Authentication
ZoarkBot uses three types of credentials: your Anthropic API key (powers the AI), your gateway access token (for Mission Control login), and your Telegram bot token.
1. Anthropic API Key (recommended)
ZoarkBot uses Anthropic's Claude to power all AI agents. You need an API key from the Anthropic Console.
Create your API key
Go to console.anthropic.com/settings/keys and create a new key.
Add it to your environment file
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...Restart ZoarkBot
zoarkbot restartRun zoarkbot status and look for "Anthropic: configured" in the output.
2. Gateway Access Token
Every ZoarkBot installation has a unique gateway access token. This is how Mission Control (mc.zoarkai.org) authenticates with your bot.
The token is generated when you first run zoarkbot start. To retrieve it at any time:
zoarkbot tokenCopy the output and paste it into Mission Control when prompted to connect your gateway.
Go to mc.zoarkai.org, click "Connect Gateway", and paste your token. That's it — you're in.
Your token is stored in ~/.zoarkbot/zoarkbot.json under gateway.auth.token. Treat it like a password — don't share it.
3. Telegram Bot Token
To connect Telegram, you need a bot token from Telegram's official bot creation tool.
See Getting Started — Step 1 for the full walkthrough on creating a Telegram bot and getting its token.
Once you have the token, add it to your config:
{
channels: {
telegram: {
token: "1234567890:ABCdefGHIjklMNOpqrSTUvwxYZ",
allowFrom: ["your_telegram_username"]
}
}
}