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

Question

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

{% github https://github.com/shopsmartai/mealai-concierge %}

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:

# 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