Add home TODO items by Telegram message
Observed in the wild: the builder ran OpenClaw and wrote a custom API that adds items to a TODO list kept only on their home PC, with no phone syncing. From the office they sent a Telegram message, and the agent called that API to add the item. It worked well enough that The builder misses it.
- Agent or tool
- OpenClaw
- Topic
- Personal Assistant
- Reported on
- Hacker News
- Added
- 2026-10-15
Why it matters
This is the classic promise of AI agents: a helper that handles errands and reminders on your behalf. Real cases like this show how close that promise is today. It is one of 50 sightings filed under Personal Assistant on Agent Sightings (number 44 by interest), and one of 41 involving OpenClaw.
How you could try it
Here is a reusable prompt, written by us in our own words, that captures the task. Paste it into OpenClaw or any similar agent and adjust the details to your situation.
Assistant mode: add home TODO items by Telegram message. Log every action, prefer reversible steps, and ask before emailing, paying, or deleting.
Tip: Start small: run it once on a low-stakes example, read what the agent did, and only then let it run on real work.
Source
Read the original first-hand account on Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47724016. Our summary is a paraphrase; details are in the source.