How to create a Telegram AI bot with OpenClaw

Why Telegram for your AI agent?

Telegram is the easiest messaging platform to connect with a personal AI agent. Creating a bot takes under 2 minutes, there's no approval process, and the API is free and well-documented.

Your AI agent on Telegram can:

• Respond to direct messages instantly
• Participate in group chats (when mentioned)
• Send rich messages with formatting, images, and files
• Handle inline queries for quick lookups

Step 1: create your Telegram bot

Open Telegram and search for @BotFather. Send these commands:

1. /newbot — Start creating a new bot
2. Enter a display name (e.g., "My AI Agent")
3. Enter a username ending in "bot" (e.g., my_ai_agent_bot)

BotFather will give you a bot token — a long string like 123456789:ABCdefGHIjklMNOpqrsTUVwxyz. Copy it carefully.

Step 2: install OpenClaw with k-claw

If you haven't already, install OpenClaw on your VPS:

curl -fsSL https://claw.krokanti.com/install | bash

When the installer asks about your messaging channel, choose Telegram and paste your bot token.

Step 3: test your bot

After installation completes:

1. Open Telegram and find your bot by its username
2. Send "Hello!" to start a conversation
3. Your AI agent should respond within seconds

Customizing your bot

Back in BotFather, you can customize your bot's appearance:

• /setdescription — Profile description
• /setabouttext — "About" section text
• /setuserpic — Upload a profile picture
• /setcommands — Add command suggestions

Group chat setup

To use your bot in group chats:

1. Add the bot to a group
2. The bot will respond when mentioned (@your_bot_name) or when a keyword is detected
3. Configure group keywords in your OpenClaw config file

For privacy in groups, the bot only processes messages that mention it — it doesn't read every message.

Tips for the best experience

• Pin the bot chat for quick access
• Use /help to see available commands
• Customize the system prompt to match your preferred communication style
• Set up keyboard shortcuts in Telegram for common prompts