 branch from b9cc688 to 828aa83 Compare February 21, 2026 01:22

Mellowambience and others added 6 commits February 20, 2026 17:32

fix(ui): strip inbound metadata for user messages in display path

7a1459f

test: fix discord component send test spread typing

61113fa

fix: strip inbound metadata from mac chat history decode

b67a7b7

fix: align Swift metadata stripping parser with TS implementation

e79fc79

fix: normalize line endings in inbound metadata stripper

ae36c8b

vincentkoc added 2 commits February 20, 2026 17:33

chore: document Swift/TS metadata-sentinel ownership

6da6a9a

chore: update changelog for inbound metadata strip fix

046d926

vincentkoc force-pushed the fix/strip-inbound-metadata-v2 branch from 828aa83 to 046d926 Compare February 21, 2026 01:33

vincentkoc added 2 commits February 20, 2026 17:34

changelog: credit Mellowambience for 22142

35d9f72

changelog: credit both contributors for openclaw#22142 security fix

c627c6a

vincentkoc merged commit a4e7e95 into openclaw:main Feb 21, 2026
6 checks passed

greptile-apps Bot mentioned this pull request Feb 21, 2026

fix(tui): strip inbound metadata blocks from user messages (clean rewrite) #22345

Merged

github-actions Bot mentioned this pull request Feb 21, 2026

📡 Upstream Digest — 2026-02-21 03:59 UTC curtismercier/openclaw-mods#82

Open

ayanesakura mentioned this pull request Mar 8, 2026

fix(outbound): strip echoed inbound metadata before delivery #39863

Closed

18 tasks

clawsweeper Bot mentioned this pull request May 1, 2026

fix: strip <relevant-memories> injected by memory plugin from user messages in WebUI #59697

Open

3 tasks

clawsweeper Bot mentioned this pull request May 4, 2026

privacy: reduce human-identifying system-injected inbound metadata in LLM prompt context #48585

Open

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fix(ui): strip injected inbound metadata from user messages in history#22142

fix(ui): strip injected inbound metadata from user messages in history#22142
vincentkoc merged 10 commits intoopenclaw:mainfrom
Mellowambience:fix/strip-inbound-metadata-v2

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Summary

Root Cause

Fix

Change Type

Scope

Linked Issues

Greptile Summary

Confidence Score: 4/5

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Mellowambience commented Feb 20, 2026 •

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