OpenClaw: access not configured. (Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp pairing)

Why it happens

Every DM channel has a dmPolicy. With pairing, unknown senders get this reply and their message is not processed until the owner approves them. Approval grants direct-message access only, not group access.

1. First contact. You (or someone else) messaged the bot before anyone approved that sender. This is the expected flow on a new Telegram, Discord or WhatsApp setup.
2. The code expired before it was approved. Codes last one hour, and the bot only sends a new one when a new request is created.
3. The pending queue is full. Requests are capped at 3 per channel account and extra ones are ignored until one expires or is approved.
4. An approved sender was challenged again after an update. Users reported this on Feishu after npm updates (issue #87506, open), and a similar Slack report was filed as issue #130411.
5. You meant to use an allowlist but the channel is still on pairing, or the ID in allowFrom is in the wrong format (for example a Telegram @username instead of the numeric user ID).

The fix

1. 1 On the gateway host, list pending requests: openclaw pairing list telegram (or discord, whatsapp).
2. 2 Approve the code from the reply: openclaw pairing approve telegram AB7KQ9XZ. Add --notify to tell the sender, and --account <id> for multi-account channels.
3. 3 Or approve in the Control UI under Settings, Channels, DM access requests.
4. 4 For a fixed set of users, skip pairing: set channels.<channel>.dmPolicy to allowlist and put the sender IDs in channels.<channel>.allowFrom (Telegram numeric user IDs, WhatsApp E.164 numbers such as +15551234567, Discord user IDs).
5. 5 Send a new message from the approved account to confirm the agent now answers.

Pairing, allowlist, open: which dmPolicy you want

dmPolicy accepts pairing, allowlist, open and disabled. pairing is the default and suits a personal bot. allowlist only admits IDs in allowFrom and needs at least one ID. open admits anyone and is only accepted when allowFrom includes "*". disabled ignores DMs.

{
  channels: {
    telegram: {
      dmPolicy: "allowlist",
      allowFrom: ["123456789"],
    },
  },
}

This page is about chat senders. The "pairing required" or 401 error in the browser dashboard is device pairing, a separate flow handled with openclaw devices. On WhatsApp, the QR login that links the account is also separate from approving the people who message it.

Still failing?

• If no code is shown in the reply, check openclaw pairing list for 3 pending requests and clear or approve them.
• If approval succeeds but the bot stays silent, run openclaw channels status --probe and openclaw logs --follow to see whether the message is now dropped by a group or allowlist rule.
• If an approved sender keeps getting re-challenged after updates, note your version and compare with issue #87506.

Related errors

• OpenClaw "device pairing required" / browser auth 401
• OpenClaw channels.whatsapp: Unrecognized key "enabled"