qwen-code/docs/users/features/channels/overview.md

Channels

Channels let you interact with a Qwen Code agent from messaging platforms like Telegram or WeChat, instead of the terminal. You send messages from your phone or desktop chat app, and the agent responds just like it would in the CLI.

How It Works

When you run qwen channel start <name>, Qwen Code:

1. Reads the channel configuration from your settings.json
2. Spawns an agent process using the Agent Client Protocol (ACP)
3. Connects to the messaging platform (e.g., Telegram) and starts listening for messages
4. Routes incoming messages to the agent and sends responses back to the chat

Each channel runs as a long-lived process that bridges a messaging platform to a Qwen Code agent.

Quick Start

1. Set up a bot on your messaging platform (see channel-specific guides: Telegram, WeChat)
2. Add the channel configuration to ~/.qwen/settings.json
3. Run qwen channel start <name>

Configuration

Channels are configured under the channels key in settings.json. Each channel has a name and a set of options:

{
  "channels": {
    "my-channel": {
      "type": "telegram",
      "token": "$MY_BOT_TOKEN",
      "senderPolicy": "allowlist",
      "allowedUsers": ["123456789"],
      "sessionScope": "user",
      "cwd": "/path/to/working/directory",
      "instructions": "Optional system instructions for the agent.",
      "groupPolicy": "disabled",
      "groups": {
        "*": { "requireMention": true }
      }
    }
  }
}

Options

Option	Required	Description
type	Yes	Channel type: telegram or weixin
token	Telegram	Bot token. Supports $ENV_VAR syntax to read from environment variables. Not needed for WeChat
model	No	Model to use for this channel (e.g., qwen3.5-plus). Overrides the default model. Useful for multimodal models that support image input
senderPolicy	No	Who can talk to the bot: allowlist (default), open, or pairing
allowedUsers	No	List of user IDs allowed to use the bot (used by allowlist and pairing policies)
sessionScope	No	How sessions are scoped: user (default), thread, or single
cwd	No	Working directory for the agent. Defaults to the current directory
instructions	No	Custom instructions prepended to the first message of each session
groupPolicy	No	Group chat access: disabled (default), allowlist, or open. See Group Chats
groups	No	Per-group settings. Keys are group chat IDs or "*" for defaults. See Group Chats

Sender Policy

Controls who can interact with the bot:

• allowlist (default) — Only users listed in allowedUsers can send messages. Others are silently ignored.
• pairing — Unknown senders receive a pairing code. The bot operator approves them via CLI, and they're added to a persistent allowlist. Users in allowedUsers skip pairing entirely. See DM Pairing below.
• open — Anyone can send messages. Use with caution.

Session Scope

Controls how conversation sessions are managed:

• user (default) — One session per user. All messages from the same user share a conversation.
• thread — One session per thread/topic. Useful for group chats with threads.
• single — One shared session for all users. Everyone shares the same conversation.

Token Security

Bot tokens should not be stored directly in settings.json. Instead, use environment variable references:

{
  "token": "$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN"
}

Set the actual token in your shell environment or in a .env file that gets loaded before running the channel.

DM Pairing

When senderPolicy is set to "pairing", unknown senders go through an approval flow:

1. An unknown user sends a message to the bot
2. The bot replies with an 8-character pairing code (e.g., VEQDDWXJ)
3. The user shares the code with you (the bot operator)
4. You approve them via CLI:

qwen channel pairing approve my-channel VEQDDWXJ

Once approved, the user's ID is saved to ~/.qwen/channels/<name>-allowlist.json and all future messages go through normally.

Pairing CLI Commands

# List pending pairing requests
qwen channel pairing list my-channel

# Approve a request by code
qwen channel pairing approve my-channel <CODE>

Pairing Rules

• Codes are 8 characters, uppercase, using an unambiguous alphabet (no 0/O/1/I)
• Codes expire after 1 hour
• Maximum 3 pending requests per channel at a time — additional requests are ignored until one expires or is approved
• Users listed in allowedUsers in settings.json always skip pairing
• Approved users are stored in ~/.qwen/channels/<name>-allowlist.json — treat this file as sensitive

Group Chats

By default, the bot only works in direct messages. To enable group chat support, set groupPolicy to "allowlist" or "open".

Group Policy

Controls whether the bot participates in group chats at all:

• disabled (default) — The bot ignores all group messages. Safest option.
• allowlist — The bot only responds in groups explicitly listed in groups by chat ID. The "*" key provides default settings but does not act as a wildcard allow.
• open — The bot responds in all groups it's added to. Use with caution.

Mention Gating

In groups, the bot requires an @mention or a reply to one of its messages by default. This prevents the bot from responding to every message in a group chat.

Configure per-group with the groups setting:

{
  "groups": {
    "*": { "requireMention": true },
    "-100123456": { "requireMention": false }
  }
}

• "*" — Default settings for all groups. Only sets config defaults, not an allowlist entry.
• Group chat ID — Override settings for a specific group. Overrides "*" defaults.
• requireMention (default: true) — When true, the bot only responds to messages that @mention it or reply to one of its messages. When false, the bot responds to all messages (useful for dedicated task groups).

How group messages are evaluated

1. groupPolicy — is this group allowed?           (no → ignore)
2. requireMention — was the bot mentioned/replied to? (no → ignore)
3. senderPolicy — is this sender approved?         (no → pairing flow)
4. Route to session

Telegram Setup for Groups

1. Add the bot to a group
2. Disable privacy mode in BotFather (/mybots → Bot Settings → Group Privacy → Turn Off) — otherwise the bot won't see non-command messages
3. Remove and re-add the bot to the group after changing privacy mode (Telegram caches this setting)

Finding a Group Chat ID

To find a group's chat ID for the groups allowlist:

1. Stop the bot if it's running
2. Send a message mentioning the bot in the group
3. Use the Telegram Bot API to check queued updates:

curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}/getUpdates" | python3 -m json.tool

Look for message.chat.id in the response — group IDs are negative numbers (e.g., -5170296765).

Media Support

Channels support sending images and files to the agent, not just text.

Images

Send a photo to the bot and the agent will see it — useful for sharing screenshots, error messages, or diagrams. The image is sent directly to the model as a vision input.

To use image support, configure a multimodal model for the channel:

{
  "channels": {
    "my-channel": {
      "type": "telegram",
      "model": "qwen3.5-plus",
      ...
    }
  }
}

Files

Send a document (PDF, code file, text file, etc.) to the bot. The file is downloaded and saved to a temporary directory, and the agent is told the file path so it can read the contents using its file-reading tools.

Files work with any model — no multimodal support required.

Platform differences

Feature	Telegram	WeChat
Images	Direct download via Bot API	CDN download with AES decryption
Files	Direct download via Bot API (20MB limit)	CDN download with AES decryption
Captions	Photo/file captions included as message text	Not applicable

Slash Commands

Channels support slash commands. Some are handled locally by the adapter:

• /start — Welcome message
• /help — List available commands
• /reset — Reset your session and start fresh

All other slash commands (e.g., /compress, /summary) are forwarded to the agent.

Running

qwen channel start my-channel

The bot runs in the foreground. Press Ctrl+C to stop.