Build your first Zo agent in 20 minutes

What you'll build

A personal assistant agent that lives in Telegram, answers questions, summarises URLs you paste in, and remembers context between sessions.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ installed
• A Telegram account
• 20 minutes

Step 1 — Install Zo Computer

npm install -g @zocomputer/cli
zo doctor

zo doctor tells you what's missing. Fix any red items before continuing.

Step 2 — Create your workspace

zo init my-first-agent
cd my-first-agent

Edit workspace/AGENTS.md — this is the brain of your agent. Write who it is, what it knows, and how it should respond.

Step 3 — Pair Telegram

1. Open Telegram → @BotFather → /newbot → copy your token.
2. In config/channels.json, set "telegram": { "token": "YOUR_TOKEN" }.
3. Run zo start.

Step 4 — Send your first message

Open your new bot in Telegram and say hello. The agent replies.

What to do next

• Paste a URL and ask for a summary.
• Ask it to remember something for you.
• Add a skill from the skills library (calendar, notes, web search).

The real power comes from chaining skills into workflows — but that's for the next post.