How to use the Telegram Notifications Setup agent skill

What does the Telegram Notifications Setup skill make the agent do?

Sentinel is the Hive notification channel. It pings you on Telegram when a colony stalls and lets you reply to keep the colony going. Sentinel needs one thing: a Telegram bot token, which looks like 123456:ABC-… and is created through @BotFather. The skill stores that token under the credential id telegram. The same token sends alerts and reads your replies.

The agent uses the sentinel_setup tool to do the work end to end: create the bot, store the token, detect the chat, point Sentinel at it, and send a test message. The skill is designed so you do not have to paste anything by hand.

• Creates a bot via @BotFather in Telegram Web
• Stores the bot token using sentinel_setup
• Detects the chat to notify and the sender to allow
• Turns Sentinel on for the colony and sends a test message

How do I install the skill?

Download the skill ZIP from this page and unzip it. Then place the unzipped folder in one of these locations, depending on how you use your agent. Use ~/.claude/skills/ for a personal install, or a project's .claude/skills/ folder to limit it to one project.

If you use the Claude apps, you can upload the ZIP instead. Open Settings, go to Capabilities, then Skills, and upload it there.

The skill depends on hive.browser-automation, so install and activate that skill too. The skill tells the agent to activate it first.

• Personal install: unzip into ~/.claude/skills/
• Project install: unzip into the project's .claude/skills/
• Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload the ZIP
• Also install hive.browser-automation, which must be activated first

What do I need before I start?

You need a Telegram account, because you talk to @BotFather and create the bot from it. You also need Google Chrome with your own Telegram Web session already logged in. The agent cannot log in for you. It does not have your phone or SMS code, so if Telegram Web shows a QR code or a phone-number login, you must log in yourself first.

The agent also needs the Hive sentinel_setup tool available. The skill is for users who can use their own Chrome. If you cannot, this skill will not work for you.

• A Telegram account
• Google Chrome with your Telegram Web session logged in
• The hive.browser-automation skill, activated first
• The Hive sentinel_setup tool

How do I trigger the skill with a natural request?

You can ask in plain language. The skill responds to requests such as “set up Telegram notifications”, “get pinged on Telegram”, “connect Telegram for alerts”, or “set up Sentinel on Telegram”. You can also click the in-app “Set this up with the agent” button on the Telegram step.

When the agent starts, it first checks whether Telegram is already configured. If a token is already stored, it reuses that bot instead of creating a new one.

• “Set up Telegram notifications for my colony.”
• “Get me pinged on Telegram when the colony stalls.”
• “Connect Telegram for alerts and set up Sentinel.”
• Or click “Set this up with the agent” on the Telegram step

How does the setup walk through each step?

The agent first checks status with sentinel_setup, then confirms you are logged into Telegram Web. It opens @BotFather through in-app search, not t.me links, and sends /newbot. You choose a display name and a username that ends in bot. BotFather replies with your token, and the agent reads that token as text, not from a screenshot, so characters are not misread.

Next, the agent stores the token. The tool checks it with getMe and reports the bot's username. Then you message the bot once, because Telegram bots can only message a user or group after that chat has messaged the bot first. The agent runs detect_chat to find the chat and sender. Finally, it configures Sentinel with that chat, adds the sender to the allowlist, enables it, and runs a test.

What safety points should I know before running it?

This skill runs scripts and uses the network. It drives your own Chrome and creates a bot in your Telegram account. The bot token grants control of that bot, and the skill describes a flow that sends and reads messages in your Telegram account. Only run it if you are comfortable with an agent doing that.

The skill also says the agent must never launch or kill a browser. It attaches to your existing Chrome. It must not invent or paraphrase a token. If you are setting up a group chat, be aware of Telegram's privacy mode: the bot may not read group messages unless you change the setting in BotFather with /setprivacy.

• The agent drives your existing Chrome and does not launch or kill browsers
• Never share the bot token, since it grants control of the bot
• Use the allowlist so only your sender can drive the colony
• For group chats, check privacy mode with /setprivacy before relying on it

What are the best tips and troubleshooting checks?

If the test message does not arrive, the usual causes are that the chat has not messaged the bot yet, the chat_id is wrong, or privacy mode is still on in a group. If detect_chat returns PENDING, the message has not arrived yet. Send /start or your message, then retry. Do not try to decrypt credentials or poll the Telegram API by hand, because the skill warns that this fights the background listener.

You can review or change the setup later under Automations → Set up Sentinel. Running sentinel_setup status shows the stored token and the colony's current config at any time.

• PENDING from detect_chat: send /start or a message, then retry
• Test fails: check the chat has messaged the bot, the chat_id, and group privacy mode
• Review settings under Automations → Set up Sentinel