Telegram

Telegram (Bot API)

Status: production-ready for bot DMs + groups via grammY. Long polling is the default mode; webhook mode is optional.

Pairing

Pairing — Default DM policy for Telegram is pairing.

Channel troubleshooting

Channel troubleshooting — Cross-channel diagnostics and repair playbooks.

Gateway configuration

Gateway configuration — Full channel config patterns and examples.

Quick setup

1. Create the bot token in BotFather

   Open Telegram and chat with @BotFather (confirm the handle is exactly @BotFather).

   Run /newbot, follow prompts, and save the token.

2. Configure token and DM policy

   {
     channels: {
       telegram: {
         enabled: true,
         botToken: "123:abc",
         dmPolicy: "pairing",
         groups: { "*": { requireMention: true } },
       },
     },
   }

   Env fallback: TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=... (default account only). Telegram does not use remoteclaw channels login telegram; configure token in config/env, then start gateway.

3. Start gateway and approve first DM

   remoteclaw gateway
   remoteclaw pairing list telegram
   remoteclaw pairing approve telegram <CODE>

   Pairing codes expire after 1 hour.

4. Add the bot to a group

   Add the bot to your group, then set channels.telegram.groups and groupPolicy to match your access model.

Token resolution order is account-aware. In practice, config values win over env fallback, and TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN only applies to the default account.

Telegram side settings

Privacy mode and group visibility

Telegram bots default to Privacy Mode, which limits what group messages they receive.

If the bot must see all group messages, either:

• disable privacy mode via /setprivacy, or
• make the bot a group admin.

When toggling privacy mode, remove + re-add the bot in each group so Telegram applies the change.

Group permissions

Admin status is controlled in Telegram group settings.

Admin bots receive all group messages, which is useful for always-on group behavior.

Helpful BotFather toggles

• /setjoingroups to allow/deny group adds
• /setprivacy for group visibility behavior

Access control and activation

DM policy

channels.telegram.dmPolicy controls direct message access:

• pairing (default)
• allowlist
• open (requires allowFrom to include "*")
• disabled

channels.telegram.allowFrom accepts numeric Telegram user IDs. telegram: / tg: prefixes are accepted and normalized. The onboarding wizard accepts @username input and resolves it to numeric IDs. If you upgraded and your config contains @username allowlist entries, run remoteclaw doctor --fix to resolve them (best-effort; requires a Telegram bot token).

Finding your Telegram user ID

Safer (no third-party bot):

1. DM your bot.
2. Run remoteclaw logs --follow.
3. Read from.id.

Official Bot API method:

curl "https://api.telegram.org/bot<bot_token>/getUpdates"

Third-party method (less private): @userinfobot or @getidsbot.

Group policy and allowlists

There are two independent controls:

1. Which groups are allowed (channels.telegram.groups)

   • no groups config: all groups allowed
   • groups configured: acts as allowlist (explicit IDs or "*")

2. Which senders are allowed in groups (channels.telegram.groupPolicy)

   • open
   • allowlist (default)
   • disabled

groupAllowFrom is used for group sender filtering. If not set, Telegram falls back to allowFrom. groupAllowFrom entries must be numeric Telegram user IDs. Runtime note: if channels.telegram is completely missing, runtime falls back to groupPolicy="allowlist" for group policy evaluation (even if channels.defaults.groupPolicy is set).

Example: allow any member in one specific group:

{
  channels: {
    telegram: {
      groups: {
        "-1001234567890": {
          groupPolicy: "open",
          requireMention: false,
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Mention behavior

Group replies require mention by default.

Mention can come from:

• native @botusername mention, or
• mention patterns in:
  • agents.list[].groupChat.mentionPatterns
  • messages.groupChat.mentionPatterns

Session-level command toggles:

• /activation always
• /activation mention

These update session state only. Use config for persistence.

