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Name your agent in Telegram

In Telegram your agent shows up under a generic, shared name — the main bot is just mintbot.ai, and each extra contact is mintbot.ai (2), mintbot.ai (3), and so on. Telegram doesn't let you rename a bot contact (a limit on shared bots), so you can't change that name directly — even if you run just one agent.

There's an easy way around it, because a group's title is yours to set: put the bot in its own group and name the group whatever you like. The agent then shows up in your chat list under that name.

💡 Want a real bot under your own name? You can also connect a bot that's entirely yours — created with Telegram's @BotFather, with its own name, @username and picture — and your agent answers there as itself. See Your own Telegram bot. The group trick below needs no new bot and works with the contact you already have.

How to do it

  1. Create a new group in Telegram
  2. Give the group the name you want (e.g. “Murr” or “Sales bot”)
  3. Add the agent's bot to the group

That's it. The agent answers in the group exactly as it does in a direct chat with it, and the group's name is what appears in your Telegram chat list — so in effect the agent now has the name you chose.

Good to know:

  • Works with a single agent too. You don't need several agents — this is also how you give your one and only mintbot.ai bot a name of your own.
  • Only your messages reach it. If you add other people to the group, their messages to the agent are ignored — nobody else can spend your credit.
  • Keep it private if you like. A group of just you and the bot works fine.
  • Which bot? Use the same bot you already chat with — the main @mintbot_ai_bot, or your agent's own dedicated contact if it has one. Each agent answers in its own group, with its own separate history.

Pinned agent name

The agent keeps a pinned message at the top of the chat with its name, number and the current session's title, e.g. 🤖 Murr (#1069) followed by the title. When a new session starts, the pin updates by itself.

In a group the bot needs two admin rights — one for the pin, one for hiding passwords (see below):

  1. Open the group's settings → Administrators → Add admin
  2. Pick the agent's bot
  3. Keep Pin messages switched on, switch on Delete messages too, and save

The same applies to a group with topics. Without this right the agent still answers as usual — only the pinned message is missing. Once you grant it, the pin appears within an hour, the next time you write to the agent.

Delete messages is for passwords. When you send the agent a password (or another secret) in the chat, it uses it for the task and then hides it: your message is taken down and re-posted under your name with the password replaced by 🔒••••••. In a direct chat that works on its own; in a group the bot can only take your message down with the Delete messages right. Without it the agent still does the job, but the password stays visible and the bot asks you to delete the message yourself.

Panel and Telegram together

What you write to the agent in the web panel, and its answer, also show in Telegram when the same conversation is open there — the session your next Telegram message would go to. They arrive silently, under a 🖥 Entered in the web panel heading and with the agent's files; your phone stays quiet, since you're at the panel anyway. A conversation you started in the panel reaches Telegram once you open it there with /sessions. A group others read never gets these copies.

The images and files you send with a message follow it there, and while the agent works on the answer the chat shows "typing…", just as when you write in Telegram.

Back to an earlier conversation

Pick an earlier conversation with /sessions and its last 10 messages appear right under the confirmation — silently, so you can see where you left off before you write. A file the agent sent shows by its name there (📎). Each of the agent's answers ends, as always, with the model and provider that wrote it. The button 📜 Open the full history in the panel opens the whole conversation in the agent's panel. A group others read gets the confirmation only, never the messages.

Pinned messages

Pin a message and it stays at hand in the web panel and in Telegram alike. In the panel's chat, point at a message (on a phone, tap it) and click the 📌 next to its time; in Telegram, pin it as usual. Within a second the pin shows on the other side too: as a bar above the panel's chat — a click takes you to the message — and as a pinned copy in your direct chat with the bot.

Groups never get a copy: a group is shared, and what you said in private stays private. A message you pin by hand in a group still reaches the panel and your direct chat. Only messages of the conversation itself can be pinned — a bot menu or notice you pin in Telegram stays a Telegram pin only. A password the agent hid stays hidden in the pin too.

Pins belong to the session. When you open an older session in your direct chat (/sessions), its pinned messages (the 10 newest) are posted again and pinned, and the previous session's copies step aside; a message you pinned yourself stays where it is.

To unpin, use the panel or the 📌✖ button under the copy — either one unpins everywhere. Telegram doesn't tell bots about an unpin made with its own menu: in a direct chat it only clears the copy on your side, so use the button. A message you pinned yourself stays pinned in Telegram until you unpin it there — only the one who pinned it can — and the panel notices that unpin the next time you write to the agent if it was the most recent pin in the chat (never in a group with topics); otherwise unpin it in the panel too.

💡 Running several agents and want each in its own place? See Several agents at once.