How to Set Up Claude Code Channels

Claude Code Channels let you send messages to a running Claude Code session from Telegram or Discord. Your session stays on your machine with full access to your filesystem, git, and MCP servers. The messaging app is just a remote interface into it.

The feature shipped on March 20, 2026, as a research preview in Claude Code v2.1.80. It requires a claude.ai subscription (Pro or higher). API key and Console authentication are not supported.

This guide covers setting up both Telegram and Discord channels, including the security model you should configure before using them for real work.

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure you have:

• Claude Code v2.1.80 or later. Run claude -v to check. Update with claude update if needed.
• A claude.ai account (Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise). Console and API key auth won’t work with channels.
• Bun installed. The channel plugins are Bun scripts. Check with bun --version. If it’s not installed, run curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash.
• Team/Enterprise users: your organization admin must enable channels in managed settings before you can use them.

How Channels Work

A channel is an MCP server that runs locally on your machine as a subprocess of Claude Code. It polls a messaging platform’s API for new messages, forwards them into your active session, and sends Claude’s replies back through the same platform.

Nothing is exposed to the internet. The plugin runs locally and makes outbound requests to the Telegram or Discord API. No inbound ports, no webhooks, no public URLs.

Channels come in two types:

• One-way channels forward events like CI alerts or monitoring webhooks into your session. Claude reads them and acts, but doesn’t reply through the channel.
• Two-way channels (like Telegram and Discord) let Claude both receive messages and send replies back through the same platform.

Set Up Telegram

Create a Bot

Open Telegram and start a chat with @BotFather. Send /newbot, then provide a display name and a unique username ending in bot. BotFather replies with a bot token. Copy it.

Install the Plugin

In a Claude Code session, run:

/plugin install telegram@claude-plugins-official

If Claude Code reports the plugin wasn’t found, add the marketplace first:

/plugin marketplace add anthropics/claude-plugins-official

Then retry the install.

Configure Your Token

Pass the bot token from BotFather to the configure command:

/telegram:configure <your-bot-token>

This saves the token to ~/.claude/channels/telegram/.env. You can also set TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN in your shell environment before launching Claude Code.

Launch with Channels Enabled

Exit your current session and restart with the --channels flag:

claude --channels plugin:telegram@claude-plugins-official

The --channels flag is required every session. Having the plugin in .mcp.json alone won’t activate channel message delivery.

Pair Your Account

Open Telegram and send any message to your bot. The bot replies with a pairing code. Back in Claude Code, run:

/telegram:access pair <code>

Then immediately lock down access:

/telegram:access policy allowlist

This restricts your bot to only accept messages from your paired Telegram account. Without this step, anyone who messages your bot gets a pairing code reply.

You can now message your bot from Telegram and Claude will process the request using your local project, then reply in the same chat.

Set Up Discord

Create a Bot

Go to the Discord Developer Portal and click New Application. Name it, then go to the Bot section, create a username, click Reset Token, and copy the token.

Enable Message Content Intent

In your bot’s settings, scroll to Privileged Gateway Intents and toggle on Message Content Intent. Without this, your bot can’t read message content.

Invite the Bot to Your Server

Go to OAuth2 > URL Generator. Select the bot scope and enable these permissions:

• View Channels
• Send Messages
• Send Messages in Threads
• Read Message History
• Attach Files
• Add Reactions

Open the generated URL in your browser to add the bot to your Discord server.

Install the Plugin

In Claude Code, run:

/plugin install discord@claude-plugins-official

Add the marketplace first with /plugin marketplace add anthropics/claude-plugins-official if it’s not found.

Configure Your Token

/discord:configure <your-bot-token>

This saves the token to ~/.claude/channels/discord/.env. Alternatively, set DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN as an environment variable.

Launch with Channels Enabled

claude --channels plugin:discord@claude-plugins-official

Pair Your Account

DM your bot on Discord. It replies with a pairing code. In Claude Code, run:

/discord:access pair <code>

Then lock it down:

/discord:access policy allowlist

Run Multiple Channels

You can enable both Telegram and Discord in a single session by passing multiple plugins to --channels, space-separated:

claude --channels plugin:telegram@claude-plugins-official plugin:discord@claude-plugins-official

Security Considerations

Every approved channel plugin maintains a sender allowlist. Only Telegram or Discord user IDs you’ve explicitly paired can push messages into your session. Everyone else is silently dropped.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Pair, then immediately set allowlist mode. The default pairing mode means anyone who messages your bot gets a code. Switch to allowlist as soon as you’ve paired.
• The --channels flag controls activation. Even if a channel MCP server is in your .mcp.json, it won’t receive messages unless it’s also passed to --channels at launch.
• Permission prompts still apply. If Claude hits a permission prompt (like writing to a file), the session pauses until you approve locally. For unattended use, --dangerously-skip-permissions bypasses this, but only use it in environments you trust.
• Gate on sender, not room. If you build a custom channel, check message.from.id, not message.chat.id. In group chats these differ, and gating on the room lets anyone in that group inject messages.

Build a Custom Channel

Channels are standard MCP servers with one addition: the claude/channel capability in the server constructor. If you want to build a channel for a platform that doesn’t have a plugin yet, or connect a webhook source like CI or monitoring, you can write one from scratch using the @modelcontextprotocol/sdk package.

A minimal one-way webhook receiver that forwards HTTP POSTs into your session:

import { Server } from '@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/index.js'
import { StdioServerTransport } from '@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/stdio.js'

const mcp = new Server(
  { name: 'webhook', version: '0.0.1' },
  {
    capabilities: { experimental: { 'claude/channel': {} } },
    instructions: 'Events from the webhook channel are one-way. Read them and act.',
  },
)

await mcp.connect(new StdioServerTransport())

Bun.serve({
  port: 8788,
  hostname: '127.0.0.1',
  async fetch(req) {
    const body = await req.text()
    await mcp.notification({
      method: 'notifications/claude/channel',
      params: {
        content: body,
        meta: { path: new URL(req.url).pathname, method: req.method },
      },
    })
    return new Response('ok')
  },
})

Register it in .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "webhook": { "command": "bun", "args": ["./webhook.ts"] }
  }
}

Then launch with:

claude --dangerously-load-development-channels server:webhook

The --dangerously-load-development-channels flag is required during the research preview for custom channels that aren’t on the approved allowlist. To make a custom channel installable by others, package it as a plugin and submit it to the official marketplace for security review.

For two-way channels that support replies, add a tools: {} capability and register a reply tool using the standard MCP tool handlers. The full channels reference covers reply tools, sender gating, and the notification format in detail.

Channels in Practice

With channels configured, you can message Claude Code from your phone while a build runs, ask it to check on a failing test from Telegram while you’re away from your desk, or pipe CI failures into a session that already has your codebase loaded. The Telegram and Discord setup takes about five minutes each. The custom webhook path extends the same pattern to any system that can send an HTTP POST, from monitoring and alerting to deploy pipelines.