How to Connect OpenClaw to Telegram: The Full Integration Walkthrough

Connecting OpenClaw to Telegram is one of the most powerful things you can do with your AI agent setup. It lets you send commands, receive responses, and monitor your agent's activity directly from your phone or desktop Telegram client. But the integration involves multiple moving parts that all need to be configured correctly.

How the Telegram-OpenClaw Integration Works

OpenClaw communicates with Telegram through the Telegram Bot API. Your OpenClaw instance acts as a bot server, receiving messages from Telegram users and responding through the bot. There are two connection modes: polling (OpenClaw periodically checks for new messages) and webhook (Telegram pushes messages to your OpenClaw server in real time). Webhooks are faster and more reliable for production use.

Step 1: Create Your Telegram Bot

Open Telegram and search for @BotFather. Send the command /newbot and follow the prompts to name your bot and choose a username. BotFather will provide you with a bot token — a long string that looks like 123456789:ABCdefGHIjklMNOpqrSTUvwxyz. Copy this immediately and store it securely.

Step 2: Configure OpenClaw with Your Bot Token

Open your OpenClaw config.yaml file and locate the Telegram integration section. Add your bot token and configure the connection mode.

telegram: enabled: true bot_token: "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN_HERE" mode: "webhook"  # or "polling" webhook_url: "https://yourdomain.com/telegram/webhook" allowed_users: []  # Leave empty to allow all, or add Telegram user IDs

Step 3: Set Up the Webhook (Production)

For webhook mode, Telegram needs to be able to reach your OpenClaw server over HTTPS. This requires a valid SSL certificate and a publicly accessible server. If you're running locally, use a tunneling service like ngrok for testing.

# Register your webhook with Telegram curl -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/botYOUR_BOT_TOKEN/setWebhook" \ -d "url=https://yourdomain.com/telegram/webhook"

Step 4: Test the Connection

Start your OpenClaw instance and open a conversation with your bot in Telegram. Send a test message. If everything is configured correctly, OpenClaw will process the message and respond through the bot.

Common Integration Errors

• Webhook returns 403 — Your server's firewall is blocking Telegram's IP ranges. Allow incoming connections from Telegram's server IPs.
• Bot responds but with wrong content — Check your OpenClaw agent configuration and ensure the Telegram channel is mapped to the correct agent.
• Polling mode works but webhook doesn't — SSL certificate issue. Telegram requires a valid, non-self-signed certificate for webhooks.
• Messages delayed by minutes — You're in polling mode with a long interval. Switch to webhook mode for real-time responses.

Security Considerations

Always restrict your bot to specific Telegram user IDs using the allowed_users configuration. An unrestricted bot connected to a powerful AI agent is a significant security risk. Additionally, never expose your bot token publicly — if compromised, revoke it immediately through BotFather using /revoke.