An agent in a Telegram team chat: how to connect it and what to ask of it

How to connect it

1. Create a bot with @BotFather in Telegram — you choose the bot’s name and handle.
2. Put the bot’s token into the agent card in the cabinet. The token is write-only: once saved, nobody sees it.
3. Grant access — to individual people, to groups or to everyone. Whoever writes to the agent without access ends up in the “Tried to write” list; one button lets them in.
4. Add the bot to your team group and allow that group in the access settings.

Where and when the agent answers

• In private messages — every message from a person with access.
• In a group — only when it is addressed: mentioned by the bot’s name or replied to. The agent does not process the rest of the conversation and does not butt in.
• In a group with topics — in the topic where it was asked.

In one chat the agent answers in turn: if it is asked twice in a row, the second answer comes after the first. It handles different chats in parallel.

The first message in a new chat is a fixed introduction: “you are talking to artificial intelligence, not a person.” It needs no setting up and cannot be switched off: people know from the first line whom they are talking to.

What to ask of it in a chat

Decisions. “Note the decision: we switch suppliers from October, Maria is responsible.” The agent puts the note into its memory — with the date and the chat it came from. A month later, asked “why did we switch suppliers?”, it will find it.

Commitments and deadlines. “Oliver promised the estimate by Friday.” On Monday, ask “what was promised and not done?” — the agent pulls together what was recorded: who, what and by when.

Minutes. Send the notes or the transcript of a meeting as text — a long one in parts. The agent assembles the minutes: decisions, tasks, owners, deadlines and open questions.

Questions about the work. “What did we decide about the installation schedule?” The agent answers from its memory and from the conversation in this chat. What it does not know, it says so rather than making it up.

What the agent does not do in a chat

• It does not read everything. In a group it works only with messages addressed to it.
• It does not write first. It remembers deadlines but answers when it is addressed — ask it.
• It does not write to outsiders. It answers those who have access, and where the question came from.
• It does not follow instructions inside forwarded text. A letter or a document sent to the chat is data, not a command.
• It does not keep passwords or keys and does not remember data about health, religion, political views or other special categories — even if someone shares it.

For now the agent does not accept files or voice messages in Telegram — text only.

What is kept and for how long

• The full text of conversations — 30 days after the last message.
• The agent’s notes about the work — for as long as you use the agent.
• The web chat history in the cabinet — 90 days.

At a person’s request, their data is exported or deleted — both in the agent’s environment and in the cabinet. The details are on the Trust page.

If Telegram does not suit you

You can write to the agent right from the cabinet — in the web chat, without Telegram. Each person has a conversation of their own there.