Part of the beauty of an Hermes agent is you can access it cross-device. You don’t have to sit at your computer and talk to it in the chat, you can use an app you are already using or familiar with to talk to it just like you would a regular person.
So in this walkthrough I connect Telegram the clean beginner way. You will get a bot you can DM, with your user ID allowlisted, so Hermes can answer from your pocket the same way it does in dashboard Chat.
In this example, Hermes is running on a NameHero VPS, always on and available for me.
What we’re doing
We are connecting Telegram so Hermes can talk to you in a DM. Prefer the dashboard quick path: Messaging → Telegram → Create with QR. Hermes creates the bot, detects your Telegram user ID, writes the config, and restarts the gateway.
If you prefer to build the bot yourself, there is a short BotFather fallback below. Just to be clear, this is a way to personally communicate with Hermes, not create a store customer line or anything like that.
What you’ll need
- Hermes already running on a NameHero VPS, with a working AI key so it can think. If you are still on the first hello, start with Your first conversation with Hermes. If the chat says it needs a brain, see Why does Hermes need a key from OpenAI or Anthropic?.
- Telegram on your phone
- The Hermes dashboard in a browser
Ask Hermes first
Ask Hermes: Walk me through connecting Telegram on this NameHero box. I prefer to use the dashboard Messaging → Telegram → Create with QR path if you can open Channels for me. Keep it beginner-safe: no real bot tokens in chat, allowlist my user ID, and do not touch groups yet.
Hermes can often point you at Channels and spell out the next click. Watch that first reply so you land on Telegram, not WhatsApp. Then finish the pair yourself on the phone.
Walk through it
Open the Hermes dashboard. On the left, click Channels (Messaging). Find the Telegram row. Leave WhatsApp and the rest alone unless you already use them. For WhatsApp self-chat, that twin walkthrough is Text Hermes from WhatsApp.
Prefer Create with QR. Scan the code or open the link in Telegram. Hermes creates the bot for you, detects your numeric user ID, writes the token and allowlist into config, and restarts the gateway. When it settles, DM the bot a hello the same way you would in Chat.
Manual fallback if you want to create the bot yourself: open a new chat with @BotFather on Telegram, send /newbot, pick a display name and a username that ends in bot, then copy the token BotFather gives you. Never paste a real token into a blog post, ticket, or public chat. Treat it like a password. Shape only: 123456789:AA…placeholder…. Get your numeric user ID from @userinfobot (it is not your @username). Put the token and your allowlisted user ID into Hermes via the dashboard Channels / Telegram fields, or with hermes gateway setup, then Restart gateway. DM the bot to confirm.
Keep the bot token secret. Always allowlist your user ID. Without an allowlist, Hermes denies users by default as a safety measure. If the token ever leaks, revoke it in BotFather and make a new one.
What I learned
Telegram is the same idea as WhatsApp pocket access – it’s all about what you prefer to use. Create with QR is the path I’d try first so Hermes writes the config and restarts the gateway for you.
Hermes Agent Hosting comes with Hermes preinstalled on a NameHero VPS. NameHero support is available by live chat if you get stuck.
John is the COO of NameHero and is an entrepreneurial, data-driven digital marketer and business operator with +16 years of experience across many different marketing channels, industries and strategies (B2C & B2B).
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