proactive-message

name	proactive-message
description	Send a proactive Telegram message by spawning a fresh headless Claude session (not the current one). Use this when the user asks for scheduled or fire-and-forget tasks that end in a Telegram notification — it avoids the 409 Conflict that would occur if a second session tried to load the telegram plugin alongside the current one.
allowed-tools	["Bash"]

Proactive Message Skill

When to use

• User asks for scheduled messaging ("every day at X", "remind me at Y", recurring check-ins)
• User asks for a fire-and-forget background task that ends in a Telegram notification
• You need to send a Telegram message from a context without the telegram plugin loaded
• You want scheduled messaging that survives the current session ending

Do NOT use this skill for normal in-session replies — use mcp__plugin_telegram_telegram__reply directly when responding live.

Why a fresh session

When the current session was launched with --channels plugin:telegram@claude-plugins-official, it spawned a bun subprocess that long-polls Telegram's getUpdates API. Telegram only allows one getUpdates poller per bot token — a second claude instance with the same flag would hit endless 409 Conflict retries.

But sending a message (sendMessage API) is a stateless HTTP POST that works from any process. The pattern:

1. Launch claude -p "<prompt>" without --channels → no polling conflict
2. The fresh session uses Bash + curl to POST directly to Telegram's Bot API
3. Bot token is read from the existing plugin state file (already on disk)
4. Fresh session exits after sending — no zombie processes

Prerequisites

The telegram plugin must already be configured and paired (token stored at ~/.claude/channels/telegram/.env). This skill uses that existing token but does NOT require the plugin to be running in the fresh session.

You need a TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID — the chat where messages should be delivered. Get this from the inbound <channel> tag in any Telegram message the user has sent.

How to invoke

Immediate one-shot

TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID=<chat_id> "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/aria-send.sh" "<task description>"

Examples:

# Simple greeting
TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID=123456 "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/aria-send.sh" \
  "Send a good morning greeting and check if there's anything on the calendar today"

# Status report with external data
TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID=123456 "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/aria-send.sh" \
  "Look up the current BTC price and send a one-line comment"

# Memory-aware check-in
TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID=123456 "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/aria-send.sh" \
  "Query long-term memory for today's schedule and send a reminder"

The fresh session:

• Loads whatever CLAUDE.md personality is configured globally for the user
• Has access to the memory-agent subagent (if installed) for long-term context
• Knows where the bot token file is and how to call the Telegram API
• Exits cleanly after delivering

Scheduled / recurring

For persistent scheduling that survives session restarts, shell out to crontab or launchd pointing at the helper script.

crontab (edit with crontab -e):

# Daily 9:03am greeting
3 9 * * * TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID=123456 /path/to/aria-proactive/scripts/aria-send.sh "Send a good morning check-in"

launchd (macOS, better than cron for sleep/wake handling): create a plist in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ with ProgramArguments pointing at the script and EnvironmentVariables.TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID set.

One-shot future trigger

Use at for "remind me at X time" requests:

echo 'TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID=123456 /path/to/aria-proactive/scripts/aria-send.sh "Remind about the 2pm meeting"' \
  | at 13:55

Configuration reference

The helper script reads these env vars:

Variable	Required	Default	Purpose
TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID	Yes	—	Destination chat
TELEGRAM_TOKEN_FILE	No	$HOME/.claude/channels/telegram/.env	File with TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN
CLAUDE_BIN	No	claude (on PATH)	Claude CLI path

Limitations

• The fresh session has no current conversation context — only what's in CLAUDE.md and long-term memory. Include any task-specific context directly in the task description.
• Token file path must be readable by the user running cron/launchd.
• Telegram messages are capped at 4096 chars per message; longer content should be chunked or attached as a file.

Related

• mcp__plugin_telegram_telegram__reply — use this for live in-session replies, NOT this skill.
• The aria-memory plugin (sibling) — the fresh session can call memory-agent to pull context.