A2A Chatting

Enable communication, coordination, and information exchange between OpenClaw agents through controlled multi-agent chat sessions.

Manage sessions with other OpenClaw agents. Messaging is done via the built-in sessions_send tool, not via the CLI. This CLI only handles session lifecycle (create, list, view, delete).

Message Format (Required)

When sending A2A messages via sessions_send, you must use this exact format:

text

[From: <name>] [fromAgentId: <agentId>] [reply-to: <sourceSession>] <message>

For notifications (no reply needed):

text

[From: <name>] [fromAgentId: <agentId>] [DO NOT REPLY] <message>

Example — ask Anna to do something:

text

[From: Lewis] [fromAgentId: echi-ceo] [reply-to: <your sessionId>] 早上好，请更新本周销售报告。

Example — notify Victor (no reply needed):

text

[From: Lewis] [fromAgentId: echi-ceo] [DO NOT REPLY] 会议已延期到下午3点。

Fields explained:

• From — Human-readable name of the sender
• fromAgentId — The agent ID (e.g. echi-ceo, echitech-sales-manager-victor)
• reply-to — Your own sourceSession (so the receiver knows where to route replies)
• DO NOT REPLY — Use when no response is needed (fire-and-forget)

Prerequisites

Configure the OpenClaw directory:

bash

a2a-chatting.sh config <openclaw_dir>
# Example: a2a-chatting.sh config /Users/roco/.openclaw

CLI Commands

Command	Description
config <path> [--force]	Configure OpenClaw directory
get-agents	List all available agents with their IDs
new-session <agent_id> <topic>	Create a new A2A session with an agent
list-sessions	List all A2A sessions
get-session <session_id>	Show session info
delete-session <session_id>	Delete a session

Workflow

Step 1: Create a Session

bash

# Use the CLI to create a session with the target agent
a2a-chatting.sh new-session <agent_id> "Discuss project structure"
# Returns: Session ID (e.g. 30d53db1-d1fd-41d8-a7f3-8373aa58a840)

Step 2: Send Message (via sessions_send)

bash

# Use sessions_send tool with the format above:
sessions_send(
  sessionKey: "<target agent session>",
  message: "[From: Lewis] [fromAgentId: echi-ceo] [reply-to: <sourceSession>] 早上好，请更新本周销售报告。"
)

Step 3: Receive Reply

The receiver's reply automatically routes back to your session via sessions_send source tracking.

Tips

• Session Reuse: Reuse existing sessions for ongoing conversations — agents maintain context
• Topic Naming: Use descriptive topics so you can find sessions later with list-sessions
• Format Strictly: Always use the [From: ...] format — it identifies you in multi-agent conversations
• reply-to vs DO NOT REPLY: Only use reply-to when you need a response. Use DO NOT REPLY for notifications.

Examples

Create session with Anna

bash

a2a-chatting.sh new-session echitech-marketing-manager-anna "Marketing sync"
# → Session ID: db4aaf45-dd47-4766-87d0-0c2f690e8797

Send a task request

text

sessions_send(
  sessionKey: "agent:echitech-marketing-manager-anna:main",
  message: "[From: Lewis] [fromAgentId: echi-ceo] [reply-to: <sourceSession>] 请更新本周营销计划。"
)

Send a notification (no reply)

text

sessions_send(
  sessionKey: "agent:echitech-sales-manager-victor:main",
  message: "[From: Lewis] [fromAgentId: echi-ceo] [DO NOT REPLY] 今晚8点有全员会议，请准时参加。"
)

Storage

Session index: <openclaw_dir>/a2a-sessions/sessions.jsonl