OpenClaw WhatsApp GIF

Source and send relevant reaction GIFs in WhatsApp chats using safe filters and deterministic ranking. Use when the user asks for a GIF/meme/reaction, or whe...

WhatsApp GIF

Source safe, context-matching GIFs and send exactly one high-quality result to WhatsApp.

Workflow

1. Decide if GIF is appropriate.
2. Build concise search query from user intent (2-5 words).
3. Run scripts/find_gif.py to fetch and rank candidates.
4. Send top result with message tool to WhatsApp (prefer local-file payload mode).
5. If send fails, retry once with next candidate.
6. If still failing or no results, send concise fallback text.

Decision rules

Prefer GIF when:

• The user explicitly asks for GIF/meme/reaction.
• A brief emotional signal is enough.
• Tone benefits from a visual response.

Avoid GIF when:

• Topic is serious/sensitive (medical, legal, conflict, grief).
• Group context is formal or unclear.
• User asked for text-only response.

Script usage

Use these deterministic helpers:

bash

python3 skills/openclaw-whatsapp-gif/scripts/find_gif.py "congrats celebration" --limit 5 --json
python3 skills/openclaw-whatsapp-gif/scripts/find_gif.py "great job" --limit 3 --json --target "[phone]"
python3 skills/openclaw-whatsapp-gif/scripts/send_gif.py "[phone]" "great job celebration" --json
python3 skills/openclaw-whatsapp-gif/scripts/send_gif.py "[phone]" "great job celebration" --delivery-mode local --json
python3 skills/openclaw-whatsapp-gif/scripts/send_gif.py "[phone]" "great job celebration" --payload-only

Behavior:

• Reads TENOR_API_KEY and/or GIPHY_API_KEY.
• Applies safe filtering (contentfilter=low / rating=g + blocklist).
• Uses retry + backoff for network fetches.
• Ranks by keyword overlap + lightweight preference.
• If no API keys or no provider results, uses built-in safe fallback catalog.
• Optional web scraping fallback is available only when allowWebScrapeFallback is enabled in references/policy.json.
• Expands intent queries using common reaction aliases.
• Deduplicates repeated URLs across providers.
• Returns URL only (default) or candidate list (--json).
• With --target, prints a ready-to-send WhatsApp message payload in JSON.
• With send_gif.py --payload-only, prints only the final message payload for direct tool handoff.
• send_gif.py validates media size/type, retries next candidates when a URL is bad, and writes to OS temp cache.
• Telemetry logging is disabled by default and can be enabled by policy or CLI flag.
• Remote URL fallback is disabled by default and must be explicitly enabled in policy.
• Runtime policy is configurable in references/policy.json.

WhatsApp send pattern

Use message with:

• action: "send"
• channel: "whatsapp"
• target: <chat id/recipient>
• media: <gif/mp4 url>
• caption: <optional short line>
• gifPlayback: true

If provider rejects .gif, retry using next candidate URL (prefer MP4).

Fallback

If no suitable GIF or delivery fails twice:

• Send concise text preserving intent.
• Do not keep retrying in a loop.

References

• Provider notes: references/providers.md