Persistent config example:

{
  channels: {
    telegram: {
      groups: {
        "*": { requireMention: false },
      },
    },
  },
}

Getting the group chat ID:

• forward a group message to @userinfobot / @getidsbot
• or read chat.id from remoteclaw logs --follow
• or inspect Bot API getUpdates

Runtime behavior

• Telegram is owned by the gateway process.
• Routing is deterministic: Telegram inbound replies back to Telegram (the model does not pick channels).
• Inbound messages normalize into the shared channel envelope with reply metadata and media placeholders.
• Group sessions are isolated by group ID. Forum topics append :topic:<threadId> to keep topics isolated.
• DM messages can carry message_thread_id; RemoteClaw routes them with thread-aware session keys and preserves thread ID for replies.
• Long polling uses grammY runner with per-chat/per-thread sequencing. Overall runner sink concurrency uses agents.defaults.maxConcurrent.
• Telegram Bot API has no read-receipt support (sendReadReceipts does not apply).

Feature reference

Live stream preview (message edits)

RemoteClaw can stream partial replies by sending a temporary Telegram message and editing it as text arrives.

Requirement:

• channels.telegram.streaming is off | partial | block | progress (default: off)
• progress maps to partial on Telegram (compat with cross-channel naming)
• legacy channels.telegram.streamMode and boolean streaming values are auto-mapped

This works in direct chats and groups/topics.

For text-only replies, RemoteClaw keeps the same preview message and performs a final edit in place (no second message).

For complex replies (for example media payloads), RemoteClaw falls back to normal final delivery and then cleans up the preview message.

Preview streaming is separate from block streaming. When block streaming is explicitly enabled for Telegram, RemoteClaw skips the preview stream to avoid double-streaming.

Telegram-only reasoning stream:

• /reasoning stream sends reasoning to the live preview while generating
• final answer is sent without reasoning text

Formatting and HTML fallback

Outbound text uses Telegram parse_mode: "HTML".

• Markdown-ish text is rendered to Telegram-safe HTML.
• Raw model HTML is escaped to reduce Telegram parse failures.
• If Telegram rejects parsed HTML, RemoteClaw retries as plain text.

Link previews are enabled by default and can be disabled with channels.telegram.linkPreview: false.

Native commands and custom commands

Telegram command menu registration is handled at startup with setMyCommands.

Native command defaults:

• commands.native: "auto" enables native commands for Telegram

Add custom command menu entries:

{
  channels: {
    telegram: {
      customCommands: [
        { command: "backup", description: "Git backup" },
        { command: "generate", description: "Create an image" },
      ],
    },
  },
}

Rules:

• names are normalized (strip leading /, lowercase)
• valid pattern: a-z, 0-9, _, length 1..32
• custom commands cannot override native commands
• conflicts/duplicates are skipped and logged

Notes:

• custom commands are menu entries only; they do not auto-implement behavior
• plugin/skill commands can still work when typed even if not shown in Telegram menu

If native commands are disabled, built-ins are removed. Custom/plugin commands may still register if configured.

Common setup failure:

• setMyCommands failed usually means outbound DNS/HTTPS to api.telegram.org is blocked.

Device pairing commands (device-pair plugin)

When the device-pair plugin is installed:

1. /pair generates setup code
2. paste code in iOS app
3. /pair approve approves latest pending request

More details: Pairing.

Inline buttons

Configure inline keyboard scope:

{
  channels: {
    telegram: {
      capabilities: {
        inlineButtons: "allowlist",
      },
    },
  },
}

Per-account override:

{
  channels: {
    telegram: {
      accounts: {
        main: {
          capabilities: {
            inlineButtons: "allowlist",
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Scopes:

• off
• dm
• group
• all
• allowlist (default)

Legacy capabilities: ["inlineButtons"] maps to inlineButtons: "all".

Message action example:

{
  action: "send",
  channel: "telegram",
  to: "123456789",
  message: "Choose an option:",
  buttons: [
    [
      { text: "Yes", callback_data: "yes" },
      { text: "No", callback_data: "no" },
    ],
    [{ text: "Cancel", callback_data: "cancel" }],
  ],
}

Callback clicks are passed to the agent as text: callback_data: <value>

Telegram message actions for agents and automation

Telegram tool actions include:

• sendMessage (to, content, optional mediaUrl, replyToMessageId, messageThreadId)
• react (chatId, messageId, emoji)
• deleteMessage (chatId, messageId)
• editMessage (chatId, messageId, content)

Channel message actions expose ergonomic aliases (send, react, delete, edit, sticker, sticker-search).

