Anthropic has announced Claude Code Channels, a way to connect its AI agent management system, Claude Code, to Discord or Telegram messengers. This allows users to interact directly with Claude Code at any time, while on the go, and give him instructions on how to write code.
Anthropic has announced Claude Code Channels, a way to connect its AI agent management system, Claude Code, to Discord or Telegram messengers. This allows users to interact directly with Claude Code at any time, while on the go, and give him instructions on how to write code.
Previously, Claude Code users were limited to working with the agent environment through the desktop app, terminal, or supported IDEs, as well as through the Claude mobile app using a setting called Remote Control, VentureBeat writes .
Now Anthropic offers the same basic functionality as OpenClaw. Its main attraction to OpenClaw was the ability to have a permanent personal AI assistant, to whom you can write 24/7 at any time through the usual messengers - iMessage, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp or Discord. And this AI did not just support the conversation, but performed real work autonomously: from writing and sorting emails and files to creating full-fledged applications, sending out job applications on behalf of the user and conducting complex marketing campaigns on social networks. As soon as the AI completes a task, it instantly notifies the owner about it in the messenger convenient for him.
By providing Claude Code with this basic functionality — the ability to receive tasks via popular third-party applications Discord and Telegram and report on their completion — Anthropic has effectively eliminated the advantages of OpenClaw. Now users get the same comfortable chat interface, but with bonuses from a large corporation: data security guarantees and an interface that even a non-programmer will understand. This is a product that works right out of the box, without requiring complex settings.
The foundation of this update is the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard that Anthropic introduced back in 2024. Think of MCP as a universal USB-C port for AI: it provides a standardized way to connect an AI model to external data and tools. In the new “Channels” architecture, the MCP server acts as a two-way bridge.
When a developer starts a Claude Code session with the --channels flag, they don't just open a chat; they start a polling service.
Using the Bun runtime, known for its extreme JavaScript execution speed, Claude Code monitors certain plugins (currently Telegram and Discord).
When a message arrives, it is directly injected into the active session as a <channel> event. Claude can then use its internal tools to execute code, test or fix bugs, and respond to the external platform using a specialized response tool.
The technical achievement here is persistence. Unlike standard web chat, which has a timeout, a Claude Code session can now run in a background terminal or on a persistent server (e.g. a VPS), waiting for a "ping".
Instructions on how to set up Claude Code connectors in Telegram and Discord are available at the link .
