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AI bots for Discord & Telegram — overview

Channels let you put your Raileon AI assistant inside the chat apps you already use. You connect a bot to your Discord server or your Telegram, and it answers under your own name and brand — your team and your customers never see any underlying technology.

This page explains what the feature is, what it can and can't do right now, what you need before you start, and how spending limits work. When you're ready to set one up, jump to the setup guide at the bottom.

Coming soon

Channels aren't switched on yet. These guides are published early so you can get familiar with the setup — the steps won't work until channels go live in your dashboard. We'll remove this note the moment they do.

What it is

A channel is a connection between one of your chat apps and your Raileon assistant. You create a bot on the platform (Discord or Telegram), paste its token into Raileon's Channels page, and pick which chats or channels the bot serves. From then on, the assistant reads messages in those places and replies on its own — using your bot's name and avatar.

Everything happens under your brand. The assistant is built to never reveal the technology behind it: if a reply would mention the name of a third-party AI provider, Raileon automatically replaces it with "the assistant" before the message is sent.

You connect a separate bot for each platform you want to use. Connecting Discord and Telegram are two independent setups.

What it can do today

Once a channel is connected, the assistant can:

  • Answer in Discord. It replies to direct messages sent to your bot, and in server channels it replies only when someone @mentions it. It will not jump into every message in a busy channel — a person has to mention the bot for it to respond there.
  • Answer in Telegram. It replies to every text message sent to your bot in a one-to-one chat, and to every text message in any group the bot has been added to. In Telegram, it shows a "typing…" indicator while it works on a reply.
  • Serve several places at once. You can add as many channels or chats as you like and manage each one separately.
  • Be paused and resumed per channel. Each connected channel has a status you control. Pausing one stops the assistant from replying there, without disconnecting your bot or affecting your other channels.

Choose Staff for now

When you add a channel, you choose an audience: Staff or Customer. The dashboard shows the Customer option marked "(coming soon)" — you can select it and it will reply, but it's an early preview with fewer controls, so we recommend choosing Staff for every channel for now. See Manage & configure your bot for the difference.

What it can't do yet

This is an early version, and we'd rather set honest expectations than promise things that aren't there. Right now it does not do the following:

  • Discord: reply to every message in a channel. In server channels the bot only responds to direct @mentions. There's no "answer everything in this channel" mode yet.
  • Full customer-facing channels. The "Customer" audience is selectable and will reply, but it's an early preview with fewer safety controls and the agent can't post into customer channels on its own. Use Staff for now.
  • Slash commands or buttons in Discord. There are no / slash commands, clickable buttons, or menus yet — the bot works through plain messages and @mentions.
  • Interactive Telegram replies. No inline keyboards or buttons, and replies aren't streamed word-by-word — the bot sends its answer as a complete message.
  • Read anything other than plain text. The assistant only handles text messages. Photos, files, voice notes, stickers, and edited messages are ignored.
  • Handle unlimited message length. Messages to the assistant are capped at 8,000 characters, and replies are capped at the same. In Discord, long replies are automatically split into smaller posts (Discord caps each message at 2,000 characters).
  • Run two copies of the same Discord bot. Connecting the same Discord bot token in two places at once causes duplicate replies. Use each bot token in one place only.

We're actively building these out and will update this guide as they ship.

What you need before you start

To connect a channel you'll need a few things ready. The setup guide walks through each one, but here's the short list.

For everyone:

  • A Raileon account with access to the Channels page in your dashboard.
  • A bot created on the platform you want, and that bot's token (a secret string the platform gives you). You paste this into the Channels page — it's stored encrypted and is never shown to your customers.

For Discord, additionally:

  • A Discord server you manage, and the ability to invite your bot to it. Raileon can only find channels in servers your bot has actually been added to.
  • In your bot's settings in the Discord Developer Portal, under Bot → Privileged Gateway Intents, turn on Message Content Intent. Without it, the bot receives empty messages and can't read what people say.
  • When you invite the bot to your server, give it permission to View Channels and Send Messages in the channels you want it to use.
  • The channels you want the bot to use should be normal text channels. Voice channels and other channel types aren't supported.

Telegram: send a message first

Telegram only tells Raileon about chats your bot has already seen. After you create the bot with @BotFather and add it to a group (or message it directly), send it at least one message, then come back and look for channels. If you skip this step, the list will be empty even though the bot is connected correctly.

For Telegram, additionally:

  • A bot created through Telegram's @BotFather (send /newbot and follow the prompts to get your token).
  • The bot must be added to the group you want it in, or you must have messaged it directly — and at least one message must have been sent so the bot has "seen" the chat (see the note above).

Spending limits and staying in budget

You stay in control of how much each channel can do:

  • Raileon can set a monthly spending limit on a channel for you so a busy chat stays within budget. (This isn't a self-service field in the dashboard yet — ask the Raileon team to set or change a channel's limit.)
  • If a channel reaches its limit, the assistant stops replying there automatically until the next month, or until you resume it — so you never get a surprise bill.
  • Pausing a channel stops it from doing any work, so it's a simple way to control costs while keeping the connection in place.

For your specific pricing and plan, talk to the Raileon team or check your plan in the dashboard.

Keeping your data safe

Your bot's token is encrypted when it's stored, with a separate key for your workspace, and each workspace is fully isolated — your conversations are never shared with anyone else. See Security and your data for how Raileon protects your information.

Set up your first channel

Ready to connect a bot? Follow the setup guide for the platform you want.

Set up Discord

Create a Discord bot, turn on Message Content Intent, invite it to your server, and choose which channels it serves.

Set up Telegram

Create a Telegram bot with @BotFather, add it to a chat or group, and connect it to your assistant.

After it's connected

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