---
title: "Overview"
description: "Reach your agent from a messaging app"
---

Channels let people reach your agent from somewhere other than the web interface. IronClaw
supports Slack and Telegram.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Slack" icon="slack" href="/channels/slack">
    Talk to your agent in Slack channels and direct messages.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Telegram" icon="send" href="/channels/telegram">
    Talk to your agent in Telegram direct messages and group chats.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

---

## How Channels Work

A channel is one capability surface of an extension. Installing the Slack or Telegram
extension gives your agent the ability to receive and send messages there; the extension's
manifest declares the channel surface alongside any tools it provides.

Setup happens in the [web interface](/using/webui). Start the server, connect the channel,
and the setup flow walks you through the credentials it needs and stores them encrypted.

```bash
ironclaw serve
```

<Note>
Channel credentials are stored in the encrypted secret store, not in `config.toml`. Your
configuration file names the environment variables that hold them, never the values
themselves. See [Security](/security).
</Note>

---

## Where Channel Setup Lives

This is the single most common thing to get stuck on, so it's worth being precise.

<Steps>

<Step title="Open Extensions, then switch to the Channels tab">

In the sidebar, open **Extensions**. It opens on the **Registry** tab.

<Warning>
Registry is *not* where channels are set up. Click across to the **Channels** tab. Using
**Configure** on a channel from the Registry tab leads to a dead end — see below.
</Warning>

</Step>

<Step title="Scroll to the bottom of the Built-in section">

The Channels tab opens with a **Built-in** panel. The Slack and Telegram connect cards are
at the **bottom of that panel**, below the rows for the web and terminal channels. They're
easy to miss on a short window — scroll.

</Step>

<Step title="Use Configure on the channel's card">

That card is the real setup surface. For Telegram it's where an operator enters the bot
token; for Slack it's where the app credentials go.

</Step>

</Steps>

### Two Dead Ends to Know About

<AccordionGroup>

<Accordion title="Configure on the Registry tab errors instead of setting up">

Telegram appears in the Registry tab, and its **Configure** button opens the *pairing*
panel. Pairing assumes the bot is already configured, so if it isn't, the only thing that
surface can do is report:

```
An administrator must configure the Telegram bot first.
```

That message is accurate but misleading — it reads like you lack permission. Nothing is
wrong with your account. Go to the **Channels** tab and use the card at the bottom of the
Built-in section instead.

</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Asking the agent to connect a channel doesn't work">

"Connect Slack" or "set up Telegram" in chat will not get you connected. The agent can
install and use *tool* extensions on your behalf, but the channel connection is
deliberately kept out of the tools it can drive — connecting a channel is an operator
action, so it stays in the web interface where you can see what you're authorizing.

The agent may tell you it can't help. Do it yourself using the path above.

</Accordion>

</AccordionGroup>

<Info>
Telegram has **two** setup steps that are easy to confuse: an operator configures the bot
token once for the whole instance, and then each person pairs their own Telegram account
to their IronClaw user. The "administrator must configure" error means step one hasn't
happened yet.
</Info>

---

## Receiving Messages

Both channels deliver events by webhook, so the messaging platform needs to reach your
IronClaw instance over HTTPS. On a laptop behind NAT that means either a public host or a
forwarding service; a served deployment already has a reachable URL.

Each channel's page covers the exact callback URL to register.

---

## Not Using a Channel?

You don't need one. The [web interface](/using/webui) and the terminal both talk to the
same agent:

```bash
ironclaw repl
ironclaw run -m "What's on my calendar today?"
```

<Info>
Discord, Signal, WeChat, and WeCom were available in IronClaw v1 and are not part of the
1.0 release. If you depend on one of them, stay on v1 until it returns.
</Info>