Descriptions:
Craig Hewitt argues that Claude Code’s newly released Channels feature effectively closes the last meaningful gap between Claude Code and OpenClaw: mobile accessibility. Channels works by exposing Claude Code as an MCP server that listens for events from Telegram or Discord, allowing users to interact with their running Claude Code session from a phone without needing Tailscale, VPS terminal emulators, or third-party tooling. The feature is available now on paid Anthropic plans, with team and enterprise users needing to opt in during the current research preview.
The video walks through the full setup: creating a bot via BotFather in Telegram, running `/telegram configure` inside Claude Code, loading the Channels plugin at launch with the official flag, and pairing your account so only authorized users can push messages. Hewitt covers security configuration options — scoping access per-user, per-repo, or globally — and discusses running Claude Code persistently on a Mac Mini or cloud VPS (Digital Ocean, EC2, Hetzner) to mirror the always-on behavior OpenClaw is known for. Combined with Claude Code’s existing scheduled tasks support, he argues the feature parity with OpenClaw is now nearly complete.
The comparison is direct: Hewitt describes OpenClaw as brittle, prone to breaking on model or config changes, while Claude Code’s stability and native Anthropic support make it a more reliable foundation. He credits OpenClaw with pioneering the always-on agent paradigm but concludes that Channels makes it straightforward to replicate that workflow entirely within Claude Code.
📺 Source: Craig Hewitt · Published March 23, 2026
🏷️ Format: Comparison
