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Channel, bot and connection in the APIs

What the documentation calls a channel appears in the APIs as a bot or flow. And what the APIs call a channel is the connection. This map keeps you from storing the wrong identifier.

2026-08-20

The NicoChat documentation uses channel for the bot — where flows, triggers and contacts live — and connection for the account linked on the external platform. The APIs use different words for these same two things, and the words do not line up.

Concept
In the documentation
In the APIs
The bot, with flows and contacts
channel
bot or flow
The account on the external platform
connection
channel

The two identifiers

Channel (bot / flow)
Connection (channel)
Identifier
flow_ns
id
Format
text, such as f147815
number, such as 48213
Where it comes from
list-flows
list-channels/{type}
Triggers automation?
Yes
No
list-channels returns a connection, not a channel
Despite the name, list-channels lists the connected accounts. Anyone who reads "channels" and stores the numeric id ends up with an identifier that triggers no flow at all — the write succeeds and the automation simply never fires.

Which one to use

  • If the operation triggers, listens or automates — trigger, keyword, webhook, broadcast, subscribing a contact — the identifier is the flow_ns, coming from list-flows.
  • If the operation is checking whether the external account is connected — showing connection state, building a "connect a channel" screen — then it is the connection, from list-channels/{type}.

In the NicoChat MCP

The MCP tools follow the same separation, and the prefix tells you which of the two things they operate on:

Prefix
Operates on
channel_*
the channel — takes flow_ns
channel_connection_*
the connection

For the difference between the two concepts from the point of view of someone using the platform, see What is the difference between a channel and a connection?.