The Pinch Chat block is a Gutenberg block built with the WordPress Interactivity API. It drops a reactive, accessible chat interface into any page or post, letting visitors talk to your AI agent directly on your site.

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Real-time character-by-character message delivery via Server-Sent Events. As the AI generates its response, text appears progressively with an animated cursor indicator. Falls back to standard request/response if streaming is disabled or fails.

Enable via WP Pinch > Features > Streaming Chat.

Let unauthenticated visitors chat with your AI agent. Public chat uses a separate /chat/public endpoint with its own rate limiting and session isolation. Each browser gets a unique session key generated client-side via crypto.randomUUID().

Enable via WP Pinch > Features > Public Chat.

Each Pinch Chat block can target a different OpenClaw agent. Set the Agent ID in the block's sidebar settings to override the global default. This lets you have a sales assistant on one page and a support agent on another.

Power-user commands typed directly in the chat input:

Command	Action
/new or /reset	Reset the conversation session
/status	Show plugin version, gateway status, circuit breaker state
/compact	Send a compaction request to the gateway

Enable via WP Pinch > Features > Slash Commands.

Thumbs up/down buttons appear on hover for agent messages. Ratings are stored locally per session.

After each response, the footer shows how many tokens were consumed (parsed from the X-Token-Usage response header).

Enable via WP Pinch > Features > Token Display.

Agent replies support bold, italic, inline code, code blocks, and links.

Chat history is stored in sessionStorage, scoped per block instance (using the stable blockId attribute). Multiple chat blocks on one page maintain separate conversations. Sessions survive page reloads within the same browser tab.

Failed requests are retried with exponential backoff. The nonce is auto-refreshed on 403 errors (stale tab recovery).

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The Pinch Chat block targets WCAG 2.1 AA compliance:

• Screen reader announcements via wp.a11y.speak for new messages and errors
• prefers-reduced-motion -- all animations (typing indicator, streaming cursor, transitions) are disabled when the user prefers reduced motion
• forced-colors (Windows High Contrast Mode) -- uses system color keywords for borders, focus rings, and interactive elements
• Dark mode -- full coverage of every UI element, including streaming indicators, feedback buttons, and token display
• Keyboard shortcuts -- Escape to clear input
• Focus management -- input field is auto-focused after sending a message
• Character counter -- 4,000 character limit with visual warnings at thresholds
• Mobile responsive -- touch-friendly targets, responsive layout

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In the Gutenberg editor sidebar:

Setting	Description
Placeholder	Custom placeholder text for the input field
Show Header	Toggle the chat header bar
Max Height	CSS height for the message area (e.g., 400px, 50vh)
Public Mode	Allow unauthenticated visitors to chat
Agent ID	Override the global agent for this specific block

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These settings affect all chat blocks site-wide. Configure them at WP Pinch > Connection > Chat Settings:

Setting	Description
Chat Model	AI model to use (e.g., anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5). Empty = gateway default
Chat Thinking Level	Off / Low / Medium / High. Empty = gateway decides
Chat Timeout	Request timeout in seconds (0-600). 0 = gateway default
Session Idle Timeout	Minutes of inactivity before a new session starts. 0 = gateway default

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1. User types a message in the chat input
2. The block POSTs to /wp-pinch/v1/chat (or /chat/stream for SSE, or /chat/public for anonymous users)
3. The REST controller forwards the message to the OpenClaw gateway
4. The gateway processes the message and returns a response (or streams it)
5. The block displays the response with Markdown rendering
6. The conversation is saved to sessionStorage

All communication is authenticated via WordPress nonces (or session key validation for public chat). Rate limiting, circuit breaker, and retry logic protect both sides.