---
title: Channel Routing Policy
area: automation
tags: [automation, assistant, integrations, reference]
created: 2026-03-20
updated: 2026-04-16
status: active
related: [[Infrastructure/Architecture]]
---

# Channel Routing Policy

Use the right communication surface for the right kind of work so zap stays useful without creating context soup or notification fatigue.

## Core rule

Use **Telegram for interrupts** and **Discord for depth**.

A simple operating rule:
- **Telegram = pay attention now**
- **Discord = let’s work on this**

## Telegram

Use Telegram for:
- direct personal chat
- reminders
- alerts / watchdog notices
- quick status checks
- lightweight mobile interaction
- quick approvals or yes/no decisions
- short check-ins
- meaningful completion / blocked / need-answer-now interrupts

Avoid using Telegram as the main place for:
- long debugging sessions
- architecture work
- noisy experiments
- multi-step implementation discussions
- routine status chatter

## Discord

Use Discord for:
- technical debugging
- ongoing project work
- brainstorming / planning
- noisy experiments and model/tool testing
- thread-based scoped work items
- coding and implementation sessions
- research, comparisons, and draft iteration

Prefer Discord when the work is longer than a few turns, technical/investigative, likely to branch into subtopics, or worth separating into a thread.

## Notification split

Telegram should carry:
- reminders
- watchdog alerts
- backup failures/staleness
- cron failures
- important operational summaries
- urgent risks
- decisions needed to continue
- concise completion notices when worth interrupting for

Discord should carry:
- active debugging work
- investigation notes
- implementation progress in threads
- noisy experiments / test output when a human is actively watching
- project planning and architecture discussions
- detailed recommendations and multi-option analysis
- passive mirrored ops summaries when useful in `#ops-alerts`

## Routing rules

1. **If it needs immediate attention, use Telegram**
   - upcoming meeting soon
   - failure alert
   - backup stale
   - decision needed to continue
   - short reminder

2. **If it needs more than a few messages, use Discord**
   - implementation work
   - analysis
   - comparisons
   - logs and drafts
   - ongoing project coordination

3. **If work starts in Discord, only escalate to Telegram when needed**
   - completed
   - blocked
   - urgent risk
   - waiting on Will

4. **Avoid duplicating the same conversation in both places**
   - one system of record per task
   - use cross-channel messages only for concise alerts or handoff

## Channel-by-channel recommendation

- **Telegram DM**
  - **Decision:** Keep
  - **Role:** primary interrupt lane
  - **Use for:** reminders, alerts, approvals, quick check-ins, mobile commands
  - **zap behavior:** concise, responsive, interrupt-worthy only

- **Telegram Automation**
  - **Decision:** Repurpose
  - **Role:** alert feed
  - **Use for:** backup failures, cron/watchdog alerts, important ops summaries
  - **zap behavior:** low-noise, action-oriented, minimal discussion

- **Telegram Dev**
  - **Decision:** Repurpose
  - **Role:** short technical interrupt lane
  - **Use for:** urgent technical pings, done, blocked, need-answer-now
  - **zap behavior:** brief, then move sustained work to Discord

- **Telegram Brainstorming**
  - **Decision:** Repurpose
  - **Role:** lightweight idea capture
  - **Use for:** quick thoughts, rough prompts, mobile idea drops
  - **zap behavior:** casual/light, avoid long design threads

- **Discord #dev**
  - **Decision:** Keep
  - **Role:** main technical workspace
  - **Use for:** debugging, implementation, infra work, issue triage
  - **zap behavior:** active collaborator, multi-step work okay, prefer threads when it grows

- **Discord #brainstorming**
  - **Decision:** Keep
  - **Role:** main thinking/planning space
  - **Use for:** architecture, idea exploration, comparing options, planning
  - **zap behavior:** exploratory but organized, summarize clearly

- **Discord #automation-lab**
  - **Decision:** Keep
  - **Role:** noisy experiment workspace
  - **Use for:** webhook tests, model/provider validation, n8n/OpenClaw experiments, repeated technical retries
  - **zap behavior:** operational/noisy is okay here; keep clutter out of `#dev`

- **Discord #ops-alerts**
  - **Decision:** Keep
  - **Role:** passive ops feed
  - **Use for:** mirrored backup/cron/watchdog summaries, service alerts, low-chatter operational visibility
  - **zap behavior:** concise, alert-style, low-noise, not the place for full debugging sessions

- **Discord threads**
  - **Decision:** Emphasize more
  - **Role:** scoped work container
  - **Use for:** one task, one bug, one feature, one investigation
  - **zap behavior:** treat thread as system of record

## Recommended Discord structure

Current recommended Discord channels:
- `#dev`
- `#brainstorming`
- `#automation-lab`
- `#ops-alerts`

Operating rule:
- **channels for mode, threads for task**

That means:
- use a channel to choose the type of work
- use a thread to contain the specific work item

Thread naming convention:
- keep names short and concrete
- prefer: verb + object + optional qualifier
- examples:
  - `debug Telegram routing`
  - `plan morning brief flow`
  - `test n8n Gmail drafts`
  - `fix IMAP auth failure`

## Thread policy for Discord

- one thread per project or workstream
- use the main channel for lightweight entry points
- move complex work into a thread quickly
- keep summaries and decisions in the thread so context stays together

## Practical examples

- "remind me in 20 minutes" → Telegram DM
- "backup is stale" → Telegram alert, optionally mirrored to `#ops-alerts`
- "figure out why IMAP is broken" → Discord debug thread
- "compare three architecture options" → Discord brainstorming thread
- repeated webhook/model/provider tests → Discord experiment thread
- "run this coding task and keep me posted" → Discord thread, escalate to Telegram only for done/blocked/urgent
- morning brief → Telegram by default unless detailed analysis is requested

## Success criteria

- Telegram stays useful, not noisy
- Discord becomes the durable workspace
- fewer lost tasks
- fewer unnecessary context switches
- important things still interrupt in time
