Real AI agent use cases, with sources and setup prompts

Build your own AI assistant on Telegram as a first project

A hobbyist built a personal AI assistant on Telegram as his first Claude Code project.

Free to start2-4 hoursIntermediateSource linked

Source

@borisfounder on X · 2026-07-01

Written in our own words. Credit to the original author. Link checked 2026-10-14.

What they did

A hobbyist built a personal AI assistant on Telegram as his first Claude Code project.

Result (as claimed)

Done in five days.

Tools they used

Claude CodeClaudeTelegram Bot APIPythonRedis

Tools in our setup

Suggested in the setup steps below; not named in the source.

RailwayOpenRouterDiscord Developer PlatformGitHub

Cost: Discord and Telegram bot creation have no listed price; Railway trial ($5 credits) then Hobby $5/mo; OpenRouter pay per token.

Set it up

  1. Create the bot app

    Create a Discord bot project using discord.js with a .env.example containing DISCORD_TOKEN, DISCORD_APPLICATION_ID and OPENROUTER_API_KEY. Register a /ask slash command and a /help command. Never commit .env.

    Docs: discord.com/developers/docs/quick-start/getting-

  2. Add AI answers

    Implement /ask by calling the OpenRouter chat completions API with OPENROUTER_API_KEY. Add a system prompt describing the community, a per-user rate limit, and a max token cap.

    Docs: openrouter.ai/docs/quickstart

  3. Telegram version (optional)

    Port the bot to Telegram: create the bot with @BotFather, read TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN, and handle /ask with the same logic using setWebhook to our HTTPS URL.

    Docs: core.telegram.org/bots/tutorial, core.telegram.org/bots/api#setwebhook

  4. Deploy

    Prepare the bot for Railway as a worker service and list the env vars to set. Add logging for errors.

    Docs: docs.railway.com/quick-start

  5. Moderate and limit

    Add an allowlist of channels, ignore messages from bots, and log usage so I can watch costs.
Safety: Ask only for the bot permissions you need and respect platform rate limits and terms.

Copy the full setup prompt

Paste into your agent and it will walk you through the setup, asking before anything that sends, posts or spends.

You are helping me set up this AI use case end to end in Claude Code.

Goal: Build your own AI assistant on Telegram as a first project
What the original author did: A hobbyist built a personal AI assistant on Telegram as his first Claude Code project.
Reported result (as claimed by the author): Done in five days.
Source: https://x.com/borisfounder/status/2072353903841280253
Tools they used: Claude Code, Claude, Telegram Bot API, Python, Redis
Category: Vibe coding & apps

Please:
1. Ask me 3 short questions about my situation (accounts I have, budget, what I want the output to look like).
2. Propose a step-by-step plan using these tools or cheaper alternatives, with the time and cost of each step. Use official pricing pages; say "check pricing" if unsure.
3. Then do the setup with me one step at a time, waiting for my OK before anything that sends messages, posts publicly, spends money or deletes data.
4. Finish with a checklist to run it again next time.

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