OpenClaw

Self-hosted personal AI assistant that runs on your machine and connects to Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, and more.

When to use it

• You want one gateway for multiple messaging channels (Telegram, WhatsApp, etc.) with a single AI backend.

• Privacy-first: all processing on your machine; no cloud required.

• Real automation: browser control, file ops, terminal, calendar, email, deploy automation. Persistent memory and extensible skills.

Hands-on

• Prerequisites — Node.js 22+, API key (Anthropic, OpenAI, or Ollama).

• Install — One-liner; then run openclaw onboard for the setup wizard.

• Docs — OpenClaw official docs, GitHub openclaw/openclaw.

• Playground — playgrounds/openclaw-telegram/ in this repo: minimal config and one custom skill example.

Telegram

OpenClaw has native Telegram support (and other channels). No separate bot code; configure Telegram in OpenClaw and chat from the app.

• Setup — Follow OpenClaw Telegram setup or the guide linked from Telegram hub. Typically ~15 min.

• Playground — playgrounds/openclaw-telegram/: minimal config and one custom skill (e.g. summarize a URL or run a script).

Quick product recipe

Telegram bot that runs a small automation (e.g. summarize a URL or run a script) (~15 min).

1. Install OpenClaw and complete onboarding (Node 22+, API key).
2. Connect Telegram in OpenClaw (see official docs or playgrounds/openclaw-telegram/README.md).
3. Copy the custom skill from playgrounds/openclaw-telegram/ (e.g. URL summarizer or script runner) into your OpenClaw skills.
4. From Telegram, send a message that triggers the skill; verify the reply.

Playground: playgrounds/openclaw-telegram/.