| name | telegram |
| description | Agent-callable Telegram bot tools — send messages, media, locations, contacts, and polls; edit, delete, forward, copy, and pin messages; resolve chats, members, and files. Use when the user mentions Telegram or wants a bot to post, manage, or look up Telegram content — including requests that don't name Telegram explicitly, e.g. "message the team channel", "post this update to the group". |
| license | Elastic-2.0 |
| compatibility | Run `npm install --omit=dev` in this directory, then `node cli.js`. The TypeScript source needs Node.js 22.18+; on older Node, run `cli.js` for build-it-yourself / prebuilt / alternative-runtime options. |
| metadata | {"title":"Telegram","source":"https://github.com/zapier/connectors/blob/main/apps/telegram/SKILL.md","zapier-app-key":"TelegramCLIAPI","api-docs":"https://core.telegram.org/bots/api"} |
Telegram
Scripts for a Telegram bot, against the Telegram Bot API (https://api.telegram.org/bot<token>/<method>). Send text, media, locations, contacts, and polls; edit, delete, forward, copy, and pin messages; and resolve the chats, members, and files a bot interacts with. Every script acts as the bot — the bot must be a member of any chat it messages, and a user must message the bot first before the bot can DM them.
Independent, unofficial connector for Telegram. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Telegram. "Telegram" is a trademark of its owner, used only to identify the service this connector works with.
When to use this
- An agent needs a Telegram bot to send a message, photo, document, video, audio, location, contact, or poll to a chat.
- An agent needs to manage messages the bot sent — edit, delete, forward, copy, pin, or unpin.
- An agent needs to resolve a chat or member — find a
chat_id (via listRecentChats), confirm a chat (getChat), check a member's role (getChatMember), or list admins.
Setup
This is an agentskills.io skill.
If the connector has not been installed as a skill yet, install it first with npx skills add zapier/connectors --skill telegram (or your harness's own skill-install mechanism), then continue here. Installing the skill copies these files, not dependencies. Before running the CLI, a local MCP server, or zapier-sdk auth commands, run npm install --omit=dev here once. Importing the published package as a dependency in your own project instead? That npm install already resolves everything — see references/use-as-sdk.md.
Want the actual repo source instead — to browse references/, run this connector's tests, or hack on it? See README.md for a scoped git clone.
The connector runs on Node.js 22.18+. Pick the reference that matches how you're running it, and load it before doing anything else:
| You have... | Load |
|---|
An MCP-aware client — tools may already be loaded (e.g. mcp__telegram__<tool>), or you can register a local server yourself (or guide the user to) | references/use-as-mcp.md |
Terminal / subprocess access (you can run node) | references/use-as-cli.md |
| Only your own code, importing this package as a dependency | references/use-as-sdk.md |
| No tool access, no terminal, no ability to import this package — you write your own code that calls the Telegram API directly (e.g. a code-execution sandbox) | references/use-as-recipe.md |
Scripts
All scripts use a single telegram connection.
Disambiguation & refusals
- Resolve
chat_id before sending; don't guess. A chat_id is a numeric id (supergroups/channels are -100-prefixed) or a public @username. If the user names a chat you don't have an id for, resolve it with listRecentChats (chats that recently messaged the bot) or getChat (a known id/username). If listRecentChats returns two chats whose names tie on what the user said, stop and ask which one — list each with its type and id. If exactly one matches, act on it; don't over-ask.
- The bot must be reachable. A bot can only message chats it's a member of, and cannot start a private chat — the user must message the bot first. If a send fails with "bot can't initiate conversation" or "chat not found", say so and stop; don't retry against a different chat.
- Declined operations. This connector does not create/manage chats, ban or promote members, manage invite links, upload local files (provide an HTTPS URL or a Telegram
file_id instead), or run games/payments. If asked for one of these, say it's unsupported — don't substitute another tool and report success for an action you didn't perform.
Auth
Every shape passes auth as one connection selector, not the secret — a [<resolver>:]<value> string. Every connector accepts zapier:<connection-id> (Zapier-managed auth — routes through Zapier's auth, retries, and governance layer); some also accept one or more direct-token resolvers (naming and count vary per connector) — check this connector's own resolvers rather than assuming. The <resolver>: prefix is optional; a bare value goes to the first resolver that claims it — a UUID-shaped bare value always claims zapier:. Each script declares the connections it needs and the resolvers each accepts. The exact syntax for passing a connection (and how to see this connector's resolver list) differs by shape — see the reference you loaded above.
Checking what's already configured first? Don't dump environment values to do it — env or env | grep <name> prints the value along with the name, leaking a live credential into the transcript if one is set. Check names only (env | cut -d= -f1 | grep -i <name>) or test a known name directly ([ -n "$VAR_NAME" ]).
No connection yet? Pick one — and follow the reference's own flow to obtain it; never just ask the user for a connection id or token as if they already have one memorized:
Output format
Every script returns a { data, meta } envelope:
data — the script's result (the shape its outputSchema declares; see the reference you loaded above for how to inspect a script's exact schema in your shape).meta.outputDataValidation — what validating data did:
{ skipped: false, droppedPaths: null } — validated, nothing removed.{ skipped: false, droppedPaths: [...], instruction } — validated, but those paths were stripped from data: fields the script returned from the API that the outputSchema doesn't declare. If you need them, re-run with output validation skipped.{ skipped: true } — validation was bypassed; data is the raw, unchecked script output.
Reading dropped fields / skipOutputDataValidation. To receive the raw, unvalidated result, opt out of output validation (the exact syntax differs by shape — see the reference you loaded above). Input validation is never skipped.
Trimming the result / filterOutputData. To shrink a large result down to the fields you need, pass a jq expression that post-processes data (again, exact syntax per shape). The jq runs against data only, NOT the { data, meta } envelope, so write it rooted at data (run the script's --help — or your shape's equivalent — to see its output schema). The transformed value replaces data, meta is preserved, and the result is NOT re-validated against the output schema.
References
Load the matching reference file before working in that area:
| Reference | Covers | Load it when |
|---|
| references/telegram-api-gotchas.md | HTML vs MarkdownV2 escaping, file URL size limits, getFile 1-hour links, copying vs forwarding, deleting/pinning messages, building polls, ok:false/error_code/retry_after/migrate_to_chat_id error envelope, rate limits | Before sending formatted text, uploading/downloading files, copying vs forwarding, deleting/pinning messages, building polls, or handling API errors and rate limits. |
