# Connect Your AI Agent to Telegram | Novu Connect

> Put your AI agent on Telegram with fast conversational delivery, rich media, and inline replies. Start with npx novu connect --channel telegram, no account needed to try it.

Canonical: https://www.novu.co/channels/telegram/

Markdown: https://www.novu.co/channels/telegram.md

Reach users with fast, conversational updates, rich media, and replies inside Telegram. Bot-native and developer-friendly, connected once and live everywhere.

Novu Connect puts an existing AI agent on Telegram with fast conversational delivery, rich media, inline keyboards, and two-way replies. Connect it with the command npx novu connect --channel telegram.

Connect command: npx novu connect --channel telegram

## What your agent can do in Telegram

- Fast conversational delivery
- Rich messages and media
- Inline keyboards for quick actions
- Replies routed to the right context

## Example use case

Agent: Lumen (a fictional developer API platform). Talking to: a developer using Lumen's API.

A developer hits rate limits. The agent shows their usage, explains the cause, and upgrades the plan after approval.

- Sam (developer): Getting 429s on the /embeddings endpoint since this morning, am I rate limited?
- Lumen Agent: Yes. You're on the Starter plan (60 req/min) and you've been hitting ~140 req/min since 08:00, so the extra calls get 429s. The Scale plan lifts you to 600 req/min. Upgrade now, or raise a temporary burst limit for today?
- Sam (developer): Upgrade to Scale.
- System: Approve: upgrade this workspace to the Scale plan (600 req/min).
- Lumen Agent: Done. You're on Scale now, 600 req/min is live and the 429s should stop within a minute. Your usage is at 23% of the new limit.

## How to connect

Telegram works in the keyless quickstart. Run npx novu connect --channel telegram to get a managed agent on Telegram, no account needed for the first few replies.

Prompt for your coding agent: Connect my agent to Telegram with Novu using instructions from https://novu.co/agents.md

## Telegram and Novu Connect, common questions

### How do I connect my AI agent to Telegram?

Run npx novu connect --channel telegram, or paste the prompt above into your coding agent. Novu Connect handles the bot, user identity, and two-way routing so your agent code stays the same.

### Can the agent use inline keyboards and rich media?

Yes. Novu Connect renders native Telegram elements including inline keyboards and rich media, and routes each reply back to your agent.

### Does Novu run the agent's intelligence?

No. Novu Connect is the communication layer, the ACI, Agent Communication Infrastructure, bridge between your agent and Telegram. You own the agent's intelligence.

### What can an AI agent do on Telegram?

Telegram suits developer and bot-native agents: an SDK setup agent that gets developers to their first API call, an API reference agent, a webhook debug agent, and a plan advisor that reads usage and recommends the right plan. Start any of them in one click from the templates on this page.

### Which other channels can the same agent reach?

The same agent can reach users on Slack, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, Telegram, Email, and iMessage through Novu Connect, with one conversation thread across channels.