The agent on your phone

So far you’ve interacted with OpenClaw from the terminal. Now we connect it to Telegram so you can talk to your agent from your phone.

Step 1: Create the bot

  1. Open Telegram and search for @BotFather
  2. Send /newbot
  3. Choose a name and username (must end in “bot”)
  4. BotFather will give you a token — copy it

Step 2: Configure Telegram in OpenClaw

Add to openclaw.json:

{
  "telegram": {
    "token": "BOTFATHER_TOKEN_HERE",
    "allowedUsers": ["YOUR_TELEGRAM_ID"]
  }
}

To get your Telegram ID, search for @userinfobot and send /start.

Step 3: Start it up

openclaw --telegram

Find your bot on Telegram and send it a message. If it responds, congratulations — you have an AI agent on your phone.

Basic commands

  • /new — New conversation (clears context)
  • /help — Available commands

Keeping the bot active 24/7

tmux: tmux new -s openclaw → openclaw --telegram → Ctrl+B, D to detach.

systemd: Configure as a system service for automatic startup.

Security

Always configure allowedUsers. An open bot is a bot anyone can exploit. Don’t share the token.

Key concepts today

  • @BotFather: Telegram’s official bot for creating bots
  • Token: The access key that identifies your bot
  • allowedUsers: List of authorised Telegram IDs
  • /new: Clears context and starts a fresh conversation

Next lesson: Giving your agent personality — the system prompt.