Channel Capabilities

Each channel declares what it supports — live message edits, reactions, typing indicators, and text limits — so engines adapt automatically without platform-specific agent code.

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(name="bot", instructions="Reply on Telegram with streaming when the channel supports it.")
agent.start("Send a long answer with progressive updates.")

The user receives a reply; channel capabilities tell PraisonAI how to stream, react, and chunk on that platform.

How It Works

Quick Start

Create your agent

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(name="assistant", instructions="Helpful assistant")

Start bots on each channel

from praisonai.bots import TelegramBot, SlackBot, DiscordBot

# Same agent — each channel streams/reacts to whatever it supports
TelegramBot(token="...", agent=agent, streaming=True, status_reactions=True).start()
SlackBot(token="...", agent=agent, streaming=True, status_reactions=True).start()
DiscordBot(token="...", agent=agent, streaming=True, status_reactions=True).start()

Capability Reference

Capability	Type	Meaning
`live_edit`	`bool`	Channel can edit a previously sent message in place
`reactions`	`bool`	Channel supports adding/removing emoji reactions — agents drive these via `send_message(action="react")`
`typing`	`bool`	Channel supports a typing/working indicator
`supports_threads`	`bool`	Channel supports opening a native thread/topic under a channel — agents drive these via `send_message` and the Gateway Threads API
`text_limit`	`int`	Max characters per message (0 = unlimited)
`edit_rate_limit`	`float`	Min seconds between edits (auto-applied)
`reaction_rate_limit`	`float`	Min seconds between reactions (auto-applied)

Per-Channel Matrix

Interactive widget capabilities (buttons, selects, native rendering shape) are governed separately by PresentationLimits — see Bot Presentations and Message Presentation.

Channel	live_edit	reactions	threads	typing	text_limit	edit_rate_limit
Telegram	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	4096	default
Slack	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	40000	1.0
Discord	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	2000	default
WhatsApp	No	No	No	No	4096	—
Email	No	No	No	No	unlimited	—

Table & Chart Support

Native table and chart rendering is governed by PresentationLimits and defaults to off on every channel — see Table & Chart Blocks.

Capability	Telegram	Slack	Discord	WhatsApp
`supports_tables`	`False`	`False`	`False`	`False`
`supports_charts`	`False`	`False`	`False`	`False`

A channel author opts in by returning an updated PresentationLimits (e.g. supports_tables=True) from its capability method. The max_table_rows and max_table_cols clamps bound the size a native renderer receives; when a flag is False, blocks degrade deterministically to a markdown table or text summary.

Graceful Degradation

DraftStreamer, StatusReactions, and TypingManager inspect bot.capabilities and silently no-op when a feature is unsupported — WhatsApp still delivers a single final message; Email skips reactions entirely.

Custom Adapters

@property
def capabilities(self):
    return {
        "live_edit": True,
        "reactions": False,
        "threads": True,
        "typing": True,
        "text_limit": 2000,
        "edit_rate_limit": 1.0,
        "reaction_rate_limit": 0.5,
    }

Best Practices

Enable features once — engines adapt

Turn on streaming=True and status_reactions=True on every bot; DraftStreamer, StatusReactions, and TypingManager no-op automatically when a channel lacks support.

Respect per-channel text limits

Discord caps at 2000 characters, Telegram at 4096. Long replies are split or truncated — design agent output accordingly rather than assuming unlimited length.

Declare capabilities on custom adapters

Implement the capabilities property on new platform bots so rate limits (edit_rate_limit, reaction_rate_limit) and feature flags propagate correctly.

Test degradation on limited channels

Verify WhatsApp and Email bots still deliver a final message when live edits and reactions are unavailable — users should never see a silent failure.

Streaming Replies

Live draft message edits

Status Reactions

Run-state emoji reactions

Agent Reactions

Agent-driven emoji reactions via send_message

Gateway Threads

Open native platform threads under a channel

Typing Indicators

Keepalive typing indicators

Messaging Bots

Full bot setup guide

Getting Started

Install

Core Concepts

Guides

Features

Models

Databases

Observability

Memory

Telemetry & Analytics

Knowledge

RAG

Persistence

Tools

Other Features

Developers

Configuration

Best Practices

Getting Started (No Code)

Channel Capabilities

How It Works

Quick Start

Capability Reference

Per-Channel Matrix

Table & Chart Support

Graceful Degradation

Custom Adapters

Best Practices

Streaming Replies

Status Reactions

Agent Reactions

Gateway Threads

Typing Indicators

Messaging Bots

​How It Works

​Quick Start

​Capability Reference

​Per-Channel Matrix

​Table & Chart Support

​Graceful Degradation

​Custom Adapters

​Best Practices

​Related

Streaming Replies

Status Reactions

Agent Reactions

Gateway Threads

Typing Indicators

Messaging Bots

How It Works

Quick Start

Capability Reference

Per-Channel Matrix

Table & Chart Support

Graceful Degradation

Custom Adapters

Best Practices

Related