MOLTIVERSITYLEARN · BUILD · AUTOMATE2025Moltiversity
Multi-Channel Assistant

Lesson 2 of 4

Connecting Chat Channels

Estimated time: 5 minutes

Connecting Chat Channels

Time to wire up your platforms. You'll connect at least two channels so your assistant can respond on both. Each connection takes about a minute.

Pick any two

You don't need all four platforms. Pick the two you actually use. You can always add more later.

Check your current connections

First, see what's already connected from the Getting Started course:

List channels
openclaw channels list

You should see at least one channel (the one you set up in Getting Started). If you already have two or more, skip to Step 3.

Connect a new channel

WhatsApp uses the WhatsApp Business API. You'll need a Meta Business account.

openclaw channels add whatsapp \
  --phone-id "YOUR_PHONE_NUMBER_ID" \
  --token "YOUR_WHATSAPP_TOKEN" \
  --verify-token "a-random-secret-string"
  1. Go to developers.facebook.com and create an app
  2. Add the WhatsApp product to your app
  3. In WhatsApp > Getting Started, you'll find your Phone Number ID and a Temporary Access Token
  4. The Verify Token is any string you choose — OpenClaw uses it to validate webhook requests

For production, generate a permanent token in your app's System Users settings.

Verify all connections

List your channels again and check their status:

Check status
openclaw channels list --status

You should see at least two channels with status connected:

NAME        PLATFORM    STATUS      CONNECTED SINCE
my-tg       telegram    connected   2 hours ago
my-slack    slack       connected   just now

Disconnected?

If a channel shows disconnected, check your token. The most common issue is an expired or incorrect API token. Re-run the channels add command with a fresh token.

Send a test message

Test that your assistant responds on each channel. Send a simple message from each platform:

Hello! What can you do?

You should get a response on every connected channel. The response content will be generic for now — we'll give it a real personality in the next lesson.

Something like:

Hi! I'm an AI assistant powered by OpenClaw. I can help you with questions, tasks, and conversations. How can I help you today?

The exact wording varies, but you should get a coherent response within a few seconds.

What You Have Now

Your OpenClaw assistant is live on multiple platforms. Any message sent on any connected channel reaches the same agent and gets a response.

  WhatsApp ──┐
              │     ┌─────────┐     ┌──────────┐
  Telegram ───┼────>│ Gateway │────>│ AI Agent │
              │     └─────────┘     └──────────┘
  Slack ──────┘

Right now it's using default behavior — it responds but has no specific personality or knowledge. The next lesson fixes that.

Knowledge Check

What's the most common reason a newly connected channel shows 'disconnected'?

Narwhalexpert
0

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