Telegram Bot Builder

Build and manage Telegram bots via the Telegram Bot API. Create bots, send messages, handle webhooks, manage groups and channels.

Security Scan

The skill's instructions are consistent with a Telegram Bot API helper, but registry metadata omits requirements that the SKILL.md declares (TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN, curl, jq), which is an incoherence you should understand before installing.

Purpose & Capability

The skill's name/description (Telegram Bot API) matches the instructions: all examples call api.telegram.org and perform bot actions (sendMessage, setWebhook, etc.). Requiring a bot token and tools like curl/jq is appropriate for this purpose. However, the registry 'Requirements' block above said no required env vars or binaries, while SKILL.md metadata explicitly lists TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN and requires 'curl' and 'jq' — this mismatch is surprising and should be resolved.

Instruction Scope

SKILL.md gives concrete curl examples for Bot API methods and webhook setup only. It does not instruct the agent to read unrelated system files or exfiltrate data. One expected scope item: examples that upload files use local paths (e.g., -F "document=@/path/to/file.pdf"), which necessarily require reading local files when used — this is consistent with the stated feature (sending documents) but means the agent will have the capability to access any local path supplied.

Install Mechanism

This is instruction-only and has no install spec, so nothing is written to disk by an installer. That is low risk and proportionate for a curl-based API helper.

Credentials

SKILL.md metadata requires TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN and binaries (curl, jq), which are exactly the credentials/tools needed. However, the registry metadata (Requirements section) lists no required env vars or binaries — an inconsistency. The single required secret (TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN) is appropriate, but the missing declaration in the registry is a red flag: it can cause the agent to behave differently than the platform expects or to prompt for credentials unpredictably.

Persistence & Privilege

The skill is not always-enabled and is user-invocable; it does not request elevated persistence or cross-skill configuration changes. Autonomous invocation is allowed (platform default) but there are no additional privilege requests.

What to consider before installing

This skill appears to be a straightforward Telegram Bot API cookbook. Before installing: 1) Verify you will provide a valid TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN (the SKILL.md requires it even though the registry listing omitted it). 2) Ensure curl and jq exist in the runtime environment or the examples will fail. 3) Be careful when using examples that upload files — supplying paths lets the agent (or scripts you run) read local files, so never point it at sensitive files. 4) Confirm the skill's source/owner if you need provenance (source is listed as unknown). 5) If you want to avoid any chance of the skill misusing the token, restrict its use to a bot with minimal permissions and avoid enabling autonomous invocation if you don't trust the publisher. If the registry metadata and SKILL.md disagree, ask the publisher to fix the declarations before trusting automated runs.

Telegram Bot Builder Skill

Build and manage Telegram bots directly from Clawdbot.

Setup

1. Open Telegram and message @BotFather
2. Send /newbot and follow the prompts to create your bot
3. Copy the bot token (looks like 123456789:ABCdefGHIjklMNOpqrsTUVwxyz)
4. Set environment variable:

   export TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN="your-bot-token"
   

API Base URL

All requests go to:

https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/METHOD_NAME

Usage

Bot Information

Get bot info

curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/getMe" | jq

Get bot commands

curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/getMyCommands" | jq

Set bot commands

curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/setMyCommands" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "commands": [
      {"command": "start", "description": "Start the bot"},
      {"command": "help", "description": "Show help message"},
      {"command": "settings", "description": "Bot settings"}
    ]
  }' | jq

Sending 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 Clawdbot!",
    "parse_mode": "HTML"
  }' | jq

Send message with inline keyboard

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": "Option 1", "callback_data": "opt1"}, {"text": "Option 2", "callback_data": "opt2"}],
        [{"text": "Visit Website", "url": "https://example.com"}]
      ]
    }
  }' | jq

Send message with reply keyboard

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 from keyboard:",
    "reply_markup": {
      "keyboard": [
        [{"text": "Button 1"}, {"text": "Button 2"}],
        [{"text": "Send Location", "request_location": true}]
      ],
      "resize_keyboard": true,
      "one_time_keyboard": true
    }
  }' | jq

Send photo

curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/sendPhoto" \
  -F "chat_id=CHAT_ID" \
  -F "photo=@/path/to/image.jpg" \
  -F "caption=Photo caption here" | jq

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.jpg",
    "caption": "Image from URL"
  }' | jq

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" \
  -F "caption=Here is your document" | jq

Send location

curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/sendLocation" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "chat_id": "CHAT_ID",
    "latitude": 40.7128,
    "longitude": -74.0060
  }' | jq

Getting Updates

Get updates (polling)

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

Get updates with offset (mark as read)

curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/getUpdates?offset=UPDATE_ID" | jq

Get updates with timeout (long polling)

curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/getUpdates?timeout=30" | jq

Webhooks

Set webhook

curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/setWebhook" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://your-server.com/webhook",
    "allowed_updates": ["message", "callback_query"]
  }' | jq

Get webhook info

curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/getWebhookInfo" | jq

Delete webhook

curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/deleteWebhook" | jq

Chat Management

Get chat info

curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/getChat?chat_id=CHAT_ID" | jq

Get chat member count

curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/getChatMemberCount?chat_id=CHAT_ID" | jq

Get chat administrators

curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/getChatAdministrators?chat_id=CHAT_ID" | jq

Ban user from chat

curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/banChatMember" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "chat_id": "CHAT_ID",
    "user_id": USER_ID
  }' | jq

Unban user

curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/unbanChatMember" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "chat_id": "CHAT_ID",
    "user_id": USER_ID,
    "only_if_banned": true
  }' | jq

Message Management

Edit message text

curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/editMessageText" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "chat_id": "CHAT_ID",
    "message_id": MESSAGE_ID,
    "text": "Updated message text"
  }' | jq

Delete message

curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/deleteMessage" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "chat_id": "CHAT_ID",
    "message_id": MESSAGE_ID
  }' | jq

Pin message

curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/pinChatMessage" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "chat_id": "CHAT_ID",
    "message_id": MESSAGE_ID
  }' | jq

Forward message

curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/forwardMessage" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "chat_id": "TARGET_CHAT_ID",
    "from_chat_id": "SOURCE_CHAT_ID",
    "message_id": MESSAGE_ID
  }' | jq

Callback Queries

Answer callback query

curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/answerCallbackQuery" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "callback_query_id": "CALLBACK_QUERY_ID",
    "text": "Button clicked!",
    "show_alert": false
  }' | jq

Notes

• Chat ID: Can be positive (user) or negative (group/channel). Get it from updates or use @userinfobot
• