---

name: telegram description: Send messages, photos, and files via Telegram Bot API. Use when you need to send notifications, alerts, or content to Telegram chats, channels, or groups. Supports text formatting, media, and inline keyboards.

Telegram Bot API

Send messages to Telegram using a bot token.

Setup

1. Create bot via @BotFather on Telegram
2. Copy the bot token
3. Store token:

mkdir -p ~/.config/telegram
echo "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN" > ~/.config/telegram/bot_token

4. Get chat ID: Send /start to your bot, then visit: https://api.telegram.org/bot<TOKEN>/getUpdates

Send Text Message

TOKEN=$(cat ~/.config/telegram/bot_token)
CHAT_ID="123456789"

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

Formatting (MarkdownV2)

curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TOKEN}/sendMessage" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "chat_id": "'$CHAT_ID'",
    "text": "*Bold* _italic_ `code` [link](https://example.com)",
    "parse_mode": "MarkdownV2"
  }'

Escape these chars in MarkdownV2: _*[]()~>#+-=|{}.!

Send Photo

# From URL
curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TOKEN}/sendPhoto" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "chat_id": "'$CHAT_ID'",
    "photo": "https://example.com/image.jpg",
    "caption": "Image caption"
  }'

# From file
curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TOKEN}/sendPhoto" \
  -F "chat_id=${CHAT_ID}" \
  -F "photo=@/path/to/image.jpg" \
  -F "caption=Image caption"

Send Document

curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TOKEN}/sendDocument" \
  -F "chat_id=${CHAT_ID}" \
  -F "document=@/path/to/file.pdf" \
  -F "caption=File description"

Inline Keyboard (Buttons)

curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TOKEN}/sendMessage" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "chat_id": "'$CHAT_ID'",
    "text": "Choose an option:",
    "reply_markup": {
      "inline_keyboard": [[
        {"text": "Option A", "callback_data": "option_a"},
        {"text": "Option B", "callback_data": "option_b"}
      ]]
    }
  }'

Silent Message

curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TOKEN}/sendMessage" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "chat_id": "'$CHAT_ID'",
    "text": "Silent notification",
    "disable_notification": true
  }'

Get Updates (Polling)

curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TOKEN}/getUpdates" | jq

Error Handling

Check ok field in response:

{"ok": true, "result": {...}}
{"ok": false, "error_code": 400, "description": "Bad Request: chat not found"}

Common Chat IDs

• User chat: Positive number (e.g., 123456789)
• Group: Negative number (e.g., -123456789)
• Channel: @channel_username or negative ID

Rate Limits

• 30 messages/second to same chat
• 20 messages/minute to same group
• Bulk: 30 messages/second across all chats