Connect Claude Code to Telegram in 5 Minutes

Claude Code Channels — launched March 20, 2026 as a research preview — turns your running Claude Code session into something you can poke from your phone. It’s an MCP server that pushes session events outward to a platform (Telegram or Discord) and routes your replies back in. Two-way, real-time, no polling.

Practical upshot: kick off a long build, go make coffee, get a Telegram ping when it finishes. Or approve a risky tool call without walking back to your desk.

What You’ll Build

A Telegram bot connected to your Claude Code session. Once set up, you can:

• Receive notifications when Claude finishes a task or hits a decision point
• Reply directly in Telegram to continue the conversation
• Approve or reject tool use from your phone
• Run quick queries against your codebase without opening your laptop

Setup takes about 5 minutes. The connection persists across sessions as long as the bot token is valid.

Prerequisites

• Claude Code v2.1.80+ — run claude --version to check. Update via npm i -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code if needed.
• Bun runtime — Channels uses Bun under the hood. Install it if you haven’t:

  curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

• A Telegram account — any account works; you’ll create a bot through Telegram’s own tooling.
• 5 minutes

Step 1: Create a Telegram Bot

Open Telegram and start a chat with @BotFather. Run:

/newbot

BotFather walks you through naming your bot, then hands you a token that looks like:

7412093841:AAF3k2j1mNpQrXtYvWzBcDeGhIjKlMnOpQ

Copy it. You’ll need it in the next step. Keep it private — anyone with this token can send messages as your bot.

Step 2: Configure the Channel in Claude Code

Open your Claude Code settings file. If you’re on macOS:

open ~/.claude/settings.json


Add a `channels` block. If `mcpServers` already exists, add `channels` alongside it at the top level:

```json
{
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "botToken": "7412093841:AAF3k2j1mNpQrXtYvWzBcDeGhIjKlMnOpQ",
      "allowedChatIds": []
    }
  }
}


Leave `allowedChatIds` empty for now — you'll fill it in after the next step.

---

## Step 3: Get Your Chat ID

Start Claude Code in any project:

```bash
claude


Now open Telegram and send any message to your new bot. Claude Code is listening. Back in your terminal, you'll see something like:


[channels/telegram] Received message from chat 198472610 (@yourhandle)
Chat ID not in allowedChatIds — ignoring. Add 198472610 to settings to enable.


That number is your chat ID. Copy it and add it to your settings:

```json
{
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "botToken": "7412093841:AAF3k2j1mNpQrXtYvWzBcDeGhIjKlMnOpQ",
      "allowedChatIds": [198472610]
    }
  }
}


The allowlist is how you prevent random Telegram users from talking to your session. Only add IDs you trust.

---

## Step 4: Restart and Verify

Quit Claude Code and relaunch it:

```bash
claude


Send your bot a message in Telegram — something simple like "what files are in this project?" Claude Code receives it, processes it against your active session, and replies in the same Telegram chat.

You should see a response within a few seconds. If you don't, check Step 5 below.

---

## Step 5: Troubleshoot Common Issues

**Bot doesn't respond:**
- Confirm Bun is installed and on your `$PATH`: `bun --version`
- Make sure your chat ID is in `allowedChatIds` (easy to mistype)
- Check Claude Code logs: `claude --debug` shows MCP server startup events

**"Invalid token" error on startup:**
- BotFather tokens are sensitive to whitespace. Re-copy the token directly from the BotFather chat.

**Replies show up in Claude's terminal but not Telegram:**
- Your bot may not have permission to send messages. Go back to BotFather, run `/mybots`, select your bot, and verify it's enabled.

---

## Result

Once connected, your Claude Code session is reachable wherever you have Telegram. Long-running tasks report back to you. Tool-use approvals don't require you to be at your desk. You can ask quick questions about the codebase from your phone and get real answers — not hallucinated ones — because Claude is talking to your actual session.

The Channels architecture is MCP-native, which means platform support is plugin-extensible. Telegram and Discord ship officially; community plugins for Slack and others are already appearing in the wild.

The research preview label means the API surface may shift before GA. Watch the [Channels docs](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/channels) for breaking changes before updating Claude Code versions.