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Channels let your agent talk to people on Telegram, Slack, and Discord. Instead of everyone coming to the Pinata dashboard, they can message your agent where they already hang out. Currently available: Telegram, Slack, Discord Coming soon: WhatsApp
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Telegram

Telegram is the quickest to set up. You’ll create a bot through Telegram’s BotFather and connect it to your agent.
  1. Open Telegram and message @BotFather
  2. Send /newbot and follow the prompts to create your bot
  3. Copy the bot token BotFather gives you
  4. In Pinata, open your agent → Channels and click + ADD on the Telegram card
  5. Paste your bot token and save
Now anyone who messages your Telegram bot is talking to your agent.

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Controlling Access

By default, your bot is open - anyone can message it. If you want to restrict access:
  • DM policy - Switch from “open” to “pairing” mode, which requires users to be approved before they can chat
  • Allow list - Only specific Telegram user IDs can message the bot
You can use either or both. Configure these in the channel settings.

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Slack

Slack takes a few more steps because you need to create a Slack App with the right permissions.
  1. Go to api.slack.com/apps and create a new app
  2. Enable Socket Mode (under Settings)
  3. Create an App-Level Token with the connections:write scope
  4. Under OAuth & Permissions, add these bot token scopes:
    • chat:write, im:write, im:history, im:read, users:read, app_mentions:read
  5. Install the app to your workspace
  6. In Pinata, open your agent → Channels and click + ADD on the Slack card
  7. Paste both tokens:
    • Bot Token - starts with xoxb-
    • App Token - starts with xapp-
  8. Save
Your agent will now respond to DMs and mentions in your Slack workspace.

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Discord

Discord setup is similar to Telegram - create a bot, get a token, connect it.
  1. Go to discord.com/developers and create an application
  2. Go to Bot → Add Bot
  3. Copy the bot token (you may need to reset it to see it)
  4. Go to OAuth2 → URL Generator
    • Select the bot scope
    • Select the permissions your bot needs
  5. Copy the generated URL and open it to invite the bot to your server
  6. In Pinata, open your agent → Channels and click + ADD on the Discord card
  7. Paste the bot token and save
Your agent can now respond in Discord.

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Managing Channels

Once connected, channels show a green ENABLED badge along with a summary of your configuration (DM policy, masked token). You can:
  • Reconfigure to update settings (leave token fields blank to keep existing values)
Changes to channels take effect after a gateway restart.
Bot tokens are sensitive. Don’t share them or commit them to version control.