iMessage & SMS Integration Guide

## Part 1: Setting Up Full Disk Access Correctly

### Step 1: Find the imsg binary location

The location depends on how you installed it:

# Check if imsg is installed and find its pathwhich imsg

Common locations: - Apple Silicon Macs: /opt/homebrew/bin/imsg - Intel Macs: /usr/local/bin/imsg

### Step 2: Find the OpenClaw gateway binary

# Find the openclaw/clawdbot binarywhich openclaw# orwhich clawdbot

If installed via npm globally: ``bash # The path might be something like: # ~/.npm-global/bin/clawdbot # Check what the wrapper points to: file ~/.npm-global/bin/clawdbot readlink -f ~/.npm-global/bin/clawdbot

If using Homebrew (recommended for FDA): ``bash brew install openclaw/tap/openclaw # This puts the binary at /usr/local/bin/openclaw or /opt/homebrew/bin/openclaw

### Step 3: Add both binaries to Full Disk Access

1. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access 2. Click the + button 3. Press Cmd+Shift+G to open 'Go to folder' 4. Paste the path to imsg (e.g., /opt/homebrew/bin/imsg) 5. Click Open to add it 6. Repeat for the OpenClaw gateway binary

If the binary disappears when you try to add it: This happens with npm wrapper scripts. Solutions: - Install via Homebrew instead (creates proper binaries) - Try adding the parent directory - Check if it's a symlink with readlink -f and add the actual target

### Step 4: Restart and verify

# Restart the gatewayopenclaw gateway restart# Test iMessage accessimsg list --limit 5

---

## Part 2: Fixing Duplicate Messages

### Quick Diagnostic Steps

# Check for multiple gateway processesps aux | grep -i openclaw | grep -v grep# Check logs for duplicate indicatorsopenclaw logs --tail 100 | grep -i "imsg\|duplicate\|is_from_me"# Verify imsg versionimsg --version

### Fix 1: Restart Everything Cleanly

# Stop the gatewayopenclaw gateway stop# Kill any orphaned imsg processespkill -f imsg# Quit Messages.app completelyosascript -e 'tell application "Messages" to quit'# Wait a moment, then restartsleep 2openclaw gateway start

### Fix 2: Add Sender ID Filtering (Code Patch)

If duplicates persist, add an additional sender check in src/imessage/monitor.ts around line 175:

// Get the current account's sender IDconst accountSenderId = accountInfo.config.senderId ?? accountInfo.accountId;const handleMessage = async (raw: unknown) => {  const params = raw as { message?: IMessagePayload | null };  const message = params?.message ?? null;  if (!message) return;  // Existing check  if (message.is_from_me) return;    // NEW: Additional check - skip if sender matches our account  const normalizedSender = normalizeIMessageHandle(sender);  const normalizedAccountSender = normalizeIMessageHandle(accountSenderId);  if (normalizedSender === normalizedAccountSender) {    logVerbose(`imessage: skipped own message from ${sender}`);    return;  }  // ... rest of handler};

This filters by matching the bot's own sender ID, which is more reliable than the is_from_me database flag.

---

## Part 3: Working with Group Chats

### Finding Group Chat IDs

# List recent chats including groupsimsg chats --limit 20# The chat_id for groups looks like: chat123456789# Individual chats use phone/email: +1234567890 or user@icloud.com

### Targeting Specific Chats

In your OpenClaw config, you can allowlist specific chat IDs to prevent the bot from responding everywhere.

---

## Part 4: Reading & Summarizing Messages

To have OpenClaw summarize your texts:

# List today's messagesimsg list --since today# Get messages from a specific contactimsg list --from "+1234567890" --limit 50

Then ask OpenClaw: "Summarize my recent iMessages" and it can use the imsg tool to fetch and summarize them.