Chat Integrations

Connect any chat platform — Discord, Slack, Telegram, or your own — to Codebolt. Users send messages on their platform; Codebolt routes them to the right agent; replies flow back to the same chat automatically.

Architecture

The system has four layers:

Layer	What it is
External Platform	Discord, Slack, Telegram, or any platform with a bot API or webhook
Channel Plugin	A Codebolt plugin that speaks the platform's protocol and bridges to the server
Codebolt Server	Routes messages to agents, manages threads, routes replies back
Agent Process	Your agent handler — receives the message, runs the loop, calls sendMessage()

The left arrows (↓) are the request path: a platform event arrives, the plugin calls gateway.routeMessage(), the server spawns or routes to a running agent.

The right arrows (↑) are the reply path: the agent calls sendMessage(), the Response Router intercepts it, pushes it back through the Gateway Handler, over WebSocket to the plugin, and the plugin delivers it to the platform.

Two ways to build an integration

1. Use an existing plugin (recommended)

Codebolt ships first-party plugins for the major platforms. Install them from the registry, configure credentials, and they work:

• Discord — full message, thread, and attachment support
• Slack — Socket Mode, DMs, @mention routing, file uploads
• Telegram — polling, media messages, group filtering, auto-reconnect

2. Write a custom plugin

If your platform isn't covered, implement the plugin yourself. See Plugin SDK — gateway API for the full plugin.gateway.* surface.

The core interface every channel plugin implements:

// Incoming: translate platform event → gateway message
plugin.gateway.routeMessage({
  source: 'channel',
  sourceId: plugin.pluginId,
  threadStrategy: 'per-user',  // or per-conversation, per-message, single
  agentId: config.agentId,
  userId: externalUserId,
  externalThreadId: externalChatId,
  text: messageText,
  replyTo: { channelId, externalThreadId, userId },
});

// Outgoing: receive agent reply → send to platform
plugin.gateway.onReply((reply) => {
  platformApi.send(reply.replyTo.externalThreadId, reply.text);
});

Key concepts

• Gateway — how thread resolution, agent routing, and reply dispatch work
• WebSocket protocol — the /plugin WebSocket that connects plugins to the server

See also

• Plugin System — writing plugins
• Agent Extensions — what agents can consume