Your AI. Always on. Zero extra cost.

An open-source Telegram gateway that turns your Claude subscription into a persistent, always-online AI assistant. No API fees. No third-party services. Just you and Claude.

Get Started Read the Docs
Quick Start 
# Clone and configure
$ git clone https://github.com/Kenny1338/claude-telegram-gateway.git
$ cd claude-telegram-gateway
$ cp .env.example .env && nano .env

# Install and run
$ pip install -r requirements.txt
$ python gateway.py

Features

Everything you need, nothing you don't

Built for power users who want Claude available 24/7 without paying per-token API costs.

Persistent Sessions

Claude remembers context across messages. Resume conversations seamlessly with session persistence and automatic context management.

Scheduled Triggers

Cron jobs, intervals, one-shot timers. Claude can self-manage its own scheduled tasks through a simple YAML config.

Voice In/Out

Send voice messages transcribed via Whisper. Get spoken responses through ElevenLabs TTS. Full voice conversation support.

File Handling

Send photos, documents, and videos directly through Telegram. Claude processes and responds with files when needed.

Budget Tracking

Monitor usage per-day and per-session. Set limits, get alerts, and stay in control of your subscription usage.

Control API

Built-in HTTP API for monitoring, health checks, and dashboard integration. Full observability out of the box.

How it works

Three steps. That's it.

1

You message your Telegram bot

Send a text, voice note, or file to your personal Telegram bot. The gateway picks it up instantly.

→
2

Gateway spawns the CLI

The daemon runs claude -p --resume <session> with your message. No API key needed.

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3

Response streams back

Claude's reply is chunked and sent back to Telegram in real-time. Markdown formatting preserved.

The key insight: Claude Pro and Max subscriptions include the CLI at no additional cost. API calls are billed separately. This gateway routes everything through the CLI — your existing subscription covers it entirely.

Architecture

Simple by design

A lightweight Python daemon. No database. No message queue. No complexity tax.

Telegram
→
Gateway (Python daemon)
→
claude CLI
→
Gateway
→
Telegram

Request → Process → Respond. No intermediaries.

Born from necessity

Built in 48 hours when the alternatives disappeared

When Anthropic started charging extra for third-party harnesses in April 2026, the community lost tools like OpenClaw overnight. This gateway was built as a response — lean, focused, and designed to work within the rules. No API keys. No billing surprises. Just the CLI subscription you already pay for, routed through Telegram.