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Messaging Bots

Enable a channel under channels.<name> and supply its token(s) (typically via ${ENV_VAR}). The gateway starts only enabled channels and won't crash on missing tokens — it logs the error and keeps going.

:::danger Network channels deny every sender by default Telegram, Discord, Slack, and WhatsApp are default-deny: a bot with an empty security.allowed_senders.<channel> rejects every sender — including you, the owner — and replies with a fixed message telling the owner which config key to add their id to. Each YAML block below therefore needs a matching security.allowed_senders entry, or nobody can talk to the bot. On startup AETHON also logs a loud warning naming security.allowed_senders.<channel> for any enabled network bot with an empty allowlist. The aethon init wizard collects these ids and writes this section for you; a hand-edited config like the ones below must add it yourself. :::

Telegram​

Create a bot via BotFather to get the token.

channels:
  telegram:
    enabled: true
    token: ${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}

security:
  allowed_senders:
    telegram: ["123456789"]   # your numeric Telegram user id — without this, all senders are denied

Discord​

Create a bot in the Discord Developer Portal and grant it the MESSAGE CONTENT intent. The bot responds to DMs or messages that @mention it.

channels:
  discord:
    enabled: true
    token: ${DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN}

security:
  allowed_senders:
    discord: ["your-discord-user-id"]   # without this, all senders are denied

Slack​

Create a Slack App, enable Socket Mode, and subscribe to events message.channels, message.im, app_mention. You need both a Bot Token and an App-Level Token.

channels:
  slack:
    enabled: true
    bot_token: ${SLACK_BOT_TOKEN}    # xoxb-…
    app_token: ${SLACK_APP_TOKEN}    # xapp-…

security:
  allowed_senders:
    slack: ["U0123456789"]   # your Slack user id — without this, all senders are denied

WhatsApp (experimental)​

Install the extra (pip install "aethon-ai[whatsapp]"), enable the channel, and on first start scan the QR code with your WhatsApp app to link the session.

channels:
  whatsapp:
    enabled: true

security:
  allowed_senders:
    whatsapp: ["1234567890"]   # your number (no +) — without this, all senders are denied
tip

Of all channels, only WhatsApp needs an extra install. CLI, WebChat, Telegram, Discord, and Slack all ship in the core install.