BotOS

Turn your AI agent into a messaging bot — step by step

Your AI agent can live inside messaging apps. Users chat with it like a friend — no app to install, no website to visit.

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What Is a BotOS?

BotOS is your AI agent wrapped in a messaging app interface. Instead of typing prompts in a terminal, users send normal messages on Telegram, Discord, Slack, or WhatsApp.

Concept	What It Means
Agent	The AI brain — understands questions, uses tools, generates answers
Bot	The messenger — receives messages from the app, sends them to the agent, delivers replies
Platform	Where users chat — Telegram, Discord, Slack, or WhatsApp

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Step-by-Step: How a Message Flows

Step	What Happens
1	User types a message in their favorite app
2	The messaging platform sends it to your bot
3	Your bot passes the message to the AI agent
4	The agent thinks, searches the web, checks documents — whatever you’ve configured
5	The agent sends an answer back through the bot
6	The user sees the reply in their chat

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Which Platform Should I Use?

Platform	Best For	Setup Difficulty
Telegram	Personal bots, public bots, quick prototypes	⭐ Easy
Discord	Communities, gaming, developer groups	⭐ Easy
Slack	Workplaces, teams, internal tools	⭐⭐ Medium
WhatsApp	Business communication, customer support	⭐⭐⭐ Advanced

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Getting Started — 3 Ways

Pick the way that fits you best:

CLI (Easiest)

No code needed. One command:

# Telegram
praisonai bot telegram --token $TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN

# Discord
praisonai bot discord --token $DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN

# Slack
praisonai bot slack --token $SLACK_BOT_TOKEN --app-token $SLACK_APP_TOKEN

A default AI assistant is created automatically.

Python

from praisonaiagents import Agent
from praisonai.bots import TelegramBot

agent = Agent(
    name="assistant",
    instructions="You are a helpful assistant",
    llm="gpt-4o-mini"
)

bot = TelegramBot(token="YOUR_BOT_TOKEN", agent=agent)

import asyncio
asyncio.run(bot.start())

YAML

platform: telegram
token: "${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}"

agent:
  name: "My Assistant"
  instructions: "You are a helpful AI assistant."
  llm: "gpt-4o-mini"

praisonai bot start --config bot.yaml

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Adding Superpowers

Your bot can do more than just chat. Add capabilities with simple flags:

Capability	CLI Flag	What It Does
Memory	--memory	Remembers what users said in previous messages. Safe for multi-worker deployments — messages survive concurrent updates
Knowledge	--knowledge	Answers from your PDF, text, or markdown files
Web Search	--web	Searches the internet for up-to-date info
Thinking	--thinking high	Takes more time to give better, deeper answers

# A bot that remembers conversations and searches the web
praisonai bot telegram --token $TOKEN --memory --web

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Bot vs Gateway

Two ways to deploy your agent for real-time chat:

	Bot	Gateway
Platforms	One at a time	All at once
Agents	One per bot	Multiple, with routing
Best for	Quick start, single platform	Production, multi-channel
Command	praisonai bot telegram	praisonai gateway --config gateway.yaml

Start with a Bot to get running in minutes. Switch to Gateway when you need multiple platforms or agents.

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Best Practices

Start with Telegram

Telegram is the easiest platform to set up — just message @BotFather and get a token in seconds.

Add memory for better conversations

Enable --memory so your bot remembers context between messages. Users get a much better experience.

Keep instructions simple

Write bot instructions like you’re talking to a person: “You are a helpful assistant for our customer support team. Be friendly and concise.”

Test locally, deploy with Docker

Use Socket Mode or polling for local testing. When ready for production, deploy with Docker and webhook mode.

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Related

Messaging Bots

Detailed platform setup guides and configuration options

Bot vs Gateway

Deep dive into deployment models

Bot Commands

Built-in bot commands and custom commands

Agents

Create and configure AI agents