If you already spend the day in Claude Code, the conversations that matter can come to you there. A customer writes on WhatsApp, Telegram or email, and a second later the message is in your open session: Claude reads the chat, looks at who this person is, and shows you a reply to send, or tells you none is needed.
What happens when a message arrives
DialogBrain keeps your WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, email and website chat in one inbox. Normally an AI agent inside DialogBrain answers there. With this set up, you pick some conversations and hand them to your own Claude Code session instead.
When a message in one of those conversations comes in, DialogBrain pushes it into the session that is open on your computer. It is not a notification to go and look somewhere else. The message, the chat it belongs to and the instructions for what to do with it arrive in the session itself, and Claude starts on them straight away.
Claude can open the whole conversation, the contact and their history on other channels, because the DialogBrain tools are already in the session. When it answers, the reply goes back into the same WhatsApp or Telegram chat, from the same number the customer wrote to.
Nothing runs inside DialogBrain to make this happen: no model, no intermediate agent, no charge per message. The thinking is done by Claude Code, on the Claude plan you already pay for.
How we use it ourselves
One conversation that matters. A hotel owner from Thailand filled in our ad form, answered our first message and asked what it costs per month. We pinned that WhatsApp chat to our Claude Code session. Every time he writes, the message shows up in the session with a suggested answer. We change a word if needed and say "send". Our agents keep handling every other chat as before.
A reply we are waiting for. When a deal hinges on one person getting back to us, the chat with that person wakes the session. Claude reads the answer against everything said earlier and tells us what changed and what to do next, instead of us checking the phone every hour.
A new lead worth a closer look. Our intake agent answers every lead within seconds. For the ones that deserve more thought, an agent can put a task on the board addressed to our desktop session: research the company, suggest an approach. The task board keeps the status and the history.
What we do not do is send the whole inbox to the session. At a hundred conversations a day that is a hundred interruptions. Pick the chats, people or events that are rare enough to deserve your attention.
What you need
Claude Code signed in with a claude.ai account or an Anthropic Console key. Channels, the Claude Code feature this is built on, are in research preview. On Pro and Max accounts they work without anything to switch on. On Team and Enterprise plans an owner first has to enable them under claude.ai → Admin settings → Claude Code → Channels.
Node.js 20 or newer on your computer. Claude Code installed as a standalone app does not bring one with it, so check with node --version first.
A DialogBrain workspace with the channels you want connected. The 14-day trial is enough to set everything up.
Step 1. Install the plugin
Install the DialogBrain plugin in Claude Code and type /mcp to sign in. The plugin adds the DialogBrain tools, the step-by-step skills and the channel that carries the messages.
claude plugin marketplace add saloprj/dialogbrain-claude-plugin
claude plugin install dialogbrain@dialogbrain
Step 2. Give it a key and a name for this computer
Create an API key in DialogBrain under Settings → Developer, and put it in a small file together with a name for this computer. The name is how DialogBrain knows which session a conversation goes to, so use one you will recognise, such as office-laptop.
# ~/.claude/channels/dialogbrain/.env
DIALOGBRAIN_TOKEN=<the key from Settings → Developer>
DIALOGBRAIN_CHANNEL_NAME=office-laptop
Step 3. Start Claude Code with the channel on
Start Claude Code with the channel switched on. Claude Code only lets messages into a session that was started with a flag naming the channel. It reads the flag at start, so an open session has to be restarted, and every new session needs the flag again. A shell alias saves typing it.
The flag has "dangerously" in its name because during the research preview Claude Code only approves channels from Anthropic's own list, and the DialogBrain channel is not on it yet. The flag tells Claude Code you are choosing to load it anyway. If your company manages Claude Code for you, an admin can instead add the DialogBrain plugin to the approved channels in managed settings, and then the shorter claude --channels plugin:dialogbrain@dialogbrain is enough.
claude --dangerously-load-development-channels plugin:dialogbrain@dialogbrain
Step 4. Say which messages should reach you
Tell Claude which messages should reach you, in plain words. The plugin knows how to set it up: it creates a "Claude Code" agent in your workspace and a rule for the chat, person, keyword or channel you named, pointed at this computer. To check the connection, ask which Claude Code sessions are connected, and your computer's name should be in the answer.
You can also do it in the DialogBrain app: New AI Agent → the Claude Code card, then add a trigger with the chats you want. With one computer connected, that is all it needs. Choosing a specific computer when several are connected is done from Claude Code for now.
Wake me here when the hotel lead from Thailand writes
on WhatsApp. Show me the message and a suggested
reply, and don't send anything until I say so.
Which of my Claude Code sessions are connected?
Stop waking me for that chat.
Who presses send
Claude answers the customer by calling the DialogBrain send tool, and that message goes out straight away. It is not held as a draft in DialogBrain. Your control is Claude Code itself: unless you have told it to skip permission prompts, it asks you before every send. Keep that prompt on for customer conversations, or tell Claude in the rule to only suggest a reply.
If Claude decides no reply is needed, for example the message is just "ok, thanks", it simply does not send anything.
When a message does not arrive
The session has to be open. Messages are pushed only to a session that is running at that moment. Nothing is saved and replayed later, so what arrives while Claude Code is closed stays in the DialogBrain inbox and is not delivered to the session.
The session has to have been started with the flag. Without it Claude Code quietly drops what arrives, and the plugin's tools keep working as if nothing were wrong.
After you edit the settings file, restart Claude Code. The file is read once, when the session starts.
If the computer slept or the connection dropped, type /mcp and reconnect the DialogBrain channel. Then ask again which sessions are connected.
With two Claude Code windows open, give each a different name, and say in the rule which one should receive the chat. If you do not, DialogBrain delivers to neither rather than making both do the same work.
If you cannot switch channels on
You still have two options that need no channel. An agent can message you on Telegram or WhatsApp when the event you care about happens, and you open the conversation from there. Or it can put a task on the DialogBrain board, which you can pick up from any assistant, including ChatGPT or Claude on your phone.
More on channels: Claude Code channels documentation. The plugin, its skills and the channel code: dialogbrain-claude-plugin on GitHub.
Questions and answers
Can Claude Code receive WhatsApp messages?
Yes, through DialogBrain. Connect WhatsApp to DialogBrain, install the DialogBrain plugin in Claude Code and start it with the channel switched on. Messages from the chats you pick then arrive in your open session, and Claude can reply in the same WhatsApp chat.
Does it cost anything per message?
Not inside DialogBrain. No model runs there for these messages; the work happens in Claude Code, on your Claude plan. You pay DialogBrain for the channels as usual.
Does Claude Code have to be open?
Yes. Messages are pushed only to a session that is running. If you want it around the clock, keep a session running on a computer that stays on, or leave those chats to an agent inside DialogBrain, which works without your computer.
Will Claude answer my customers on its own?
Only if you let it. Claude Code asks you before each send unless you have turned permission prompts off. You can also tell it in the rule to only suggest replies.
Does it work with Telegram, Instagram and email too?
Yes. The rule is about conversations in your DialogBrain inbox, so it works for any channel connected there: WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, email, LINE and the chat on your website.
Is the "dangerously" flag safe?
It lets a channel that is not on Anthropic's approved list send messages into your session. Here that channel is the DialogBrain plugin you installed yourself, and it only delivers messages from your own workspace. If your company manages Claude Code, ask an admin to approve the plugin instead, and you will not need the flag.
Originally published at dialogbrain.com.
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