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Rabbithole · Learn · ~15 min

Build your AI Secretary

Make it once — then text it like a personal assistant.

1

Give your secretary a phone — make a Telegram bot

What's happening: A "bot" is just a Telegram account your program controls. You create it by chatting with Telegram's official robot, BotFather. He hands you a secret token — a password that lets your code send and read messages as that bot. Nothing is connected to your real Telegram account or contacts.
  1. Open Telegram and search for @BotFather (the one with the blue check).
  2. Tap Start, then send /newbot.
  3. He asks for a name (anything, e.g. "Maple Assistant").
  4. Then a username ending in bot (e.g. maple_secretary_bot).
  5. He replies with a line like 123456:ABC-DEF... — that's your token.
2

Give it a brain — connect Claude

What's happening: The bot can pass messages, but it needs a brain to understand "find a time next week and ask Sarah." That brain is Claude. Your code sends each request to Claude with a list of allowed actions (read calendar, send email…), and Claude decides which to use.
  1. Go to console.anthropic.com and sign in.
  2. Open API Keys → Create Key.
  3. Copy the key (starts with sk-ant-).
Brain: claude-opus-4-8 (smartest). Use claude-sonnet-4-6 to save cost.
3

Give it your calendar & email — connect Google

What's happening: To act like a secretary it needs to read your Calendar and send Gmail. Google uses OAuth — you approve specific permissions ("scopes") on Google's own screen, and Google hands back a token stored on your computer. You can revoke it anytime in your Google account.
Scopes you'll approve, in plain English:
• See your calendar & create events — to find open times and book them.
• Send email as you — to reach the people you ask it to contact.
  1. Open console.cloud.google.com → create a project.
  2. Enable the Google Calendar API and the Gmail API.
  3. Go to Credentials → Create Credentials → OAuth client ID → Web application.
  4. Add redirect URI: http://localhost:4322/oauth/callback
  5. Copy the Client ID and Client secret.

When you run the kit, the setup wizard opens Google's approval screen and stores your token in tokens/ (gitignored) — never sent to us.

4

Try it — without sending anything

What's happening: Type an instruction the way you'd text it. The secretary shows you its plan — which actions it would take and who it would contact — before doing anything. This is the confirm-before-send safety: it drafts, you approve. This planner is live — try it.
Nothing is sent — this is a dry run.
5

Go live

With the kit downloaded and the checklist green, start your secretary:

npm install
npm start

Then open Telegram, find your bot, tap Start, and text it like you would a real assistant. It'll reply there.

Want this connected to your real tools — for your whole team?

This kit is the DIY taste. We build the production version end to end: real bookings, your CRM, your inbox, guardrails, the works.

Have Rabbithole build the production version → Get the free kit