Files
openclaw/docs/reference/rich-output-protocol.md
pashpashpash 5404bbbb71 Avoid duplicate generated media attachments
Generated media can be produced in intermediate tool results before the assistant chooses which assets to share in its final reply. This change keeps those intermediate files from being appended a second time when the final reply already names the assets to deliver, and tightens the media directive parsing around unsafe or ambiguous URLs.
2026-04-25 17:56:29 -07:00

2.4 KiB

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

Remote MEDIA: attachments must be public https: URLs. Plain http:, loopback, link-local, private, and internal hostnames are ignored as attachment directives; server-side media fetchers still enforce their own network guards.

These directives are separate. MEDIA: and reply/voice tags remain delivery metadata; [embed ...] is the web-only rich render path. Trusted tool-result media uses the same MEDIA: / [[audio_as_voice]] parser before delivery, so text tool outputs can still mark an audio attachment as a voice note.

When block streaming is enabled, MEDIA: remains single-delivery metadata for a turn. If the same media URL is sent in a streamed block and repeated in the final assistant payload, OpenClaw delivers the attachment once and strips the duplicate from the final payload.

[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 is no longer valid for new output.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.