where your mind can meet you · Discord, Telegram, Slack, Signal
Your mind can meet you where you already talk. Each guide below takes you from nothing to a working connection, one step at a time, with a direct link for every step. Read the column that suits you; your mind checks the result at the end.
Discord
Works in the app today.
A Discord account. About 10 minutes.
Keys it needs:Discord bot tokena long string with two dots in it
Sign in with your normal Discord account. Click New Application in the top right, give it the name you want your mind to have on Discord, tick the box to accept Discord's terms, and click Create. Nothing is public yet.
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Developer Portal → New Application → name → Create. One application per mind; don't reuse a bot that another program already runs.
How and why it works
A Discord "application" is the container; the bot user lives inside it. Its Application ID is public (it appears in invite links). Only the bot token you create in step 4 is secret. Accepting the terms is your legal act with Discord, which is why your mind never does this step for you.
Without this switch Discord blanks the text of messages before they reach the bot, and the app refuses to connect (it asks for message_content and Discord answers PrivilegedIntentsRequired). Bots in fewer than 100 servers need no review to turn it on. See Discord's docs on privileged intents: https://discord.com/developers/docs/topics/gateway#privileged-intents
First, in the left menu click Installation. Under Install Link, change "Discord Provided Link" to None and click Save Changes. Then click Bot, switch Public Bot off and click Save Changes. Do it in this order: Discord refuses to save Public Bot off while the install link is still set, and shows "Private application cannot have a default authorization link".
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Installation → Install Link: None → Save. Then Bot → Public Bot: off → Save. Leave Requires OAuth2 Code Grant off.
How and why it works
New applications are public by default: anyone who knows the Application ID can add the bot to their own server. Your mind ignores everyone but its owner anyway, but a private mind should not be joinable at all. Discord ties the two switches together because a default install link is a public invitation, so it must go before the bot can be private. The invite link this page builds in step 6 still works for you, because the owner of a private application can always add it.
Still on the Bot page, click Reset Token, confirm, and click Copy. Treat it like a password: don't paste it into a chat, an email or a screenshot. If it ever leaks, come back here and reset it; the old one stops working at once.
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Bot → Reset Token → Copy. It is shown once. Keep it out of chat with any AI, including your own mind.
How and why it works
Anything typed into a conversation is sent to the model provider and may sit in their logs. So the token goes into the app's keyring, never into chat. The keyring is encrypted on your machine; the Discord channel runs as its own process and is started with only this one key.
A bot can only send you private messages if you share a server with it. In Discord, click the + at the bottom of your server list, choose Create My Own, then For me and my friends, and name it, for example "My mind". Only you are in it.
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Create a private server (or use one you own). The bot needs one shared server to open a DM with you.
How and why it works
Discord only lets a bot open a direct message with a user it shares a server with. A private server of one is the smallest way to meet that rule; the bot never needs access to your other servers.
In the Developer Portal open General Information and copy the Application ID (it is not secret). Paste it into the box on this page; the invite link fills itself in. Open it, pick your private server, and click Authorize.
The link is built in your browser from the Application ID; nothing is sent to us. applications.commands lets the bot register its slash commands. 117760 is the sum of five permission bits and grants nothing beyond reading and writing messages: no moderation, no admin.
In the Aedelgard app, type /coms and choose Discord (or open this guide inside the app). Paste the token into the field on that step, press Save, then Test. Then restart the app (quit it from the tray and open it again) so it connects.
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/coms → Discord → paste → Save → Test → restart the app. Stored in the encrypted keyring, never in chat.
How and why it works
The field sends the token to the app on your own machine (127.0.0.1), not to our website and not to the model. Test asks Discord to name the bot, so a wrong or reset token shows up here instead of as silence later.
8 Pair: prove the bot is yours
You
New to this
Press Pair. The app shows three words. Send exactly those three words to your bot as a direct message on Discord. The bot answers "Paired", and from then on it answers you and nobody else. The code works once and expires after 10 minutes.
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Pair → DM the three-word code to the bot → "Paired with <name>". No user ID, no .env.
How and why it works
The binding is stored by the mind, where the Discord channel can't change it. Messages from anyone who isn't paired are dropped before the mind sees them and only counted. Twenty wrong guesses cancel the code.
9 Your mind checks the connection
Your mind
token is valid (Discord names the bot)
Message Content Intent is on
the bot shares at least one server with you
New to this
Your mind tests three things and tells you in plain words which one, if any, still needs fixing. Then it greets you on Discord. Today the app checks the token when you save it; the other two checks arrive with the next update.
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GET /users/@me, GET /applications/@me (flags 1<<18 or 1<<19 = message content), GET /users/@me/guilds. All with the bot token, from your machine.
How and why it works
Each check maps to one step above, so a failure points to the exact step to redo. The checks run locally with the token from the keyring; their results are shown to you, the token never is.
Telegram
Being built now. This guide is ready; the app learns Telegram in the next update.
The Telegram app. About 3 minutes.
