tgsearch

name	tgsearch
description	Search Telegram from the CLI — discover public channels by keyword or search messages within a channel. Use when the user wants to find Telegram channels, look up posts/messages in a channel, or do Telegram OSINT from the terminal.

tgsearch

CLI for Telegram search, built on Telethon (MTProto user API — not the Bot API).

Setup

1. pip install telethon
2. Set TG_API_ID and TG_API_HASH in the environment — get them at https://my.telegram.org (API Development Tools).
3. First run prompts for phone number + login code; the session is cached in tgsearch.session afterwards.

Usage

Run the script in this skill's directory (tgsearch.py):

python3 tgsearch.py find "osint"              # discover public channels by keyword
python3 tgsearch.py find "osint" -n 50        # more results
python3 tgsearch.py grep @channelname "cve"   # search messages within a channel
python3 tgsearch.py grep @channelname "cve" -n 100

Output of find: @username members title per line. Output of grep: date first-100-chars-of-message per line.

Notes

• find uses Telegram's contacts search — the same discovery the apps use. There is no API for a true global search of all public channels; results are what Telegram returns for the account.
• grep searches message text server-side in a single channel the account can see (public channels work without joining).
• Rate limits apply: keep -n modest and avoid rapid repeated calls.