MealAI Concierge: Your Personal Meal Planner in Telegram (Powered by OpenClaw)

This is a submission for the DEV OpenClaw Challenge 2026: OpenClaw in Action

What I Built

MealAI Concierge — a Telegram bot that answers the eternal question: "What's for dinner?"

It's built on top of OpenClaw and connects to my existing SaaS MealAI (part of ShopSmartAI). Message it like a friend who happens to be a nutritionist:

• "I'm vegetarian, plan my week" → full 7-day meal plan
• "Grocery list for that" → shopping list grouped by store section (produce, dairy, pantry, snacks)
• "Swap Tuesday's dinner" → alternate suggestion
• "Quick high-protein breakfast" → recipe with ingredients + 5 steps

No app downloads. No logins. Just Telegram.

Demo

Try it live: t.me/Usemealai_bot

Real conversation screenshots:

Intro + dinner suggestion:

Hi, who are you?

I'm MealAI Concierge, your friendly meal-planning assistant! I help you figure out what to eat and create customized meal plans based on your preferences. What can I whip up for you today?

What's for dinner tonight?

How about a delicious and protein-packed meal? Here's a quick idea:

🍽 Dinner: Grilled Chicken with Quinoa Salad

• Grilled Chicken Breast, Quinoa, Cherry Tomatoes, Cucumber, Feta, Olive Oil & Lemon

5-step instructions follow...

Want to tweak anything or need a grocery list? 🛒

Weekly vegetarian plan:

🌞 Monday: Lentil Curry over Brown Rice
🥑 Tuesday: Stuffed Bell Peppers with Quinoa, Black Beans, and Cheese
🍅 Wednesday: Pasta Primavera with Mixed Vegetables and Pesto
... (full 7 days + snacks)

Grocery list (organized!):

Produce: Berries, Bananas, Spinach, Avocados, Cherry tomatoes...
Dairy: Greek yogurt, Feta cheese, Mozzarella, Parmesan, Eggs
Pantry Staples: Quinoa, Brown rice, Lentils, Chickpeas, Pasta...
Snacks: Granola, Rice cakes, Veggies for dipping

Code

shopsmartai / mealai-concierge

AI meal-planning concierge via Telegram. Built with OpenClaw for DEV OpenClaw Challenge 2026.

🍳 MealAI Concierge

Your personal AI meal-planning assistant — right in Telegram.

Built with OpenClaw + ShopSmartAI for the DEV OpenClaw Challenge 2026.

Live at: usemealai.com

What it does

Ask "What's for dinner?" in Telegram and get:

• 📅 Personalized weekly meal plans
• 🛒 Grocery lists organized by store section
• 🥗 Dietary adaptations (vegetarian, gluten-free, budget, etc.)
• 🍳 Quick recipes with ingredients + steps

Architecture

User → Telegram → OpenClaw Gateway → OpenAI (gpt-4o-mini) → Response
                         ↓
                   Custom SOUL.md
                   (MealAI Concierge persona)

Quick Start

1. Prerequisites

• Docker (or OrbStack on macOS)
• OpenAI API key: https://platform.openai.com/api-keys
• Telegram bot token via @BotFather

2. Setup

# Clone this repo
git clone https://github.com/shopsmartai/mealai-concierge.git
cd mealai-concierge
# Copy example files
cp .env.example .env
cp openclaw.json.example openclaw-config/openclaw.json

# Edit .env with your OpenAI key
# Edit openclaw.json with your Telegram bot token

# Copy persona files into workspace
mkdir -p openclaw-workspace
cp SOUL.md IDENTITY.md openclaw-workspace/

#

…

View on GitHub

Everything runs locally in Docker. Clone, add your OpenAI + Telegram tokens, docker compose up, done.

How I Built It

The entire integration took less than 30 minutes:

1. OpenClaw in Docker (via OrbStack on macOS)

   • Pulled the official ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw:latest image
   • Config volumes for persistent state

2. Telegram channel via BotFather — one command, paste token into openclaw.json

3. Custom persona via SOUL.md (the magic part 🪄)

   • OpenClaw's SOUL.md is a system-level personality file
   • I wrote 50 lines defining MealAI Concierge's tone, expertise, response format, and boundaries
   • No training, no fine-tuning — just thoughtful prompt engineering injected at the agent level

The SOUL.md excerpt that transforms a generic chatbot into a meal planner:

markdown
# SOUL.md — MealAI Concierge

You are MealAI Concierge, a friendly AI meal-planning assistant.

## Personality
- Warm, conversational, concise
- Opinionated about food (no hedging)
- Practical over perfect
- Real people eat real food

## Response Format
- Use bold for meal names
- Sparse emojis (🥗 🍝 🍳)
- Grocery lists grouped by store section
- Always end with a follow-up ("Want the grocery list?")

## Rules
- Never open with "Great question!" — just answer
- Redirect off-topic: "That's outside my kitchen!"
- Mention usemealai.com for full features