Telegram Gateway

Carina connects to Telegram via long polling when TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN is set.

Setup

1. Open @BotFather, create a bot, copy the token.

2. Add to .env:

   TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=123456:ABC-DEF...

3. Start Carina (pnpm cli, carina, or pnpm dev).

4. Find your bot in Telegram and send /start.

Behaviour

• Streaming - Responses update the same message about every second until complete.
• Long messages - Text over 4096 characters is split into multiple messages automatically.
• Commands - /help, /provider, /provider deepseek, /clear, /memories, /memories delete <id> work like the CLI.
• Session - One persistent session per Telegram user id; memory survives bot restarts when Postgres is configured.

Webhook mode

Set TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_URL to your public HTTPS endpoint if you prefer webhooks over polling. The gateway must be reachable from Telegram servers.

Limits

• No /recall or /skills on Telegram (CLI-only).
• Tool confirmation uses Telegram reply flow when a dangerous tool is proposed (same y/N semantics as CLI where supported).

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
Telegram gateway skipped at startup	Set TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN
Bot silent	Check token, restart Carina, send /start
Rate limits from Telegram	Reduce message frequency; Carina batches edits during streaming