channels-setup

Channels Setup Guide

Help the user set up the Talon Channels universal server so any client can connect to Claude Code via WebSocket or platform adapters (Telegram, Discord, Slack, etc.).

Development Mode

During the research preview, channels require an allowlist. To use talon-channels:

claude --dangerously-load-development-channels plugin:channels@gettalon-talon-plugins

The plugin: prefix tells Claude Code to load this channel plugin and bypass the allowlist check.

Channel Types

Type	Env Var	Required Credentials
WebSocket (default)	websocket	None (local only)
Telegram	telegram	TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN
Discord	discord	DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN
Slack	slack	SLACK_BOT_TOKEN, SLACK_APP_TOKEN
iMessage	imessage	None (macOS only)

Steps

1. Check Current Configuration

# Check what channel is configured
cat ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/gettalon-talon-plugins/plugins/talon/.mcp.json 2>/dev/null || echo "Not found"

2. Configure Channel Type

Set TALON_CHANNEL env var in the plugin's .mcp.json:

WebSocket (default):

{
  "channels": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["-y", "-p", "@gettalon/channels-sdk", "channels"]
  }
}

Telegram:

{
  "channels": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["-y", "-p", "@gettalon/channels-sdk", "channels"],
    "env": {
      "TALON_CHANNEL": "telegram",
      "TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN": "your-bot-token"
    }
  }
}

3. Check Server Health (WebSocket mode)

curl -s http://localhost:21568/health 2>/dev/null || echo "Server not running"

3. Get Auth Token

Clients need a token to connect:

curl -s -X POST http://localhost:21568/auth/local | python3 -c "import sys,json; print(json.load(sys.stdin).get('token',''))"

Or read from discovery file:

cat ~/.talon/channels_token 2>/dev/null || echo "No token file"

4. Connect a Client