Figure out why telegram doesn't work | Friends of the Crustacean 🦞🤝 | Page 1

opal yew May 6, 2026, 4:18 PM

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I'm fairly new to this tech; and having some trouble setting up openclaw (following generic instructions over a blank VPS image). I've got a set of questions, let me start with #1

Q#1: Telegram: In theory I’ve got a bot, it is listening on telegram, an allowlist is configured with my number; everything is reported healthy, yet when I talk to the bot, nothing happens.

openclaw channels status --probe says: Telegram default: enabled, configured, running, connected, mode:polling, bot:@MartonClaw2Bot, token:config, works seems okay from the first glance

When sending messages to the bot; nothing shows up in openclaw logs —follow

When asking the openclaw to send me a telegram message, I’m getting an error saying it doesn’t have the tool for it.

heady ospreyBOT May 6, 2026, 4:18 PM

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To help others find answers, you can mark your question as solved via Right click solution message -> Apps -> ✅ Mark Solution

opal yew May 7, 2026, 5:54 PM

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After setting log levels to debug:

$ cat .openclaw/openclaw.json
{
  "logging": {
    "level": "debug"
  },
(...)

I was able to see the disregarded incoming message.

From there I figured out that the allowlist for telegram is not phone numbers, but some other ID number (that I can't see from web UI) and is visible from the debug logs.

Once changed the allowlist to that ID, telegram channel became usable.

#Figure out why telegram doesn't work