Make Your Assistant Work Through Telegram: Complete Channel Setup Walkthrough

If your assistant only works in a browser, how different is that from chatting on a normal AI website?

Channels are the answer: they let your assistant live inside the apps you already use every day.

What You'll Learn

Understand what a Channel is
Set up a Telegram bot
Control how your assistant talks inside groups
See what becomes possible with multiple channels

What Is a Channel?

Think of a Channel as one of several doors into the same assistant:

WebChat: the browser door, already installed for you
Telegram Bot: the phone door
WhatsApp: another door
Slack, Discord, iMessage...: even more doors

The same assistant can have many doors open at once. No matter which door you use, you still reach the same assistant.

WebChat: Ready to Use Without Extra Setup

Open the dashboard, find the Chat tab on the left, pick an agent, and start chatting. This is the easiest channel and needs no extra configuration.

It is also perfect for confirming that your assistant is working before you wire up other apps.

Set Up a Telegram Bot

Step 1: Create the Bot with BotFather

Open Telegram and search for @BotFather
Send /newbot
Follow the prompts to set the bot name
Copy your bot token such as 123456:ABC-DEF1234ghIkl-zyx57W2v1u123ew11

Step 2: Configure `channels.telegram` in OpenClaw

Open the dashboard → Config → find channels.telegram and fill in something like:

{
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "enabled": true,
      "botToken": "paste your bot token here",
      "dmPolicy": "pairing"
    }
  }
}

Step 3: Test It

Search for your bot on Telegram and send "hello". Your assistant should respond.

⚠️ The first DM may require pairing. Just follow the instructions from the bot reply.

How Should Groups Be Configured?

Inside a group chat, you usually do not want the assistant to jump in every single time somebody says anything. Add requireMention:

{
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "enabled": true,
      "botToken": "your bot token",
      "dmPolicy": "pairing",
      "groups": {
        "*": { "requireMention": true }
      }
    }
  }
}

Now the assistant only speaks when someone explicitly mentions the bot.

Need More Than One Bot?

Different groups using different assistants, or different bot accounts handling different tasks: that is where the advanced setup in part 7, "Multi-Agent Bindings," comes in.

Next Up

Your assistant is now waiting on Telegram. Next, we will teach it new skills so it can do more than just chat.

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