Telegram

Interact with Telegram using the Bot API.

Setup

1. Check existing credentials:

   vault_get telegram_bot_token
   

2. If not configured:

   • Talk to @BotFather on Telegram
   • Send /newbot and follow instructions
   • Copy the bot token
   • Save to vault:

     vault_save telegram_bot_token "123456789:ABCdefGHIjklMNOpqrsTUVwxyz"
     

   The token is auto-injected as $TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN.

Get Chat ID

# Send a message to your bot first, then:
curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/getUpdates" | jq '.result[-1].message.chat.id'

# For groups/channels, add bot as admin and send a message

Send Messages

# Send text message
curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/sendMessage" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"chat_id": "CHAT_ID", "text": "Hello from DevClaw!"}'

# Markdown formatting
curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/sendMessage" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "chat_id": "CHAT_ID",
    "text": "*Bold* _italic_ `code`",
    "parse_mode": "MarkdownV2"
  }'

# HTML formatting
curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/sendMessage" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "chat_id": "CHAT_ID",
    "text": "<b>Bold</b> <i>italic</i> <code>code</code>",
    "parse_mode": "HTML"
  }'

Send Photos & Files

# Send photo by URL
curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/sendPhoto" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"chat_id": "CHAT_ID", "photo": "https://example.com/image.png"}'

# Send document
curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/sendDocument" \
  -F "chat_id=CHAT_ID" \
  -F "document=@/path/to/file.pdf"

Interactive Messages

# Message with inline keyboard buttons
curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/sendMessage" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "chat_id": "CHAT_ID",
    "text": "Choose an option:",
    "reply_markup": {
      "inline_keyboard": [
        [{"text": "Yes", "callback_data": "yes"}, {"text": "No", "callback_data": "no"}]
      ]
    }
  }'

Get Updates (Polling)

# Get new messages
curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/getUpdates?offset=-1" | jq '.result'

# Get all pending updates
curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/getUpdates" | jq '.result[]'

Tips

• Chat ID for users: positive number (e.g., 123456789)
• Chat ID for groups: negative number (e.g., -100123456789)
• Channel posts need @channelname or channel ID
• Use parse_mode: "MarkdownV2" for rich formatting
• Escape special chars in MarkdownV2: _ * [ ] ( ) ~ ` > # + - = | { } . !

Triggers

telegram, send telegram message, telegram bot, telegram notification, notify telegram, tg message