Managed Channels

Deploy and manage AI agents directly from Telegram without the need for a terminal or website.

Commands

Here are the available commands you can use to interact with the Lucid platform via Telegram:

Command	Description	Requires DB
`/launch [slug]`	Initiates an interactive agent deployment wizard.	No (catalog from Layer API)
`/start <passport_id>`	Connects the chat to an existing agent.	Yes
`/start link_TOKEN`	Links your Telegram account to a web account using a token from the dashboard.	MergedDb
`/status`	Checks the current status of the agent.	Yes
`/list`	Lists the user’s agents.	Yes
`/plan`	Displays the current plan and usage.	MergedDb
`/upgrade`	Shows upgrade options and initiates a Stripe checkout.	MergedDb
`/help`	Displays all available commands.	No

Architecture

The architecture for managing Telegram interactions is as follows:

Telegram webhook → api.lucid.foundation/v1/webhooks/telegram (proxy)
  → localhost:4050/webhooks/telegram (bot server)
    → dispatchCommand() or routeMessage()
    → Layer API (catalog, deploy, status)
    → LucidMerged DB (profiles, plans, billing)
    → Stripe (checkout sessions for /upgrade)

User Identity

There are two primary flows for user identity management:

Telegram-only: The ensureUser() function automatically provisions a profile, organization, and free plan using the create_telegram_user() RPC.
Web→Telegram: The dashboard generates a link token which can be used with t.me/bot?start=link_TOKEN. The bot consumes this token to link to an existing account.

Billing Gate

Before deploying an agent with /launch, the system checks if deployment is allowed by comparing the plan’s agents_deployed limit with usage_metrics using checkLaunchAllowed(). After a successful deployment, trackAgentDeploy() increments the usage count.

Module Structure

The following is the structure of the Telegram bot module:

types.ts            # Definitions for TelegramUpdate, MergedDb, UserLink, BillingCheckResult
webhook.ts          # Handles secret verification and update parsing
router.ts           # Routes messages to bound agents and provides Telegram API helpers
bindings.ts         # Manages CRUD operations for telegram_chat_bindings in the platform-core DB
user-link.ts        # Functions for resolving, ensuring, and linking users in the LucidMerged DB
billing.ts          # Functions for checking launch permissions, tracking deployments, retrieving plan info, and creating Telegram checkouts
layer-client.ts     # HTTP client for interacting with the Lucid Layer API
wizard.ts           # Manages the multi-step launch wizard with a 30-minute TTL
keyboards.ts        # Builders for inline keyboards
callbacks.ts        # Handles callback queries (button taps)
commands/
  index.ts          # Dispatches commands
  start.ts          # Handles /start command for agent binding and account linking
  launch.ts         # Manages the /launch wizard
  status.ts         # Handles /status command
  list.ts           # Handles /list command
  plan.ts           # Handles /plan command
  upgrade.ts        # Manages /upgrade command and Stripe checkout
  help.ts           # Handles /help command

Environment Variables

The following environment variables are required for the Telegram bot API:

TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN              # Token from BotFather
TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_SECRET         # Secret for webhook verification
TELEGRAM_BOT_USERNAME           # Bot @username for deep links
LUCID_LAYER_API_URL             # Base URL for the Layer API
LUCID_LAYER_API_KEY             # Bearer token for the Layer API
DATABASE_URL                    # URL for the platform-core Supabase (chat bindings)
LUCIDMERGED_DATABASE_URL        # URL for the LucidMerged Supabase (profiles, plans, billing)
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY               # Secret key for Stripe checkout sessions
APP_URL                         # URL for upgrade deep links

LucidMerged Migrations

The following migrations are applied to the LucidMerged database:

079_telegram_user_links.sql — Adds the telegram_user_links table and agents_deployed plan limits.
080_telegram_user_provisioning.sql — Implements the create_telegram_user() RPC.
081_telegram_account_link_tokens.sql — Adds link tokens and create/consume RPCs.