🦞AIClawGuide
Community Guide

Connect OpenClaw to Telegram

The fastest first channel for OpenClaw, covering the recommended setup flow and pairing logic.

Mar 13, 2026

Telegram remains the best first route because it removes a lot of early complexity:

  • no public IP required
  • no reverse proxy required
  • fast bot creation
  • easy pairing loop

That lets you prove the channel layer without adding network engineering to the task.

The basic setup flow

The Orange Paper’s sequence is simple:

  1. Create a bot with @BotFather.
  2. Get the bot token.
  3. Add the token to your OpenClaw channel config.
  4. Restart the gateway.
  5. Send a message and complete pairing.

Minimal configuration shape

channels:
  telegram:
    enabled: true
    botToken: "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN"
    dmPolicy: pairing

The important safety choice here is pairing. It prevents unknown users from immediately consuming your instance and your model budget.

What to expect after restart

When the gateway is live:

  • your bot can receive messages
  • an unknown DM sender gets a pairing code
  • you approve that code from an already trusted route
  • only then does the conversation open normally

Common mistakes

  • treating channel setup and model debugging as the same problem
  • forgetting to restart the gateway after config changes
  • assuming every channel needs public exposure

Telegram is useful partly because it avoids that third mistake.

Where to go next