What you're building
A two-way bridge between your phone's Telegram app and Claude Desktop. You message your bot → Claude reads via MCP → Claude responds → reply lands in your Telegram. From your phone it feels like texting a friend; behind the scenes it's a Telegram bot connected to a Claude Desktop instance running on a 24/7 host.
What you need
- A host running Claude Desktop. Anything that doesn't sleep: a Mac mini at home, a managed cloud desktop like Standby, or any always-on PC.
- Telegram installed on your phone. Free.
- ~15 minutes.
- $0 — no Telegram fees, no Anthropic API charges (we're using your existing Claude Desktop subscription).
Step 1 — Create the Telegram bot (2 min)
- Open Telegram on your phone.
- In the search bar, find
@BotFather(Telegram's official bot for creating bots). - Send
/newbot. - Pick a display name. e.g., "Kam's Claude"
- Pick a username — must end in
bot. e.g.,kams_claude_bot - BotFather replies with a bot token. Save it — it looks like
123456:ABC-DEF1234ghIkl-zyx57W2v1u123ew11.
This token is the bot's password. Anyone with it can send messages as your bot — keep it private. If it leaks, regenerate with /revoke in BotFather.
Step 2 — Install the Telegram MCP server (5 min)
The MCP (Model Context Protocol) server is the bridge that lets Claude Desktop talk to Telegram. Several open-source options exist; we'll use a common one.
- On the host running Claude Desktop, open a terminal (PowerShell or bash).
- Clone a Telegram MCP server. Common choices:
chaindead/telegram-mcp, ortelegram-bot-mcpon npm. - Install dependencies:
npm installorpip installdepending on the server. - Note the install path. You'll reference it in the next step.
If you're on Standby Pro or Business, this is pre-installed at C:\Standby\telegram-mcp\.
Step 3 — Configure Claude Desktop (3 min)
Edit %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows) or ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS). Add an entry like:
{
"mcpServers": {
"telegram": {
"command": "node",
"args": ["C:\\Standby\\telegram-mcp\\index.js"],
"env": {
"TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN": "<your token from step 1>"
}
}
}
}
Replace the path with your actual install path. Save the file.
Step 4 — Restart Claude Desktop
Quit Claude Desktop completely (not just close the window — fully quit). Reopen it. Look for the MCP icon in the bottom of the chat window — it should show "telegram" as connected. If it errors, check the path in step 3 and the token in step 1.
Step 5 — Test it
- On your phone, open Telegram, search for your bot's username (the one you set in step 1), and tap to start a chat.
- Send any message — try
hi, what's on my calendar today? - Claude on the desktop receives it via the MCP, processes it (potentially calling other tools like Calendar), and replies.
- The reply appears in your Telegram chat within seconds.
That's it. You can now text Claude from anywhere on the planet, as long as the host running Claude Desktop is alive.
Common workflows people set up
- Morning brief — A scheduled task at 6 AM calls Claude to scan your inbox, news, Slack, and Substack queue. Claude messages you the brief via Telegram. You wake up to it.
- Inbox triage on the go — Forward an email to a Standby alias, Claude drafts a reply via Telegram for you to approve/edit/send.
- Code search — Text Claude a question about your codebase from your phone. Claude reads the repo on the cloud desktop, replies in Telegram with the answer.
- Late-night idea capture — Text a half-formed idea, Claude turns it into a doc draft saved to your desktop for morning review.
Why this needs an always-on host
The Telegram MCP server runs on the same host as Claude Desktop. When the host sleeps, the bot stops responding. Customers tell us this is the biggest "wait, why doesn't it work?" moment after setting it up — they pair the bot, message it, get a reply, then it goes silent that night when the laptop sleeps.
Three reliable hosts for "Telegram-Claude always works":
- Mac mini at home with sleep disabled — free if you own one, 95% uptime.
- Self-managed Windows VPS at $14–18/month — 99.5% uptime, you handle OS patches.
- Managed cloud desktop like Standby at $29/month — 99.9% uptime, we handle everything.
What about WhatsApp?
WhatsApp does not have a clean official bot API for personal use. Their WhatsApp Business API requires Meta approval, KYC, and ~$50/month. Unofficial bridges (Baileys, whatsmeow) pair with WhatsApp Web but violate WhatsApp's ToS and can get accounts banned. We don't recommend WhatsApp for Claude integration.
If Telegram isn't a fit, Slack and Discord both have clean official APIs and Claude MCPs that work great. Standby installs either on request.