fix(auth): treat unconfigured-owner sessions as owner for ownerOnly tools (#26331)

Merged via squash.

Prepared head SHA: 1fbe1c7651
Co-authored-by: widingmarcus-cyber <245375637+widingmarcus-cyber@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: jalehman <550978+jalehman@users.noreply.github.com>
Reviewed-by: @jalehman

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -714,6 +714,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Slack/Disabled channel startup: skip Slack monitor socket startup entirely when `channels.slack.enabled=false` (including configs that still contain valid tokens), preventing disabled accounts from opening websocket connections. (#30586) Thanks @liuxiaopai-ai.
 - Onboarding/Custom providers: use Azure OpenAI-specific verification auth/payload shape (`api-key`, deployment-path chat completions payload) when probing Azure endpoints so valid Azure custom-provider setup no longer fails preflight. (#29421) Thanks @kunalk16.
 - Feishu/Docx editing tools: add `feishu_doc` positional insert, table row/column operations, table-cell merge, and color-text updates; switch markdown write/append/insert to Descendant API insertion with large-document batching; and harden image uploads for data URI/base64/local-path inputs with strict validation and routing-safe upload metadata. (#29411) Thanks @Elarwei001.
+- Commands/Owner-only tools: treat identified direct-chat senders as owners when no owner allowlist is configured, while preserving internal `operator.admin` owner sessions. (#26331) thanks @widingmarcus-cyber
 
 ## 2026.2.26
 

src/auto-reply/command-auth.owner-default.test.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,155 @@
+import { afterEach, beforeEach, describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
+import type { OpenClawConfig } from "../config/config.js";
+import { setActivePluginRegistry } from "../plugins/runtime.js";
+import { createOutboundTestPlugin, createTestRegistry } from "../test-utils/channel-plugins.js";
+import { resolveCommandAuthorization } from "./command-auth.js";
+import type { MsgContext } from "./templating.js";
+
+const createRegistry = () =>
+  createTestRegistry([
+    {
+      pluginId: "discord",
+      plugin: createOutboundTestPlugin({ id: "discord", outbound: { deliveryMode: "direct" } }),
+      source: "test",
+    },
+  ]);
+
+beforeEach(() => {
+  setActivePluginRegistry(createRegistry());
+});
+
+afterEach(() => {
+  setActivePluginRegistry(createRegistry());
+});
+
+describe("senderIsOwner defaults to true when no owner allowlist configured (#26319)", () => {
+  it("senderIsOwner is true when no ownerAllowFrom is configured (single-user default)", () => {
+    const cfg = {
+      channels: { discord: {} },
+    } as OpenClawConfig;
+
+    const ctx = {
+      Provider: "discord",
+      Surface: "discord",
+      ChatType: "direct",
+      From: "discord:123",
+      SenderId: "123",
+    } as MsgContext;
+
+    const auth = resolveCommandAuthorization({
+      ctx,
+      cfg,
+      commandAuthorized: true,
+    });
+
+    // Without an explicit ownerAllowFrom list, the sole authorized user should
+    // be treated as owner so ownerOnly tools (cron, gateway) are available.
+    expect(auth.senderIsOwner).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it("senderIsOwner is false when no ownerAllowFrom is configured in a group chat", () => {
+    const cfg = {
+      channels: { discord: {} },
+    } as OpenClawConfig;
+
+    const ctx = {
+      Provider: "discord",
+      Surface: "discord",
+      ChatType: "group",
+      From: "discord:123",
+      SenderId: "123",
+    } as MsgContext;
+
+    const auth = resolveCommandAuthorization({
+      ctx,
+      cfg,
+      commandAuthorized: true,
+    });
+
+    expect(auth.senderIsOwner).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it("senderIsOwner is false when ownerAllowFrom is configured and sender does not match", () => {
+    const cfg = {
+      channels: { discord: {} },
+      commands: { ownerAllowFrom: ["456"] },
+    } as OpenClawConfig;
+
+    const ctx = {
+      Provider: "discord",
+      Surface: "discord",
+      From: "discord:789",
+      SenderId: "789",
+    } as MsgContext;
+
+    const auth = resolveCommandAuthorization({
+      ctx,
+      cfg,
+      commandAuthorized: true,
+    });
+
+    expect(auth.senderIsOwner).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it("senderIsOwner is true when ownerAllowFrom matches sender", () => {
+    const cfg = {
+      channels: { discord: {} },
+      commands: { ownerAllowFrom: ["456"] },
+    } as OpenClawConfig;
+
+    const ctx = {
+      Provider: "discord",
+      Surface: "discord",
+      From: "discord:456",
+      SenderId: "456",
+    } as MsgContext;
+
+    const auth = resolveCommandAuthorization({
+      ctx,
+      cfg,
+      commandAuthorized: true,
+    });
+
+    expect(auth.senderIsOwner).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it("senderIsOwner is true when ownerAllowFrom is wildcard (*)", () => {
+    const cfg = {
+      channels: { discord: {} },
+      commands: { ownerAllowFrom: ["*"] },
+    } as OpenClawConfig;
+
+    const ctx = {
+      Provider: "discord",
+      Surface: "discord",
+      From: "discord:anyone",
+      SenderId: "anyone",
+    } as MsgContext;
+
+    const auth = resolveCommandAuthorization({
+      ctx,
+      cfg,
+      commandAuthorized: true,
+    });
+
+    expect(auth.senderIsOwner).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it("senderIsOwner is true for internal operator.admin sessions", () => {
+    const cfg = {} as OpenClawConfig;
+
+    const ctx = {
+      Provider: "webchat",
+      Surface: "webchat",
+      GatewayClientScopes: ["operator.admin"],
+    } as MsgContext;
+
+    const auth = resolveCommandAuthorization({
+      ctx,
+      cfg,
+      commandAuthorized: true,
+    });
+
+    expect(auth.senderIsOwner).toBe(true);
+  });
+});

src/auto-reply/command-auth.ts

@@ -350,8 +350,15 @@ export function resolveCommandAuthorization(params: {
     isInternalMessageChannel(ctx.Provider) &&
     Array.isArray(ctx.GatewayClientScopes) &&
     ctx.GatewayClientScopes.includes("operator.admin");
-  const senderIsOwner = senderIsOwnerByIdentity || senderIsOwnerByScope;
   const ownerAllowlistConfigured = ownerAllowAll || explicitOwners.length > 0;
+  const isDirectChat = (ctx.ChatType ?? "").trim().toLowerCase() === "direct";
+  // In the default single-user direct-chat setup, allow an identified sender to
+  // keep ownerOnly tools even without an explicit owner allowlist.
+  const senderIsOwner =
+    senderIsOwnerByIdentity ||
+    senderIsOwnerByScope ||
+    ownerAllowAll ||
+    (!ownerAllowlistConfigured && isDirectChat && Boolean(senderId));
   const requireOwner = enforceOwner || ownerAllowlistConfigured;
   const isOwnerForCommands = !requireOwner
     ? true