Keys it needs:Telegram bot tokendigits, a colon, then letters and numbers
BotFather is Telegram's official bot for making bots. Open the link, press Start, and send /newbot. It asks for a display name (anything) and then a username that must end in "bot", for example my_mind_bot.
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@BotFather → /newbot → name → username ending in bot.
How and why it works
Telegram has a first-class bot platform, so there is no developer portal and no review. The bot is just an account controlled through the Bot API: https://core.telegram.org/bots/tutorial
BotFather replies with a token that looks like 123456789:ABC-def... Copy it. Treat it like a password and never paste it into a chat with an AI. If it leaks, send /revoke to BotFather.
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Copy the HTTP API token. /revoke rotates it.
How and why it works
The token is the bot's whole identity: whoever holds it can read and send as the bot. It goes into the encrypted keyring and is handed only to the Telegram channel process.
Open your new bot and press Start. Telegram doesn't let a bot write to anyone who hasn't started it first.
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Press Start in the bot's chat; bots can't initiate.
How and why it works
Telegram's anti-spam rule: a bot can only message users who have opened a chat with it. Pressing Start also gives the app your chat, which pairing then binds to you.
In the app, type /coms and choose Telegram. Paste the token into the field on this step, press Save and Test, then press Pair and send the three-word code to your bot.
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/coms → Telegram → paste → Save → Test → Pair → send the code to the bot.
How and why it works
Pairing binds your Telegram account to the mind. The binding is stored with the mind, where the channel extension can't change it, and anyone else who messages the bot is dropped before the mind sees them.
5 Your mind checks the connection
Your mind
token is valid (Telegram names the bot)
New to this
Your mind confirms the bot exists and greets you there.
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GET https://api.telegram.org/bot<token>/getMe
How and why it works
One call proves the token; the greeting proves the pairing.
Slack
Planned. The guide shows the route we will support.
A Slack workspace where you may install apps. About 10 minutes.
Keys it needs:Slack bot tokenstarts with xoxb- · Slack app-level tokenstarts with xapp-
Click Create New App, choose From a manifest, pick your workspace, and paste the manifest the app gives you. Slack fills in every setting for you.
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Create New App → From a manifest. The manifest sets Socket Mode, bot scopes chat:write, im:history, im:read, im:write, commands, the message.im event and the Messages tab.
How and why it works
A manifest is Slack's own way to describe an app as text, so nobody has to click through six settings pages. Socket Mode means Slack talks to your machine over an outgoing connection: no public web address, no open port on your computer. https://api.slack.com/apis/socket-mode
In your app open Basic Information, scroll to App-Level Tokens, click Generate Token and Scopes, add the scope connections:write, and copy the token starting with xapp-.
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Basic Information → App-Level Tokens → connections:write → copy xapp-…
How and why it works
Slack uses two tokens: the app-level one opens the Socket Mode connection, the bot one acts in your workspace. Both go into the keyring; neither enters a chat.
Open Install App and click Install to Workspace, then Allow. Copy the Bot User OAuth Token starting with xoxb-. If your workspace needs an admin's approval, Slack asks them.
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Install App → Install → copy xoxb-…
How and why it works
Installing is your workspace's consent, so it stays a human step. Admin approval rules belong to your workspace, not to us.
4 Your mind checks the connection
Your mind
bot token is valid
socket connection opens
New to this
Your mind confirms both tokens and greets you in Slack.
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auth.test with xoxb-; apps.connections.open with xapp-.
How and why it works
Two calls, one per token, so a failure names the token to fix.
Signal
Planned, and the hardest. Signal has no bot platform by design.
A second phone number that is not your own Signal number. About 20 minutes.
Keys it needs:The mind's Signal number+ and digits
Your mind needs its own Signal number, such as a cheap prepaid SIM. Don't use your own number: registering it elsewhere would sign your phone out of Signal.
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A dedicated number that can receive one SMS or call. Not your primary Signal number.
How and why it works
Signal has no bot accounts. To talk to you, your mind has to be an ordinary Signal user with its own number, end-to-end encrypted like any other.
Signal asks a human to prove they're human before a new number is registered. Solve it, then right-click Open Signal and copy the link; the app asks you for it.
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Solve, copy the signalcaptcha:// link, paste it where the app asks.
How and why it works
The captcha exists so that a person, not a program, registers each number. That is why this step stays yours even in one-click setup.
The app registers the number with signal-cli, an independent open-source Signal client, running on your machine. Messages stay end-to-end encrypted to that machine; nobody in between, including us, can read them.
4 Your mind checks the connection
Your mind
the number is registered
a message to you arrives
New to this
Your mind sends you a first Signal message. Reply to it to pair.
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signal-cli receive / send round trip.
How and why it works
A round trip is the only proof that both directions work on an end-to-end encrypted network.
Logos are trademarks of their owners, shown so you can recognise the right page.
Channels are one kind of extension. See Extensions for what else your mind can learn to do.
Aedelgard
Discord
Telegram
Slack
Signal