Personal AI Assistant in Telegram: What to Ask in Week One

The first days with an assistant decide whether it becomes a habit. Below is a plan of small tasks. Each one takes a minute and shows one of its abilities.

Everything here is based on what the program does today. Presentations are not on this list. The site makes no promises about them, and neither will we.

Download the app for Windows, macOS or Linux, go through the setup wizard and connect your Telegram: create a bot with @BotFather, paste the token and your phone number. Strangers cannot write to the agent. An empty list of allowed users means no one.

Your first task is simple: “What can you do?” Then check that everything connects: “Find the plan price on the website and give me the link.” The agent opens pages, including ones drawn by scripts, and brings back the text with a link to the source.

This is the simplest use, and a good place to start. Short questions you would rather not open a browser for: what a page says, what deadline the terms give, how two plans differ. Give it the link and ask in your own words.

It works with files too. Send a PDF, Word or Excel file and ask: “What amounts and deadlines are in here?” The file is read in the exchange folder, and the answer comes back to the chat.

Tell it what you need to write and give three or four facts: who it is for, what it is about, and the date it is due. The agent sends a draft. You edit it with a phrase like “shorter, and no apologies.”

If there is a lot of material, collect it in notes and ask: “Turn these notes into a Word document.” The file comes to the same chat. A combination that works well: first a voice message with your thoughts as they come, then a request to shape them into a letter. The text stays yours; the agent only puts it into the right form. Nothing goes to third parties without your “yes.” Letters and messages to other chats are sent only after you confirm.

The agent reads spreadsheets. Send an Excel file and ask about the totals, ask it to find rows with an overdue date, or to explain where a sum comes from. It can edit files on your computer only if you have switched that on. The /files command shows what it changed and how to undo it.

Start with reading. Turn on editing once you are comfortable with it. A good first request: send an expense table and ask which three rows are the largest and what changed since last month, if you have a second file. The agent names the figures, and you check them against the source. That shows whether you can trust it with your kind of material.

Dictate a voice message and the agent turns it into text. The same goes for a call recording: send the file and say “list who promised what.” You get the text and a short summary with the promises and deadlines.

• transcription runs on your machine, and the audio does not leave it;
• the speech recognition model is downloaded on the first recording, so the first one takes longer;
• files up to 2 GB are accepted when your own Telegram server is enabled, and the setup wizard offers it.

Say it plainly: “Remember: Irina from accounting takes the reports before the fifth.” A week later, in a different conversation, the agent still knows it. Ask “What do you know about me?” and you will see what it has stored.

Remove what you no longer need with a phrase like “Forget the old price.” A note that reads like a command to the agent goes into quarantine and has no effect until you approve it. All data stays in a folder on your machine. From version 1.3.7 the app sends anonymous install statistics (version, system, architecture, a random installation number; nothing from conversations, files or keys), which you can turn off with CAPYAGENT_NO_STATS=1. Versions up to 1.3.6 send nothing.

A reminder arrives with the exact wording you used: “Remind me tomorrow at 10 to call the bank.” There are also tasks: at the set time the agent does the work again and sends you the result.

• “Every weekday at 9, send me what is new on my tasks”;
• “Every hour, check the server disk and write only if more than 90% is used”;
• “Remind me on the fifth to issue the invoices”.

The scheduler understands weekdays, intervals and date ranges. It uses your time zone.

Sum up at the end of the week: what you repeat every day, and what was a one-off. Turn the repeating things into scheduled tasks and leave the one-offs as ordinary requests. That way the assistant adapts to your day, not the other way round.

Choose a model: a ChatGPT subscription, an API key, GigaChat, YandexGPT, or a model on your own computer. If the main one fails, the agent switches to the backup. Decide whether you need it to run around the clock too. A 9 a.m. reminder arrives if the laptop is on, but not if it is closed. For that you need a server or the cloud.

Do I need to learn commands?

No. You write in plain phrases, as text or as a voice message. Commands such as /files are only for service tasks, for example to see what the agent changed in your files.

What happens if the computer is turned off?

The agent stays silent: it runs on your computer or your server. Reminders and digests arrive while the machine is on. For round-the-clock work there is a one-command server install and the cloud.

How much does it cost?

The program is free for yourself and your company. You pay the model provider for a subscription or an API key. The cloud, if you need it, costs 1,590 RUB a month plus about 2,000 RUB for the model.

Download the app from the Download page. It takes about ten minutes. If you need an assistant that works at night and on weekends, look at the cloud. All the details about this kind of agent are on the capabilities page.