Gating controls:

• channels.telegram.actions.sendMessage
• channels.telegram.actions.editMessage
• channels.telegram.actions.deleteMessage
• channels.telegram.actions.reactions
• channels.telegram.actions.sticker (default: disabled)

Reaction removal semantics: /tools/reactions

Reply threading tags

Telegram supports explicit reply threading tags in generated output:

• [[reply_to_current]] replies to the triggering message
• [[reply_to:<id>]] replies to a specific Telegram message ID

channels.telegram.replyToMode controls handling:

• off (default)
• first
• all

Note: off disables implicit reply threading. Explicit [[reply_to_*]] tags are still honored.

Forum topics and thread behavior

Forum supergroups:

• topic session keys append :topic:<threadId>
• replies and typing target the topic thread
• topic config path: channels.telegram.groups.<chatId>.topics.<threadId>

General topic (threadId=1) special-case:

• message sends omit message_thread_id (Telegram rejects sendMessage(...thread_id=1))
• typing actions still include message_thread_id

Topic inheritance: topic entries inherit group settings unless overridden (requireMention, allowFrom, skills, systemPrompt, enabled, groupPolicy).

Template context includes:

• MessageThreadId
• IsForum

DM thread behavior:

• private chats with message_thread_id keep DM routing but use thread-aware session keys/reply targets.

Audio, video, and stickers

Audio messages

Telegram distinguishes voice notes vs audio files.

• default: audio file behavior
• tag [[audio_as_voice]] in agent reply to force voice-note send

Message action example:

{
  action: "send",
  channel: "telegram",
  to: "123456789",
  media: "https://example.com/voice.ogg",
  asVoice: true,
}

Video messages

Telegram distinguishes video files vs video notes.

Message action example:

{
  action: "send",
  channel: "telegram",
  to: "123456789",
  media: "https://example.com/video.mp4",
  asVideoNote: true,
}

Video notes do not support captions; provided message text is sent separately.

Stickers

Inbound sticker handling:

• static WEBP: downloaded and processed (placeholder <media:sticker>)
• animated TGS: skipped
• video WEBM: skipped

Sticker context fields:

• Sticker.emoji
• Sticker.setName
• Sticker.fileId
• Sticker.fileUniqueId
• Sticker.cachedDescription

Sticker cache file:

• ~/.remoteclaw/telegram/sticker-cache.json

Stickers are described once (when possible) and cached to reduce repeated vision calls.

Enable sticker actions:

{
  channels: {
    telegram: {
      actions: {
        sticker: true,
      },
    },
  },
}

Send sticker action:

{
  action: "sticker",
  channel: "telegram",
  to: "123456789",
  fileId: "CAACAgIAAxkBAAI...",
}

Search cached stickers:

{
  action: "sticker-search",
  channel: "telegram",
  query: "cat waving",
  limit: 5,
}

Reaction notifications

Telegram reactions arrive as message_reaction updates (separate from message payloads).

When enabled, RemoteClaw enqueues system events like:

• Telegram reaction added: 👍 by Alice (@alice) on msg 42

Config:

• channels.telegram.reactionNotifications: off | own | all (default: own)
• channels.telegram.reactionLevel: off | ack | minimal | extensive (default: minimal)

Notes:

• own means user reactions to bot-sent messages only (best-effort via sent-message cache).
• Telegram does not provide thread IDs in reaction updates.
  • non-forum groups route to group chat session
  • forum groups route to the group general-topic session (:topic:1), not the exact originating topic

allowed_updates for polling/webhook include message_reaction automatically.

Ack reactions

ackReaction sends an acknowledgement emoji while RemoteClaw is processing an inbound message.

Resolution order:

• channels.telegram.accounts.<accountId>.ackReaction
• channels.telegram.ackReaction
• messages.ackReaction
• agent identity emoji fallback (agents.list[].identity.emoji, else ”👀”)

Notes:

• Telegram expects unicode emoji (for example ”👀”).
• Use "" to disable the reaction for a channel or account.

Config writes from Telegram events and commands

Channel config writes are enabled by default (configWrites !== false).

Telegram-triggered writes include:

• group migration events (migrate_to_chat_id) to update channels.telegram.groups
• /config set and /config unset (requires command enablement)

Disable:

{
  channels: {
    telegram: {
      configWrites: false,
    },
  },
}

Long polling vs webhook

Default: long polling.

