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Telegram

Bring your own Telegram bot, bound to one agent, for DMs and groups.

Last updated July 30, 2026 · 3 min read

Telegram is the right channel when Slack isn't an option — you're outside the workspace's Slack tenant, you're collaborating with a group that lives on Telegram, or you want a lightweight mobile DM channel with Okou that's separate from your team's Slack.

You bring your own bot. Each Telegram bot is bound to a single agent in your Okou workspace, so a personal bot and a team bot can route to different agents with different workflows.

Connecting

  1. Talk to @BotFather in Telegram. Run /newbot, name your bot, and copy the token BotFather gives you.
  2. In Okou, open Where Okou works and choose Telegram.
  3. Paste the bot token. Pick which agent the bot should route to.
  4. (For group use) Disable the bot's privacy mode in BotFather: /setprivacy → choose your bot → Disable. Without this, the bot can only see messages that directly @mention it; with it disabled, the bot reads the group context around mentions and replies.
  5. Open Telegram and send the bot a message. The first message starts a linked chat in Okou.

How you use Okou on Telegram

Two primary patterns:

DM the bot. Behaves like a private chat with Okou. Messages, files, photos — Okou sees them all. Each DM thread maps to a chat in Okou.

Add the bot to a group. With privacy mode disabled, the bot reads messages around mentions and replies. @mention the bot or reply to its messages to keep a flow going. Other group members never see Okou's reasoning, just the result the bot posts back.

Common Telegram workflows

  • Mobile inbox triage. On the train, DM your bot: "summarize my unread Slack from #cs." Okou replies in seconds.
  • Vendor or partner groups. Add the bot to a group with people outside your company. The bot handles scheduling, reminders, or translation without exposing your internal Slack.
  • Per-agent bots. Bind a research bot to your research agent and a personal bot to your personal agent. Same Telegram app, different bots, different agents.

Per-agent routing

Each bot token is bound to exactly one agent. If you want a different agent answering, create a second bot in BotFather and bind it. This is by design: a Telegram bot's identity is the agent's identity for that surface.

File support

Telegram supports photos, voice notes, documents, and PDFs. Okou ingests all of them as chat inputs. Outbound files (artifacts Okou produces) are returned as Telegram documents or images inline.

Common pitfalls

  • Bot doesn't reply in a group. Privacy mode is still on. Re-run /setprivacy in BotFather → Disable, then remove and re-add the bot to the group.
  • Wrong agent answering. The bot token is bound to a single agent. To change, swap the binding on Where Okou works, or use a separate bot.
  • Bot token leaked. Rotate it in BotFather (/revoke), then update the token in Okou. The old token immediately stops working.

What's next

  • See Workflows for capturing recurring mobile work.
  • See Permissions for what Okou can and can't do via your bot.