> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.agentick.xyz/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Connect Telegram

> Give an agent its own Telegram bot, and ask it from your phone.

An agent can have its own Telegram bot. You make the bot from your own
Telegram account, through Agentick's bot, in about a minute. Then you, and any
member of your workspace who links their Telegram account, message it in a
private chat, and the agent answers there as itself.

Telegram needs no app of your own to set up, so it is the quickest channel to
start with.

## Before you start

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="An admin, or the agent's department lead" icon="user-shield">
    The same people who set up the agent's other channels.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Telegram on your phone or computer" icon="paper-plane">
    Whoever makes the bot can talk to it straight away; other members link
    their own account with a QR code.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Connect it

<Steps>
  <Step title="Start from the agent">
    Open the agent, then **Channels → Telegram → Connect Telegram**. Telegram
    opens on Agentick's bot. If it doesn't, use **Open the Connect link**; it
    works for 15 minutes.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Tap Start">
    Agentick's bot answers with a button: **Create \<agent>'s bot**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Create the bot">
    Tap the button. Telegram suggests a name and a username for the bot;
    change them if you like, and confirm. The bot is yours, in your Telegram
    account.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Message it">
    Agentick's bot says **Your agent is ready: message @\<bot>**. Open
    that chat and ask. The Channels tab shows the bot as connected.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Let other members talk to it

Any member of the workspace can talk to the agent once they have linked their
own Telegram account. Each member does this once:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Show the QR code">
    Open the agent, then **Channels → Telegram → Show QR code**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Scan it with your phone">
    Point your phone's camera at the code. Telegram opens on the agent's bot;
    tap **Start**. On a computer with Telegram, use **Open it here** instead.
  </Step>

  <Step title="You're linked">
    The bot says your account is linked, and the Channels tab shows it. The
    code works once, for 15 minutes; **Show a new QR code** makes another.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Your Telegram account is linked to you for the whole workspace, so you can
message any of its agents' bots without linking again.

## Talking to it

* **Only your workspace's members.** The bot answers members who have linked
  their Telegram account, checked on every message. Someone removed from the
  workspace is cut off at their next message. Anyone else gets no answer, and
  nothing reaches the agent.
* **One conversation per chat.** Each member's chat with the bot is their own
  conversation with the agent, which remembers what was said before, even
  after it has finished a piece of work.
* **Photos and documents, on Solo and up.** Send the agent a photo or a
  document, up to 20 MB, and it goes onto the conversation's case as a case
  file; a caption is read as your message. The agent can send files back to
  the chat, up to 50 MB. On Free a file is not taken: the bot answers that
  files on Telegram aren't included in the plan and that you can upgrade under
  Settings → Plan, and nothing reaches the agent. Voice messages are not passed
  to the agent yet.
* **Turns.** Each message that sends the agent to work is a turn, counted
  towards your plan's turns for the month. See [Plans](/setup/plans).

What it may do there (reply, or nothing) is on the same tab, under **What it
can do on Telegram**, and **Instructions for Telegram** adds to the agent's
instructions when it is asked there.

## Disconnect it

**Disconnect** on the Channels tab stops the bot reaching the agent and
deletes the bot's key from Agentick. The bot stays in your Telegram account;
delete it there with BotFather if you no longer want it.

## What it means for your data

Your messages and the agent's replies travel through Telegram, a service you
chose, under your agreement with them. The bot's key is sealed in our vault,
like an agent's Slack key. The text of a message you send is classified like a
Slack mention; see [What leaves](/trust/what-leaves). A photo or document you
send is kept with the case as a case file, for 30 days, like a file shared in
Slack; see [Retention](/trust/retention).


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