Bot Intentional Silence

Let agents stay silent in group chats by returning NO_REPLY

Bot platform adapters now ship in the praisonai-bot package. praisonai bot serve still works exactly as documented here; for a standalone install see praisonai-bot Migration.

With allow_silence: true, an agent can return NO_REPLY (or a custom token) to send nothing — no message, no typing indicator, no error.

Both NO_REPLY (this page) and BotLoopGuard live in praisonaiagents/bots/silence.py. Where NO_REPLY lets an agent opt out of a single reply, BotLoopGuard lets the gateway opt out of an entire runaway bot-to-bot exchange.

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(name="group-bot", instructions="Reply in group chats only when helpful.")
agent.start("Should I respond to this off-topic message?")

The user posts in a group chat; with allow_silence: true, the agent can return NO_REPLY so nothing is sent.

Quick Start

1. YAML

   channels:
     telegram:
       token: ${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}
       group_policy: respond_all
       allow_silence: true
   
2. Python

   from praisonai.bots import Bot
   from praisonaiagents import Agent
   
   agent = Agent(
       name="Group Helper",
       instructions="Reply only when asked a direct question. Otherwise return exactly NO_REPLY.",
   )
   bot = Bot("telegram", agent=agent, allow_silence=True)
   bot.run()
   

---

How It Works

Marker	Honoured when allow_silence=true
NO_REPLY	✅ default token
[SILENT]	✅
SILENT	✅
Custom silence_token	✅ exact match only
Prose containing “NO_REPLY”	❌ not treated as silence

---

Configuration

Field	Type	Default	Description
allow_silence	bool	false	Honour silence markers (opt-in)
silence_token	str	None	Override marker; when set, only this exact string triggers silence

Combine with group_policy: respond_all so the agent may respond, then chooses silence via NO_REPLY.

---

Best Practices

Opt in explicitly

allow_silence defaults to false — existing bots behave unchanged.

Teach the agent the contract

Instructions should say when to return exactly NO_REPLY vs a normal reply.

Use for ambient group channels

Reduces noise when the bot listens to everything but should rarely speak.

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Related

Bot Loop Protection

Break runaway bot-to-bot reply loops

Gateway

Channel configuration reference

Messaging Bots

Multi-platform bot setup

Bot Loop Protection

Break runaway bot-to-bot reply loops with a sliding-window pair budget