Multi-Channel Bots

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(name="multi-channel-bot", instructions="Respond across Telegram, Slack, and Discord.")
agent.start("Handle the same question from users on all three platforms.")

The user deploys role-specific bots on one platform; each token routes to its agent. Deploy multiple specialized bots on the same platform with unique tokens and role-specific routing.

Quick Start

Bot(...).run() auto-reconnects on a dropped connection by default — see Auto-reconnect on long-running-bots.

Run onboard wizard

Start the wizard and choose your platform:

praisonai onboard

Choose telegram for your first platform, then when prompted “Add another bot channel?” answer Yes and enter roles like cfo, ops, content.

Configure tokens

The wizard generates unique environment variables for each channel:

# Tokens are saved to ~/.praisonai/.env automatically
TELEGRAM_CFO_BOT_TOKEN=123456789:ABC...
TELEGRAM_OPS_BOT_TOKEN=987654321:DEF...
TELEGRAM_CONTENT_BOT_TOKEN=456789123:GHI...
TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS=123456789,987654321

If you leave TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS empty, you must also set unknown_user_policy: "allow" for the bot to reply to anyone (since PR #1885). For production, set TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS to your user IDs and leave unknown_user_policy at the default "deny".

Start the gateway

Launch all bots simultaneously:

praisonai gateway start

All configured bots will connect and route to their specialized agents.

How It Works

Multi-channel setup routes each bot to its specialized agent based on the channel configuration.

Environment Variable Convention

Follow this exact naming pattern for multiple bots on the same platform:

Channel key	Environment Variable	Bot Purpose
`telegram_cfo`	`TELEGRAM_CFO_BOT_TOKEN`	CFO-related tasks
`telegram_ops`	`TELEGRAM_OPS_BOT_TOKEN`	Operations tasks
`telegram_content`	`TELEGRAM_CONTENT_BOT_TOKEN`	Content creation
`telegram_support`	`TELEGRAM_SUPPORT_BOT_TOKEN`	Customer support

Pattern: <PLATFORM>_<ROLE>_BOT_TOKEN (uppercase, role separated by underscore).

Example Configuration

This bot.yaml shows a complete multi-channel workforce setup:

gateway:
  host: "127.0.0.1"
  port: 8765

agents:
  cfo:
    instructions: "You are a CFO agent. Help with financial analysis, budget planning, and cost optimization."
    model: gpt-4o-mini
    memory: false
  ops:
    instructions: "You are an ops agent. Help with system monitoring, deployment, and infrastructure."
    model: gpt-4o-mini
    memory: false
  content:
    instructions: "You are a content agent. Help with writing, editing, and content strategy."
    model: gpt-4o-mini
    memory: false

channels:
  telegram_cfo:
    platform: telegram
    token: ${TELEGRAM_CFO_BOT_TOKEN}
    group_policy: mention_only
    allowed_users: ${TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS}
    routes:
      default: cfo
  telegram_ops:
    platform: telegram
    token: ${TELEGRAM_OPS_BOT_TOKEN}
    group_policy: mention_only
    allowed_users: ${TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS}
    routes:
      default: ops
  telegram_content:
    platform: telegram
    token: ${TELEGRAM_CONTENT_BOT_TOKEN}
    group_policy: mention_only
    allowed_users: ${TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS}
    routes:
      default: content

group_policy accepts any of mention_only, command_only, respond_all, or observe per channel. observe keeps unmentioned Telegram group messages as passive context. See observe: passive group context.

Common Patterns

Single platform, multiple roles
Cross-platform workforce

Deploy multiple specialized bots on one platform:

channels:
  telegram_finance:
    platform: telegram
    token: ${TELEGRAM_FINANCE_BOT_TOKEN}
    routes:
      default: finance_agent
  
  telegram_hr:
    platform: telegram
    token: ${TELEGRAM_HR_BOT_TOKEN}
    routes:
      default: hr_agent
  
  telegram_marketing:
    platform: telegram
    token: ${TELEGRAM_MARKETING_BOT_TOKEN}
    routes:
      default: marketing_agent

Distribute roles across different platforms:

channels:
  telegram_cfo:
    platform: telegram
    token: ${TELEGRAM_CFO_BOT_TOKEN}
    routes:
      default: cfo
  
  discord_ops:
    platform: discord
    token: ${DISCORD_OPS_BOT_TOKEN}
    routes:
      default: ops
  
  slack_content:
    platform: slack
    token: ${SLACK_CONTENT_BOT_TOKEN}
    routes:
      default: content

Validation with `praisonai doctor`

The multi_channel_tokens check validates your setup:

PASS Conditions

Each channel has a unique environment variable
Each environment variable resolves to a unique token value
Follows PLATFORM_<ROLE>_BOT_TOKEN naming convention

WARN Conditions

Environment variable doesn’t follow naming convention
Environment variable is unset but referenced in config

FAIL Conditions

Two channels point to the same environment variable
Two environment variables resolve to the same token value

Sample output:

$ praisonai doctor
✓ Multi-Channel Token Configuration: Multi-channel configuration looks good (3 channels)

Remediation: Each channel must have a unique bot token. Create separate bots in @BotFather and use unique environment variables.

Best Practices

Use unique tokens per role

Create a separate bot in @BotFather for each role. Never reuse the same token across multiple channels as this will cause conflicts and validation failures.

Follow naming convention

Stick to the PLATFORM_<ROLE>_BOT_TOKEN pattern so the doctor check passes. This makes it clear which token belongs to which channel and role.

Secure token storage

Keep all role tokens in ~/.praisonai/.env with chmod 600 permissions. Never commit tokens to version control or share them publicly.

Role-specific access control

Each role can have its own allowed_users environment variable for granular access control. For example, only finance team members should access the CFO bot.

When to Use Multi-Channel

Bot Onboarding

Set up your first bot with the interactive wizard

Messaging Bots

Core bot functionality and platform integration

Bot Routing

Advanced routing patterns and agent selection

Bot Security

Security best practices for bot deployments

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)

Multi-Channel Bots

Quick Start

How It Works

Environment Variable Convention

Example Configuration

Common Patterns

Validation with `praisonai doctor`

PASS Conditions

WARN Conditions

FAIL Conditions

Best Practices

When to Use Multi-Channel

Bot Onboarding

Messaging Bots

Bot Routing

Bot Security

​Quick Start

​How It Works

​Environment Variable Convention

​Example Configuration

​Common Patterns

​Validation with praisonai doctor

​PASS Conditions

​WARN Conditions

​FAIL Conditions

​Best Practices

​When to Use Multi-Channel

​Related

Bot Onboarding

Messaging Bots

Bot Routing

Bot Security

Quick Start

How It Works

Environment Variable Convention

Example Configuration

Common Patterns

Validation with `praisonai doctor`

PASS Conditions

WARN Conditions

FAIL Conditions

Best Practices

When to Use Multi-Channel

Related