What should I do if I can't get a reply from OpenClaw Telegram?

OpenClaw Telegram does not receive a reply, the most common is not a broken model, but a bot token, DM pairing, allowlist or gateway status that has not passed. Telegram's official configuration path is clear: BotFather generates a token, configures it to OpenClaw, launches Gateway, and then approves the first private chat pairing.

Troubleshoot in order

1. Verify that the BotFather token is written to the configuration or environment variable TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN.
2. To execute openclaw gateway status, the Gateway must run.
3. Perform openclaw pairing list telegram to see if your private chat is pending approval.
4. Approved with openclaw pairing approve telegram <CODE>.
5. Run openclaw channels status --probe to see if Telegram transport is connected.

Don't confuse the two authorizations

DM pairing only means that private chats can come in, but it does not mean that you are also authorized in the group. Group messages also look at groupPolicy, groups, and groupAllowFrom. Many people can use it in private chats but not in groups, which means they regard pairing as a global authorization.

If you only use it for yourself, it is recommended to write the Telegram user ID into the allowFrom, which is more controllable than temporary pairing. User IDs can be viewed from openclaw logs --follow from.id to avoid relying on third-party ID lookup bots.

Official open source address: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw.