openclaw/docs/reference/rich-output-protocol.md

summary, read_when, title

summary	read_when	title
Rich output shortcode protocol for embeds, media, audio hints, and replies	Changing assistant output rendering in the Control UI Debugging `[embed ...]`, `MEDIA:`, reply, or audio presentation directives	Rich output protocol

Assistant output can carry a small set of delivery/render directives:

• MEDIA: for attachment delivery
• [[audio_as_voice]] for audio presentation hints
• [[reply_to_current]] / [[reply_to:<id>]] for reply metadata
• [embed ...] for Control UI rich rendering

These directives are separate. MEDIA: and reply/voice tags remain delivery metadata; [embed ...] is the web-only rich render path.

[embed ...]

[embed ...] is the only agent-facing rich render syntax for the Control UI.

Self-closing example:

[embed ref="cv_123" title="Status" /]

Rules:

• [view ...] is no longer valid for new output.
• Embed shortcodes render in the assistant message surface only.
• Only URL-backed embeds are rendered. Use ref="..." or url="...".
• Block-form inline HTML embed shortcodes are not rendered.
• The web UI strips the shortcode from visible text and renders the embed inline.
• MEDIA: is not an embed alias and should not be used for rich embed rendering.

Stored Rendering Shape

The normalized/stored assistant content block is a structured canvas item:

{
  "type": "canvas",
  "preview": {
    "kind": "canvas",
    "surface": "assistant_message",
    "render": "url",
    "viewId": "cv_123",
    "url": "/__openclaw__/canvas/documents/cv_123/index.html",
    "title": "Status",
    "preferredHeight": 320
  }
}

Stored/rendered rich blocks use this canvas shape directly. present_view is not recognized.

Related

• RPC adapters
• Typebox