Anthropic just shipped Claude Code Channels in research preview — a feature that lets you connect your running Claude Code session to Telegram, Discord, iMessage, or a custom webhook. Once connected, you can send messages to your coding agent and receive updates from it on your phone or in your preferred chat platform, without being tied to your terminal.

This guide walks through setting up the two most practical channels: Telegram and Discord.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have:

  • Claude Code installed and authenticated (claude --version should return a version number)
  • A Claude Max or API subscription (Channels is available in research preview for paid tiers)
  • Node.js 18+ installed
  • Either a Telegram account or a Discord account

Setting Up Claude Code Channels with Telegram

Step 1: Create a Telegram Bot

  1. Open Telegram and search for @BotFather
  2. Send /newbot to BotFather
  3. Choose a name for your bot (e.g., “My Claude Code Bot”)
  4. Choose a username (must end in bot, e.g., myclaudecode_bot)
  5. BotFather will return a bot token — save this, you’ll need it shortly

Step 2: Get Your Chat ID

  1. Send any message to your new bot (start with /start)
  2. Open a browser and visit: https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_BOT_TOKEN>/getUpdates
  3. In the JSON response, find "chat":{"id": 123456789} — that number is your chat ID

Step 3: Configure Claude Code Channels

In your terminal, run:

claude channels add telegram \
  --bot-token "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN" \
  --chat-id "YOUR_CHAT_ID" \
  --name "my-telegram"

Verify it’s configured:

claude channels list

You should see my-telegram (telegram) in the output.

Step 4: Start a Session with Telegram Enabled

claude --channel my-telegram

Claude Code will confirm the channel is active and send a test message to your Telegram bot. From this point, any Claude Code session status updates, decision points, and completion notifications will be sent to your Telegram chat.

To send instructions to your agent from Telegram, simply message your bot.

Setting Up Claude Code Channels with Discord

Step 1: Create a Discord Application and Bot

  1. Go to discord.com/developers/applications
  2. Click New Application and give it a name
  3. Go to the Bot section in the left sidebar
  4. Click Add Bot and confirm
  5. Under Token, click Reset Token and copy the token — save it securely

Step 2: Invite the Bot to Your Server

  1. Go to OAuth2 → URL Generator in your Discord application settings
  2. Under Scopes, check bot
  3. Under Bot Permissions, check Send Messages and Read Message History
  4. Copy the generated URL and open it in your browser
  5. Select the server you want to add the bot to and confirm

Step 3: Get the Channel ID

  1. In Discord, enable Developer Mode: Settings → Advanced → Developer Mode
  2. Right-click the channel you want to use and select Copy Channel ID

Step 4: Configure Claude Code Channels

claude channels add discord \
  --bot-token "YOUR_DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN" \
  --channel-id "YOUR_CHANNEL_ID" \
  --name "my-discord"

Verify:

claude channels list

Step 5: Start a Session with Discord Enabled

claude --channel my-discord

Claude Code will send a confirmation message to your Discord channel. You can now send messages to Claude Code by typing in that channel, and it will receive them and act on them.

Using Multiple Channels Simultaneously

You can attach more than one channel to a session:

claude --channel my-telegram --channel my-discord

This is useful if you want Telegram for personal notifications and Discord for team visibility.

Practical Patterns

Long-running refactor with mobile check-ins: Start a large refactor task, attach your Telegram channel, and go do something else. When Claude Code hits a decision point (“Found conflicting interface definitions — which version should I prefer?”), you’ll get a Telegram message. Reply from your phone. The session continues.

claude --channel my-telegram "Refactor the authentication module to use JWT. Use the patterns from auth-v2.ts as the reference implementation."

Team visibility via Discord: Attach a shared Discord channel so your whole team can see what the coding agent is doing — without everyone needing to be in the terminal.

Overnight tasks: Set up a complex task before you go to sleep. If Claude Code completes it or gets stuck, you’ll see it in Telegram in the morning.

Troubleshooting

Bot token invalid: Make sure you copied the full token from BotFather or the Discord developer portal, with no trailing spaces.

No messages arriving: Check that the bot has been invited to the correct channel/chat and has permission to send messages. For Telegram, confirm your chat ID by revisiting the /getUpdates endpoint.

Session not responding to messages: Confirm the session is still running (claude sessions list). Channels only work with active sessions — if the session ended, responses won’t be delivered.

Rate limiting: Claude Code Channels has message rate limits during the research preview. Avoid sending more than one message every 10 seconds.

What’s Next

Channels is in research preview — expect the setup process to become smoother over time. Anthropic’s official documentation is at code.claude.com/docs/en/channels and is actively being updated.

If you’re running multiple agents or want always-on channel connections without needing to pass --channel on every session start, watch the documentation for persistent channel configuration — that capability is likely coming as the feature matures.

Sources

  1. Anthropic Claude Code Channels Documentation
  2. VentureBeat — Anthropic Claude Code Channels announcement
  3. Telegram BotFather documentation
  4. Discord Developer Portal

Researched by Searcher → Analyzed by Analyst → Written by Writer Agent (Sonnet 4.6). Full pipeline log: subagentic-20260319-2000

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