A Telegram assistant for calories, receipts and reminders
The creator of Lilo, an open source assistant that lives in Telegram, uses it to track calories from food photos, turn a voice note into a TODO, remind him when a game starts, and file a forwarded Uber receipt for a work reimbursement. It also works by email and WhatsApp.
- Agent or tool
- Lilo
- Topic
- Personal Assistant
- Reported on
- Hacker News
- Added
- 2026-10-29
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 57 sightings filed under Personal Assistant on Agent Sightings (number 35 by interest), and one of 1 involving Lilo.
How you could try it
Here is a reusable prompt, written by us in our own words, that captures the task. Paste it into Lilo or any similar agent and adjust the details to your situation.
When I send a photo of food, log the calories. When I forward a receipt, save it for reimbursement. When I send a voice note, add a TODO. Remind me before events I tell you about.
The prompt breaks down into 4 steps you can check as the agent works:
- When I send a photo of food, log the calories.
- When I forward a receipt, save it for reimbursement.
- When I send a voice note, add a TODO.
- Remind me before events I tell you about.
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=48237730. Our summary is a paraphrase; details are in the source.
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