Channels Overview

Channels are messaging platform connections that route incoming messages to your Snippbot agents and send the agent’s reply back through the same platform. Instead of interacting with agents through the web UI, users can chat with them directly in Slack, Telegram, Discord, or any other supported platform.

Supported Platforms

Platform	Setup Complexity	Notes
Slack	Medium	Requires a Slack app with bot token and Events API
Discord	Medium	Requires a Discord application and bot token
Telegram	Easy	Bot created via @BotFather in ~2 minutes
WhatsApp	High	Requires Meta Business API approval and verified business account
Microsoft Teams	High	Requires Azure AD app registration and Teams admin consent
Google Chat	Medium	Requires Google Cloud project and Chat API configuration

Architecture

When you start the channel adapter, Snippbot runs a lightweight webhook server alongside the main API:

Messaging Platform
       │
       │  Webhook (HTTP POST)
       ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────┐
│  Channel Adapter  (port 18790)   │
│                                  │
│  /webhook/slack                  │
│  /webhook/discord                │
│  /webhook/telegram               │
│  /webhook/teams                  │
│  ...                             │
└──────────────┬───────────────────┘
               │  Route via binding
               ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────┐
│  Snippbot Core API  (port 18781) │
│  POST /api/chat/stream           │
└──────────────┬───────────────────┘
               │  Agent response
               ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────┐
│  Platform API                    │
│  (Slack Web API / Telegram Bot   │
│   API / Discord REST / etc.)     │
└──────────────────────────────────┘

The channel adapter server runs on port 18790 and handles all inbound webhooks from messaging platforms. Each incoming message is matched against the channel bindings table to determine which agent should respond. The adapter then calls the Snippbot chat API, waits for the response, and posts it back via the platform’s API.

Channel Bindings

A channel binding maps a specific messaging context (a Slack channel, a Telegram chat ID, a Discord server/channel pair) to a specific agent. When a message arrives, the adapter looks up the binding for that context and routes the message to the correct agent.

Binding rules

One binding per channel/context (you cannot route the same channel to two agents simultaneously)
Bindings can be scoped to a specific channel, DM, or workspace-wide
If no binding exists for an incoming message context, the adapter uses the default agent if one is configured, or drops the message

Managing bindings

Bind a channel to an agent

Open Settings → Channels → Bindings in the Snippbot UI
Click New Binding
Select the platform channel (e.g., #research)
Select which agent handles messages from that channel
Set access mode and click Save

All binding management is done through the Snippbot UI under Settings → Channels → Bindings.

Starting the Channel Adapter

snippbot channel start

The adapter reads channel configurations from ~/.snippbot/config.toml and starts listening on port 18790.

To run the adapter as a persistent background service on Linux with systemd:

[Unit]
Description=Snippbot Channel Adapter
After=network.target snippbot.service

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/snippbot channel start
Restart=on-failure
User=snippbot
Environment=HOME=/home/snippbot

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl enable --now snippbot-channels

Network Requirements

For messaging platforms to deliver webhooks to Snippbot, port 18790 must be reachable from the internet. Options:

Public VPS: open port 18790 in your firewall and use your server’s public IP or domain
ngrok: ngrok http 18790 gives you a temporary public HTTPS URL for development
Reverse proxy: route https://yourdomain.com/webhooks/ to localhost:18790 via nginx or Caddy