Webhook mode:

• set channels.telegram.webhookUrl
• set channels.telegram.webhookSecret (required when webhook URL is set)
• optional channels.telegram.webhookPath (default /telegram-webhook)
• optional channels.telegram.webhookHost (default 127.0.0.1)

Default local listener for webhook mode binds to 127.0.0.1:8787.

If your public endpoint differs, place a reverse proxy in front and point webhookUrl at the public URL. Set webhookHost (for example 0.0.0.0) when you intentionally need external ingress.

Limits, retry, and CLI targets

• channels.telegram.textChunkLimit default is 4000.
• channels.telegram.chunkMode="newline" prefers paragraph boundaries (blank lines) before length splitting.
• channels.telegram.mediaMaxMb (default 5) caps inbound Telegram media download/processing size.
• channels.telegram.timeoutSeconds overrides Telegram API client timeout (if unset, grammY default applies).
• group context history uses channels.telegram.historyLimit or messages.groupChat.historyLimit (default 50); 0 disables.
• DM history controls:
  • channels.telegram.dmHistoryLimit
  • channels.telegram.dms["<user_id>"].historyLimit
• outbound Telegram API retries are configurable via channels.telegram.retry.

CLI send target can be numeric chat ID or username:

remoteclaw message send --channel telegram --target 123456789 --message "hi"
remoteclaw message send --channel telegram --target @name --message "hi"

Troubleshooting

Bot does not respond to non mention group messages

• If requireMention=false, Telegram privacy mode must allow full visibility.
  • BotFather: /setprivacy -> Disable
  • then remove + re-add bot to group
• remoteclaw channels status warns when config expects unmentioned group messages.
• remoteclaw channels status --probe can check explicit numeric group IDs; wildcard "*" cannot be membership-probed.
• quick session test: /activation always.

Bot not seeing group messages at all

• when channels.telegram.groups exists, group must be listed (or include "*")
• verify bot membership in group
• review logs: remoteclaw logs --follow for skip reasons

Commands work partially or not at all

• authorize your sender identity (pairing and/or numeric allowFrom)
• command authorization still applies even when group policy is open
• setMyCommands failed usually indicates DNS/HTTPS reachability issues to api.telegram.org

Polling or network instability

• Node 22+ + custom fetch/proxy can trigger immediate abort behavior if AbortSignal types mismatch.
• Some hosts resolve api.telegram.org to IPv6 first; broken IPv6 egress can cause intermittent Telegram API failures.
• If logs include TypeError: fetch failed or Network request for 'getUpdates' failed!, RemoteClaw now retries these as recoverable network errors.
• On VPS hosts with unstable direct egress/TLS, route Telegram API calls through channels.telegram.proxy:

channels:
  telegram:
    proxy: socks5://user:pass@proxy-host:1080

• Node 22+ defaults to autoSelectFamily=true (except WSL2) and dnsResultOrder=ipv4first.
• If your host is WSL2 or explicitly works better with IPv4-only behavior, force family selection:

channels:
  telegram:
    network:
      autoSelectFamily: false

• Environment overrides (temporary):
  • REMOTECLAW_TELEGRAM_DISABLE_AUTO_SELECT_FAMILY=1
  • REMOTECLAW_TELEGRAM_ENABLE_AUTO_SELECT_FAMILY=1
  • REMOTECLAW_TELEGRAM_DNS_RESULT_ORDER=ipv4first
• Validate DNS answers:

dig +short api.telegram.org A
dig +short api.telegram.org AAAA

More help: Channel troubleshooting.

Telegram config reference pointers

Primary reference:

• channels.telegram.enabled: enable/disable channel startup.

• channels.telegram.botToken: bot token (BotFather).

• channels.telegram.tokenFile: read token from file path.

• channels.telegram.dmPolicy: pairing | allowlist | open | disabled (default: pairing).

• channels.telegram.allowFrom: DM allowlist (numeric Telegram user IDs). open requires "*". remoteclaw doctor --fix can resolve legacy @username entries to IDs.

• channels.telegram.groupPolicy: open | allowlist | disabled (default: allowlist).

