Telegram channel plugin: inbound messages not delivered to session

Description

The Telegram channel plugin (telegram@claude-plugins-official) can send outbound messages via the reply tool, but inbound messages from Telegram never reach the Claude Code session. The MCP notification (notifications/claude/channel) appears to fire in server.ts but is not delivered to the host.

Environment

• Claude Code version: 2.1.80
• Platform: macOS (Darwin 24.3.0)
• Shell: zsh

Setup (all verified correct)

• Bot token is valid (getMe returns successfully)
• access.json has correct user ID in allowFrom (verified via @userinfobot)
• dmPolicy is set to allowlist
• All three Telegram tools (reply, react, edit_message) are auto-allowed in settings.json
• Single plugin process running (bun run ... start)
• No webhook set on the bot (getWebhookInfo returns empty URL)

Reproduction

1. Enable telegram@claude-plugins-official in settings.json
2. Configure bot token and allowlist a user
3. Send a message from Claude to the user via reply tool → works
4. User sends a message back to the bot on Telegram → never arrives in the Claude Code session

Troubleshooting already attempted

• Restarted Claude Code 7+ times
• Verified only one plugin process is running
• Confirmed bot token validity via Telegram Bot API (getMe, getWebhookInfo)
• Confirmed user ID in allowlist matches actual Telegram user ID
• getUpdates returns empty (expected — plugin is polling)

Likely cause

The mcp.notification() call at server.ts:578 fires after the gate passes, but the notification does not reach the Claude Code host session. The MCP transport (stdio) may not be delivering notifications/claude/channel events correctly.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code