Telegram is an optional secondary channel for mobile-first chat access. The web UI remains the primary interface.

Requires Piclaw >=2.0.0.

Enable

Open Settings → Telegram, save the BotFather token, enable the channel, then reload Piclaw. The token is stored in the Piclaw keychain as telegram/bot-token; non-secret settings use the direct add-on config API and extension KV.

Environment overrides are also supported:

PICLAW_TELEGRAM_ENABLED=1
TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=123456789:your_botfather_token

PICLAW_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN and legacy KV-stored tokens remain readable for backward compatibility, but new secrets are written only to the keychain.

If disabled (or missing a token), the add-on remains inactive and Piclaw continues normally.

Chat IDs and topics

Piclaw stores Telegram chats as chat_jid values like:

• telegram:123456789 (DM)
• telegram:-1001234567890 (group/supergroup)
• telegram:-1001234567890:topic:42 (forum topic)

Notes

• Telegram uses long polling by default.
• Telegram sends assistant messages unchanged; unlike WhatsApp, it does not prepend the assistant name.
• Telegram formatting guidance is applied in channel-specific prompt hints.
• This channel is opt-in and lazy-loaded, so default web-first setups pay no Telegram startup cost.

Disable

Disable the channel in Settings → Telegram, then reload Piclaw. Unsetting PICLAW_TELEGRAM_ENABLED disables environment-based enablement but does not override an enabled value saved through Settings.