Telegram integration hub

How to use AI tools with Telegram: native OpenClaw support vs a custom bot.

Comparison

Choose an approach based on whether you want one local gateway (OpenClaw) or a minimal custom bot (Claude/OpenAI API).

Approach	When to use	Playground
OpenClaw	One gateway for Telegram (and WhatsApp, Discord, etc.); everything local; one config	`playgrounds/openclaw-telegram/`
Custom bot	Minimal logic: Telegram → Claude or OpenAI API → reply; you own the code	`playgrounds/telegram-ai-bot/`

OpenClaw (native)

OpenClaw supports Telegram and other channels out of the box. All processing runs on your machine; no cloud required.
Setup — Follow OpenClaw Telegram setup or our OpenClaw tool page. Roughly 15 minutes with Node.js 22+ and an API key.
Playground — playgrounds/openclaw-telegram/ has minimal config and one custom skill example.

Custom bot (skeleton)

Stack — Python 3.10+ with python-telegram-bot; message in → Claude (or OpenAI) API → reply in Telegram. Optional: file handling, SQLite for conversation persistence.
Security — Use env vars for API keys. Add rate limiting and optional user whitelist for production.
Playground — playgrounds/telegram-ai-bot/ is the canonical skeleton. See its README for one-command run after setting TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN and ANTHROPIC_API_KEY.

Links

OpenClaw + Telegram → playgrounds/openclaw-telegram/
Claude API + Telegram → playgrounds/telegram-ai-bot/