Beyond the Terminal: The Road to a Truly Autonomous AI Agent

opencode-dispatch is a secure Telegram bridge for the opencode CLI. It brings the power of a 120K-star, self-hosted AI agent to your pocket—giving you "Dispatch-style" remote access without the corporate subscription or vendor lock-in.

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Why opencode-dispatch?

While the industry moves toward closed, subscription-based mobile interfaces, opencode-dispatch stays true to the open-source ethos: Your models, your hardware, your data.

• 📱 Remote Autonomy: Manage codebases, run tests, and refactor files from a Telegram chat.
• 🤖 Model Agnostic: Connect to 75+ providers via Models.dev or run entirely local via Ollama.
• 🔒 Security First: Built-in Telegram Chat ID locking and context isolation.
• ⚡ Lightweight: Runs on a $5 VPS or your local machine with minimal overhead.

The Vision: Building "OpenClaw"

This repository is more than a bridge; it's a foundational layer for a persistent, autonomous agent ecosystem. We are moving beyond stateless terminal commands toward an agent that:

1. Remembers: Persistent cross-session context.
2. Acts: Scheduled task execution and background monitoring.
3. Learns: A plug-and-play skills and personality registry.

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What You Need

• opencode CLI installed — verify with opencode --version
• A Telegram account
• Python 3.10+ or Node.js
• A Telegram bot token (free from @BotFather)

Quick Setup

Step 1: Create a Telegram Bot

1. Open Telegram and search for @BotFather
2. Send /newbot and follow the prompts to get your token.

Step 2: Install Dependencies

Choose Python or Node.js (both work the same):

Python:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Node.js:

npm install

Step 3: Configure

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env and add your Telegram bot token:

TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=your_bot_token_here
OPENCODE_API_URL=http://127.0.0.1:5050

Step 4: Start opencode

cd ~/your-project
opencode serve --port 5050

Important: Always cd into a specific project folder first. This limits opencode's access to that folder and its subfolders.

Step 5: Run the Bot

• Python: python bot.py
• Node.js: npm start

Bot Commands

Command	Description
/start	Welcome message and server info
/status	Server health, session ID, queue size
/working	Check what task is currently being processed
/clear	Clear pending messages from queue

Security Recommendations

1. Limit workspace access

Never run from your home directory (~) or root (/). opencode can access all files in the directory it's started from.

2. Password protect (Recommended)

Set a password to prevent unauthorized local access:

OPENCODE_SERVER_PASSWORD=your-secret opencode serve --port 5050

Then add to .env:

OPENCODE_SERVER_PASSWORD=your-secret

3. Restrict to your Telegram account (Highly Recommended)

To lock the bot so only YOU can use it:

1. Get your chat ID from @userinfobot
2. Add to .env:

TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_CHAT_ID=your_chat_id_here

Troubleshooting

"Can't connect to opencode"

• Make sure opencode serve --port 5050 is running in a terminal
• Verify with: curl http://127.0.0.1:5050/global/health

"Bot isn't responding"

• Check your Telegram bot token in .env
• Make sure the bot is running (python bot.py or npm start)

"Port already in use"

• Pick a different port: opencode serve --port 5051
• Update OPENCODE_API_URL in .env to match

"opencode command not found"

• Install: curl -fsSL https://opencode.ai/install | bash
• Then run: source ~/.zshrc

Contributing

Found a bug? Have an improvement? Open an issue or submit a pull request!

License

MIT