Telegram

Telegram is the recommended channel. It's easy to set up and supports voice transcription.

Setup

1. Create a Bot

• Open Telegram and search for @BotFather
• Send /newbot, follow the prompts
• Copy the bot token

2. Get Your User ID

• Message @userinfobot on Telegram
• Copy your User ID

3. Configure

{
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "enabled": true,
      "token": "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN",
      "allow_from": ["YOUR_USER_ID"]
    }
  }
}

Field	Type	Description
enabled	bool	Enable/disable the channel
token	string	Bot token from @BotFather
proxy	string	HTTP proxy URL (optional)
allow_from	array	List of allowed user IDs (empty = allow all)

4. Run

picoclaw gateway

Voice Transcription

Telegram voice messages can be automatically transcribed using Groq's Whisper:

{
  "model_list": [
    {
      "model_name": "whisper",
      "model": "groq/whisper-large-v3",
      "api_key": "gsk_..."
    }
  ]
}

Get a free Groq API key at console.groq.com.

Troubleshooting

"Conflict: terminated by other getUpdates": Only one picoclaw gateway can run at a time. Stop any other instances.

Proxy: If Telegram is blocked in your region, use the proxy field:

{
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "proxy": "http://127.0.0.1:7890"
    }
  }
}