Run a custom Telegram bot for to-dos, calendar and weather
That's pretty great.For me, the concern with Hermes, etc, is the security aspect. Task: That's pretty great.For me, the concern with Hermes, etc, is the security aspect. I was running OpenClaw in a dedicated VM and I carefully controlled what files it had access to. But I'd rather not go that route again.The other major headache was it trying to configure itself, and then crashing.Eventually I wrote my own bot that communicates with me on Telegram. I've manually enabled a few capabilities ("Add to my TODO list", "Add to my calendar", "Get weather" (in format I prefer)). The hope was I'd just add functionalities as I needed, and know how the whole flow works.I didn't find value in things like soul.md, heartbeat, memory, etc (as in, they never really "worked"). I think most of the stuff you described are things I could easily add to my custom solution - I think that may still be a better approach than using hermes and wondering what the heck it's doing.What do you use to allow the LLM to get content from web sites? I don't need it to do stuff - just simple navigation. The most complex thing would be "Here's my question - go to this Linux forum thread and navigate all the pages and see if anything there addresses my question."; tools: OpenClaw. Human role: The original post does not say how a person stayed involved.; limitations: Prerequisites include programming skills to build and maintain a custom bot and a Telegram account. The author notes that previous attempts with OpenClaw in a VM were cumbersome due to security controls and self-configuration crashes. Integration uncertainty exists regarding how to securely allow the LLM to navigate web content without excessive complexity..
Tools
Published on Agent Work Atlas:
Overview
That's pretty great.For me, the concern with Hermes, etc, is the security aspect.
Workflow
That's pretty great.For me, the concern with Hermes, etc, is the security aspect. I was running OpenClaw in a dedicated VM and I carefully controlled what files it had access to. But I'd rather not go that route again.The other major headache was it trying to configure itself, and then crashing.Eventually I wrote my own bot that communicates with me on Telegram. I've manually enabled a few capabilities ("Add to my TODO list", "Add to my calendar", "Get weather" (in format I prefer)). The hope was I'd just add functionalities as I needed, and know how the whole flow works.I didn't find value in things like soul.md, heartbeat, memory, etc (as in, they never really "worked"). I think most of the stuff you described are things I could easily add to my custom solution - I think that may still be a better approach than using hermes and wondering what the heck it's doing.What do you use to allow the LLM to get content from web sites? I don't need it to do stuff - just simple navigation. The most complex thing would be "Here's my question - go to this Linux forum thread and navigate all the pages and see if anything there addresses my question."
Reported result
The source does not report any measured outcomes, performance metrics, or specific business results from using this custom bot. It only states the author's preference for this approach over tools like Hermes due to security concerns and reliability issues with self-configuring agents.
Human role
The original post does not say how a person stayed involved.
Limitations
Prerequisites include programming skills to build and maintain a custom bot and a Telegram account. The author notes that previous attempts with OpenClaw in a VM were cumbersome due to security controls and self-configuration crashes. Integration uncertainty exists regarding how to securely allow the LLM to navigate web content without excessive complexity.
Try it
I want to build a secure, custom Telegram bot for personal task management. My goal is to avoid the security risks and instability of self-configuring agents like Hermes or OpenClaw. Inputs: [My Telegram Bot Token], [My User ID], [Preferred Weather Format], [Target Calendar Service]. Steps: 1. Set up a basic Python/Node.js bot connected to Telegram. 2. Implement three core commands: '/todo [text]', '/calendar [event]', and '/weather'. 3. Ensure the bot only accesses necessary files and does not attempt self-configuration. 4. Create a dry-run mode where the bot logs actions instead of executing them. 5. Ask me to confirm the dry-run output before enabling live execution. Deliverables: Source code for the bot, a README with setup instructions, and a list of supported commands. Quality Check: The bot must respond to commands within 2 seconds and never execute actions without my explicit confirmation in the initial phase. If inputs are missing, ask for them before proceeding.
Source reports are not independently verified. Publication date is the catalog publication date, not the original article date.