/add-telegram-swarm

name: add-telegram-swarm
description: Add Agent Swarm (Teams) support to Telegram. Each subagent gets its own bot identity in the group. Requires Telegram channel to be set up first (use /add-telegram). Triggers on "agent swarm", "agent teams telegram", "telegram swarm", "bot pool".

Add Agent Swarm to Telegram

This skill adds Agent Teams (Swarm) support to an existing Telegram channel. Each subagent in a team gets its own bot identity in the Telegram group, so users can visually distinguish which agent is speaking.

**Prerequisite**: Telegram must already be set up via the `/add-telegram` skill. If `src/channels/telegram.ts` does not exist or `TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN` is not configured, tell the user to run `/add-telegram` first.

How It Works

• The **main bot** receives messages and sends lead agent responses (already set up by `/add-telegram`)
• **Pool bots** are send-only — each gets a Grammy `Api` instance (no polling)
• When a subagent calls `send_message` with a `sender` parameter, the host assigns a pool bot and renames it to match the sender's role
• Messages appear in Telegram from different bot identities

Subagent calls send_message(text: "Found 3 results", sender: "Researcher")
  → MCP writes IPC file with sender field
  → Host IPC watcher picks it up
  → Assigns pool bot #2 to "Researcher" (round-robin, stable per-group)
  → Renames pool bot #2 to "Researcher" via setMyName
  → Sends message via pool bot #2's Api instance
  → Appears in Telegram from "Researcher" bot

Prerequisites

1. Create Pool Bots

Tell the user:

> I need you to create 3-5 Telegram bots to use as the agent pool. These will be renamed dynamically to match agent roles. > > 1. Open Telegram and search for `@BotFather` > 2. Send `/newbot` for each bot: > - Give them any placeholder name (e.g., "Bot 1", "Bot 2") > - Usernames like `myproject_swarm_1_bot`, `myproject_swarm_2_bot`, etc. > 3. Copy all the tokens > 4. Add all bots to your Telegram group(s) where you want agent teams

Wait for user to provide the tokens.

2. Disable Group Privacy for Pool Bots

Tell the user:

> **Important**: Each pool bot needs Group Privacy disabled so it can send messages in groups. > > For each pool bot in `@BotFather`: > 1. Send `/mybots` and select the bot > 2. Go to **Bot Settings** > **Group Privacy** > **Turn off** > > Then add all pool bots to your Telegram group(s).

Implementation

Step 1: Update Configuration

Read `src/orchestrator/config.ts` and add the bot pool config near the other Telegram exports:

export const TELEGRAM_BOT_POOL = (process.env.TELEGRAM_BOT_POOL || '')
  .split(',')
  .map((t) => t.trim())
  .filter(Boolean);

Step 2: Add Bot Pool to Telegram Module

Read `src/channels/telegram.ts` and add the following:

1. **Update imports** — add `Api` to the Grammy import:

import { Api, Bot } from 'grammy';

2. **Add pool state** after the existing `let bot` declaration:

// Bot pool for agent teams: send-only Api instances (no polling)
const poolApis: Api[] = [];
// Maps "{groupFolder}:{senderName}" → pool Api index for stable assignment
const senderBotMap = new Map<string, number>();
let nextPoolIndex = 0;

3. **Add pool functions** — place these before the `isTelegramConnected` function:

/**
 * Initialize send-only Api instances for the bot pool.
 * Each pool bot can send messages but doesn't poll for updates.
 */
export async function initBotPool(tokens: string[]): Promise<void> {
  for (const token of tokens) {
    try {
      const api = new Api(token);
      const me = await api.getMe();
      poolApis.push(api);
      logger.info(
        { username: me.username, id: me.id, poolSize: poolApis.length },
        'Pool bot initialized',
      );
    } catch (err) {
      logger.error({ err }, 'Failed to initialize pool bot');
    }
  }
  if (poolApis.length > 0) {
    logger.info({ count: poolApis.length }, 'Telegram bot pool ready');
  }
}

/**
 * Send a message via a pool bot assigned to the given sender name.
 * Assigns bots round-robin on first use; subsequent messages from the
 * same sender in the same group always use the same bot.
 * On first assignment, renames the bot to match the sender's role.
 */
export async function sendPoolMessage(
  chatId: string,
  text: string,
  sender: string,
  groupFolder: string,
): Promise<void> {
  if (poolApis.length === 0) {
    // No pool bots — fall back to main bot
    await sendTelegramMessage(chatId, text);
    return;
  }

  const key = `${groupFolder}:${sender}`;
  let idx = senderBotMap.get(key);
  if (idx === undefined) {
    idx = nextPoolIndex % poolApis.length;
    nextPoolIndex++;
    senderBotMap.set(key, idx);
    // Rename the bot to match the sender's role, then wait for Telegram to propagate
    try {
      await poolApis[idx].setMyName(sender);
      await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 2000));
      logger.info({ sender, groupFolder, poolIndex: idx }, 'Assigned and renamed pool bot');
    } catch (err) {
      logger.warn({ sender, err }, 'Failed to rename pool bot (sending anyway)');
    }
  }

  const api = poolApis[idx];
  try {
    const numericId = chatId.replace(/^tg:/, '');
    const MAX_LENGTH = 4096;
    if (text.length <= MAX_LENGTH) {
      await api.sendMessage(numericId, text);
    } else {
      for (let i = 0; i < text.length; i += MAX_LENGTH) {
        await api.sendMessage(numericId, text.slice(i, i + MAX_LENGTH));
      }
    }
    logger.info({ chatId, sender, poolIndex: idx, length: text.length }, 'Pool message sent');
  } catch (err) {
    logger.error({ chatId, sender, err }, 'Failed to send pool message');
  }
}

Step 3: Add sender Parameter to MCP Tool

Read `agent/runner/src/ipc-mcp-stdio.ts` and update the `send_message` tool to accept an optional `sender` parameter:

Change the tool's schema from:

{ text: z.string().describe('The message text to send') },

To: