How to Connect OpenClaw to Telegram — Step by Step

Telegram is my favorite channel to recommend for people just getting started. The setup is trivial, Telegram works everywhere, and the bot API is rock-solid. Here's how to do it in under 10 minutes.

Create a Telegram Bot

1. Open Telegram and search for @BotFather
2. Start a conversation and type /newbot
3. Enter a name for your bot (this is the display name)
4. Enter a username (must end in "bot", e.g. my_openclaw_bot)
5. BotFather gives you a token that looks like: 1234567890:ABCdefGHIjklMNOpqrsTUVwxyz

Copy that token — you'll need it in the next step.

Configure OpenClaw

openclaw channel add telegram
# Paste your bot token when prompted

Or set it manually:

openclaw config set channels.telegram.botToken 1234567890:YOUR_TOKEN

Start the Gateway

openclaw gateway start

Find Your Bot and Test

In Telegram, search for your bot's username and start a conversation. Type anything — your agent should respond.

If it doesn't respond, check your token is correct and the gateway is running:

openclaw gateway status
openclaw logs --channel telegram --last 20

Optional: Set Bot Commands

Back in BotFather, you can set command descriptions that appear when users type /:

/setcommands
# Select your bot
# Paste:
status - Check agent status
help - What can you do?
clear - Clear conversation history

Group Chat Setup

Add your bot to a Telegram group. In groups, it only responds when you @ mention it by username to avoid noise. You can change this behavior in your config:

openclaw config set channels.telegram.groupMode mention-only
# Or: always-respond | keyword-only

Notifications and Proactive Messages

One powerful feature: your OpenClaw agent can send you proactive Telegram messages. Set up a HEARTBEAT.md task to ping you at specific times, or have your cron jobs notify you when they complete:

# In HEARTBEAT.md
- Every morning at 8am, send me the day's plan via Telegram

The OpenClaw Playbook has a Telegram-specific chapter covering group moderation workflows, how to build Telegram bots that handle customer queries automatically, and setting up Telegram as your primary notification channel.