• channels.telegram.groupAllowFrom: group sender allowlist (numeric Telegram user IDs). remoteclaw doctor --fix can resolve legacy @username entries to IDs.

• channels.telegram.groups: per-group defaults + allowlist (use "*" for global defaults).

  • channels.telegram.groups.<id>.groupPolicy: per-group override for groupPolicy (open | allowlist | disabled).
  • channels.telegram.groups.<id>.requireMention: mention gating default.
  • channels.telegram.groups.<id>.skills: skill filter (omit = all skills, empty = none).
  • channels.telegram.groups.<id>.allowFrom: per-group sender allowlist override.
  • channels.telegram.groups.<id>.systemPrompt: extra system prompt for the group.
  • channels.telegram.groups.<id>.enabled: disable the group when false.
  • channels.telegram.groups.<id>.topics.<threadId>.*: per-topic overrides (same fields as group).
  • channels.telegram.groups.<id>.topics.<threadId>.groupPolicy: per-topic override for groupPolicy (open | allowlist | disabled).
  • channels.telegram.groups.<id>.topics.<threadId>.requireMention: per-topic mention gating override.

• channels.telegram.capabilities.inlineButtons: off | dm | group | all | allowlist (default: allowlist).

• channels.telegram.accounts.<account>.capabilities.inlineButtons: per-account override.

• channels.telegram.replyToMode: off | first | all (default: off).

• channels.telegram.textChunkLimit: outbound chunk size (chars).

• channels.telegram.chunkMode: length (default) or newline to split on blank lines (paragraph boundaries) before length chunking.

• channels.telegram.linkPreview: toggle link previews for outbound messages (default: true).

• channels.telegram.streaming: off | partial | block | progress (live stream preview; default: off; progress maps to partial).

• channels.telegram.mediaMaxMb: inbound/outbound media cap (MB).

• channels.telegram.retry: retry policy for outbound Telegram API calls (attempts, minDelayMs, maxDelayMs, jitter).

• channels.telegram.network.autoSelectFamily: override Node autoSelectFamily (true=enable, false=disable). Defaults to enabled on Node 22+, with WSL2 defaulting to disabled.

• channels.telegram.network.dnsResultOrder: override DNS result order (ipv4first or verbatim). Defaults to ipv4first on Node 22+.

• channels.telegram.proxy: proxy URL for Bot API calls (SOCKS/HTTP).

• channels.telegram.webhookUrl: enable webhook mode (requires channels.telegram.webhookSecret).

• channels.telegram.webhookSecret: webhook secret (required when webhookUrl is set).

• channels.telegram.webhookPath: local webhook path (default /telegram-webhook).

• channels.telegram.webhookHost: local webhook bind host (default 127.0.0.1).

• channels.telegram.actions.reactions: gate Telegram tool reactions.

• channels.telegram.actions.sendMessage: gate Telegram tool message sends.

• channels.telegram.actions.deleteMessage: gate Telegram tool message deletes.

• channels.telegram.actions.sticker: gate Telegram sticker actions — send and search (default: false).

• channels.telegram.reactionNotifications: off | own | all — control which reactions trigger system events (default: own when not set).

• channels.telegram.reactionLevel: off | ack | minimal | extensive — control agent’s reaction capability (default: minimal when not set).

• Configuration reference - Telegram

Telegram-specific high-signal fields:

• startup/auth: enabled, botToken, tokenFile, accounts.*
• access control: dmPolicy, allowFrom, groupPolicy, groupAllowFrom, groups, groups.*.topics.*
• command/menu: commands.native, customCommands
• threading/replies: replyToMode
• streaming: streaming (preview), blockStreaming
• formatting/delivery: textChunkLimit, chunkMode, linkPreview, responsePrefix
• media/network: mediaMaxMb, timeoutSeconds, retry, network.autoSelectFamily, proxy
• webhook: webhookUrl, webhookSecret, webhookPath, webhookHost
• actions/capabilities: capabilities.inlineButtons, actions.sendMessage|editMessage|deleteMessage|reactions|sticker
• reactions: reactionNotifications, reactionLevel
• writes/history: configWrites, historyLimit, dmHistoryLimit, dms.*.historyLimit

Related

• Pairing
• Channel routing
• Multi-agent routing
• Troubleshooting