diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 079ad76cb82..99db9758816 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Gateway/WS: close repeated post-handshake `unauthorized role:*` request floods per connection and sample duplicate rejection logs, preventing a single misbehaving client from degrading gateway responsiveness. (#20168) Thanks @acy103, @vibecodooor, and @vincentkoc.
 - Gateway/Restart: treat child listener PIDs as owned by the service runtime PID during restart health checks to avoid false stale-process kills and restart timeouts on launchd/systemd. (#24696) Thanks @gumadeiras.
 - Config/Write: apply `unsetPaths` with immutable path-copy updates so config writes never mutate caller-provided objects, and harden `openclaw config get/set/unset` path traversal by rejecting prototype-key segments and inherited-property traversal. (#24134) thanks @frankekn.
+- Channels/WhatsApp: accept `channels.whatsapp.enabled` in config validation to match built-in channel auto-enable behavior, preventing `Unrecognized key: "enabled"` failures during channel setup. (#24263)
 - Security/Exec: detect obfuscated commands before exec allowlist decisions and require explicit approval for obfuscation patterns. (#8592) Thanks @CornBrother0x and @vincentkoc.
 - Security/ACP: harden ACP client permission auto-approval to require trusted core tool IDs, ignore untrusted `toolCall.kind` hints, and scope `read` auto-approval to the active working directory so unknown tool names and out-of-scope file reads always prompt. This ships in the next npm release. Thanks @nedlir for reporting.
 - Security/Skills: escape user-controlled prompt, filename, and output-path values in `openai-image-gen` HTML gallery generation to prevent stored XSS in generated `index.html` output. (#12538) Thanks @CornBrother0x.
diff --git a/src/config/config.schema-regressions.test.ts b/src/config/config.schema-regressions.test.ts
index ff42403f868..c183b34fa8e 100644
--- a/src/config/config.schema-regressions.test.ts
+++ b/src/config/config.schema-regressions.test.ts
@@ -63,6 +63,18 @@ describe("config schema regressions", () => {
     expect(res.ok).toBe(true);
   });
 
+  it("accepts channels.whatsapp.enabled", () => {
+    const res = validateConfigObject({
+      channels: {
+        whatsapp: {
+          enabled: true,
+        },
+      },
+    });
+
+    expect(res.ok).toBe(true);
+  });
+
   it("rejects unsafe iMessage remoteHost", () => {
     const res = validateConfigObject({
       channels: {
diff --git a/src/config/plugin-auto-enable.test.ts b/src/config/plugin-auto-enable.test.ts
index 7f5779a1818..f3ef2961f4e 100644
--- a/src/config/plugin-auto-enable.test.ts
+++ b/src/config/plugin-auto-enable.test.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
+import { validateConfigObject } from "./config.js";
 import { applyPluginAutoEnable } from "./plugin-auto-enable.js";
 
 describe("applyPluginAutoEnable", () => {
@@ -48,6 +49,23 @@ describe("applyPluginAutoEnable", () => {
     expect(result.changes).toEqual([]);
   });
 
+  it("keeps auto-enabled WhatsApp config schema-valid", () => {
+    const result = applyPluginAutoEnable({
+      config: {
+        channels: {
+          whatsapp: {
+            allowFrom: ["+15555550123"],
+          },
+        },
+      },
+      env: {},
+    });
+
+    expect(result.config.channels?.whatsapp?.enabled).toBe(true);
+    const validated = validateConfigObject(result.config);
+    expect(validated.ok).toBe(true);
+  });
+
   it("respects explicit disable", () => {
     const result = applyPluginAutoEnable({
       config: {
diff --git a/src/config/types.whatsapp.ts b/src/config/types.whatsapp.ts
index 6fa99ea7b84..395ce3b06b2 100644
--- a/src/config/types.whatsapp.ts
+++ b/src/config/types.whatsapp.ts
@@ -36,6 +36,8 @@ export type WhatsAppAckReactionConfig = {
 };
 
 type WhatsAppSharedConfig = {
+  /** Whether the WhatsApp channel is enabled. */
+  enabled?: boolean;
   /** Direct message access policy (default: pairing). */
   dmPolicy?: DmPolicy;
   /** Same-phone setup (bot uses your personal WhatsApp number). */
diff --git a/src/config/zod-schema.providers-whatsapp.ts b/src/config/zod-schema.providers-whatsapp.ts
index 92c6daeffc3..4387ed1abb5 100644
--- a/src/config/zod-schema.providers-whatsapp.ts
+++ b/src/config/zod-schema.providers-whatsapp.ts
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ const WhatsAppAckReactionSchema = z
   .optional();
 
 const WhatsAppSharedSchema = z.object({
+  enabled: z.boolean().optional(),
   capabilities: z.array(z.string()).optional(),
   markdown: MarkdownConfigSchema,
   configWrites: z.boolean().optional(),