Use Case: Messaging Bot

Telegram · Discord · Slack — one config entry, live in minutes

What you'll build

An OpenClaw agent that lives inside your chat app. Send it a message, it responds. Give it tools (search, GitHub, browser) and it becomes a capable assistant your whole team can use.

Jump to section

Telegram setup Discord setup Slack setup SOUL.md template Slash commands Common issues

Telegram setup

Telegram is the easiest channel to set up and the most popular for personal/team bots. The whole process takes about 3 minutes.

Step 1 — Create a bot with BotFather

Open Telegram and search for @BotFather
Send /newbot and follow the prompts
Copy the bot token — it looks like 1234567890:AAF...

Step 2 — Get your chat ID

Get your Telegram chat ID

# Send any message to your bot, then run:
curl https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/getUpdates

# Look for "chat":{"id": YOUR_CHAT_ID}

Step 3 — Add to openclaw.json

openclaw.json — Telegram channel

{
  "model": "claude-sonnet-4-5",
  "soulPath": "./SOUL.md",
  "channel": {
    "type": "telegram",
    "token": "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN",
    "chatId": "YOUR_CHAT_ID"
  }
}

Group chats: Add the bot to a Telegram group and set the chatId to the group's ID (negative number, e.g. -1001234567890). The agent responds to all messages in the group by default — add a trigger prefix like @botname in the SOUL.md to avoid spam.

For a detailed Telegram production setup including webhook mode, rate limiting, and auth, see the Telegram Production Setup guide.

Discord setup

Discord requires creating a bot application in the Discord Developer Portal.

Go to discord.com/developers/applications → New Application
Under Bot, click Add Bot and copy the token
Under OAuth2 → URL Generator, enable scopes: bot + permissions: Send Messages, Read Message History
Invite the bot to your server using the generated URL
Get the channel ID: right-click any channel → Copy Channel ID (enable Developer Mode in Settings first)

openclaw.json — Discord channel

{
  "model": "claude-sonnet-4-5",
  "soulPath": "./SOUL.md",
  "channel": {
    "type": "discord",
    "token": "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN",
    "channelId": "YOUR_CHANNEL_ID"
  }
}

Slack setup

Slack requires a Slack App with Socket Mode enabled.

Go to api.slack.com/apps → Create New App → From scratch
Under Socket Mode, enable it and generate an App-Level Token with connections:write scope
Under OAuth & Permissions, add bot scopes: chat:write, im:history, channels:history
Install the app to your workspace and copy the Bot User OAuth Token

openclaw.json — Slack channel

{
  "model": "claude-sonnet-4-5",
  "soulPath": "./SOUL.md",
  "channel": {
    "type": "slack",
    "botToken": "xoxb-your-bot-token",
    "appToken": "xapp-your-app-token"
  }
}

SOUL.md template

This template works for all three channels. Adjust the name, tone, and capabilities to fit your use case.

SOUL.md — messaging bot

# Team Assistant Bot

You are a helpful assistant living in the team's chat. You answer questions,
run tasks, and help the team work faster.

## Identity
- Name: Assistant
- Tone: Friendly, concise, professional

## Capabilities
- Answer questions about the codebase, docs, or general topics
- Run web searches and summarise results
- Check GitHub for PR status, issues, and recent commits
- Post formatted summaries — use markdown when helpful

## Behaviour
- Keep responses short by default — no more than 3–4 sentences unless asked for detail
- If a task will take more than 30 seconds, confirm before starting: "This might take a minute — should I proceed?"
- When someone asks a yes/no question, answer yes or no first, then explain

## Trigger
- Respond to all direct messages
- In group channels, respond only when the message starts with @assistant or /ask

Slash commands and scheduled messages

Add cron jobs to send proactive messages to your channel on a schedule:

openclaw.json — scheduled channel messages

{
  "crons": [
    {
      "name": "Daily standup prompt",
      "schedule": "0 9 * * 1-5",
      "task": "Post a standup prompt to the team channel: ask everyone to share what they did yesterday, today, and any blockers."
    },
    {
      "name": "Weekly repo summary",
      "schedule": "0 10 * * 1",
      "task": "Check GitHub for PRs merged last week and post a summary to the team channel."
    }
  ]
}

Common issues

⚠ Telegram bot not receiving messages

Make sure you sent at least one message to the bot before starting OpenClaw. The bot token only starts polling after the first interaction. Also verify the chatId matches the actual chat.

⚠ Discord bot shows as offline

Check that the bot has the correct intents enabled: MESSAGE_CONTENT intent is required for reading messages. Enable it in the Developer Portal under Bot → Privileged Gateway Intents.

⚠ Slack bot gives "not_in_channel" error

Invite the bot to the channel first: /invite @your-bot-name in Slack. The bot must be a member of the channel to post there.

⚠ Bot responds to every message in a group (too noisy)

Add a trigger condition to your SOUL.md: "Respond only when the message starts with @botname or /ask". The agent will filter incoming messages accordingly.

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