Claude Gateway

A Telegram bot that lets you remotely control Claude Code CLI from your phone. Designed to run on a Raspberry Pi or any Linux server, it forwards your Telegram messages to Claude Code and streams responses back in real time.

Telegram <──> claude-gateway <──> Claude Code CLI

Dashboard: A web dashboard for browser-based access is included but is still a work in progress.

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Features

• Send messages to Claude Code from Telegram from anywhere
• Conversations carry context automatically (uses --continue between messages)
• Switch between projects with /project or an inline keyboard
• Create new project directories with /newproject
• Upload images directly to your current project folder
• Cancel running Claude operations with /stop
• Start a remote-control session with /remote — opens a claude.ai browser link so you can take over from your phone
• Chat ID whitelist keeps the bot private
• Interactive setup wizard (claude-gateway setup)
• Optional systemd service for auto-start on boot
• Code blocks in responses — code in Claude's output is automatically formatted as Telegram code blocks for easy reading and one-tap copying

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Prerequisites

1. Claude Code CLI installed and authenticated on the host machine:

   npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
   claude --version

2. Python 3.11+ on the host machine.

3. A Telegram bot token — create one via @BotFather on Telegram (/newbot).

4. Your Telegram chat ID — you can find it by messaging @userinfobot or by starting the bot without a whitelist and reading the ID from the unauthorized message.

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Installation

Recommended: pipx (isolated environment)

pipx install claude-gateway

Alternative: pip

pip install claude-gateway

From source

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/claude-gateway.git
cd claude-gateway
pip install -e .

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Setup

Run the interactive wizard after installation:

claude-gateway setup

The wizard will ask for:

Setting	Description
Bot token	The token from @BotFather
Allowed chat IDs	Comma-separated Telegram chat IDs that can use the bot
Default project path	Directory Claude opens in for each new session
Project search dirs	Comma-separated dirs scanned for the /project command
New project dir	Where /newproject creates folders
Dashboard host/port	Optional, defaults to 0.0.0.0:3000

Configuration is saved to ~/.config/claude-gateway/config.env.

Getting your chat ID

If you're not sure of your chat ID, start the bot without setting one, send any message, and the bot will reply with your ID. Then re-run claude-gateway setup and add it.

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Running the bot

claude-gateway start

The bot will connect to Telegram and start listening for messages.

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Bot commands

Command	Description
/start	Welcome message and current project
/help	Show all commands
/new	Start a fresh Claude conversation
/project	Show project picker (inline keyboard)
/project <name>	Switch to a named project
/newproject <name>	Create a new project directory and switch to it
/status	Show current session info
/stop	Cancel the current Claude operation
/remote	Start a remote-control session and get a claude.ai URL
/stopremote	Stop the active remote-control session

Any other message is forwarded directly to Claude Code.

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Configuration reference

All settings can be set via environment variables or in ~/.config/claude-gateway/config.env:

# Required
TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=your_bot_token_here

# Security: comma-separated chat IDs allowed to use the bot
ALLOWED_CHAT_IDS=123456789,987654321

# Project directories
DEFAULT_PROJECT_PATH=/home/user/projects
PROJECT_SEARCH_DIRS=/home/user/projects,/mnt/ssd/projects
NEW_PROJECT_DIR=/home/user/projects

# Dashboard (optional, work in progress)
DASHBOARD_HOST=0.0.0.0
DASHBOARD_PORT=3000

# Data storage for the dashboard agent store
DATA_DIR=/home/user/.local/share/claude-gateway

Environment variables always take precedence over the config file. A .env file in the current working directory takes precedence over ~/.config/claude-gateway/config.env.

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Running as a systemd service

Generate service files with:

claude-gateway systemd

This creates claude-gateway.service and claude-dashboard.service in the current directory. Install them:

sudo cp claude-gateway.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now claude-gateway

Check status and logs:

sudo systemctl status claude-gateway
journalctl -u claude-gateway -f

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Dashboard (Work in Progress)

A web dashboard is included that provides browser-based access to Claude via agents. It is currently a work in progress and may have rough edges.

To start it:

claude-gateway dashboard

Then open http://localhost:3000 in your browser.

The dashboard exposes a REST + WebSocket API (/api/*) and a React frontend (if the frontend has been built). The frontend source is in the frontend/ directory.

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Security

• Chat ID whitelist: Only configured chat IDs can interact with the bot. Anyone else receives an unauthorized message showing their chat ID.
• Path validation: The bot blocks access to sensitive system directories (/etc, /root, /var, /usr, /bin, /sbin, /boot).
• --dangerously-skip-permissions: Claude Code runs without interactive permission prompts since there is no TTY. Access control is delegated to the Telegram whitelist and path validation.
• Config file permissions: The setup wizard creates ~/.config/claude-gateway/config.env with mode 0600 (owner read/write only).

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Project structure

claude_gateway/
├── cli.py           # CLI entry point (setup, start, dashboard, systemd)
├── config.py        # Configuration loading
├── gateway.py       # Telegram bot handlers
├── claude_runner.py # Claude Code process manager
├── dashboard.py     # FastAPI dashboard (WIP)
├── agent_store.py   # JSON persistence for dashboard agents
└── models.py        # Pydantic data models

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License

MIT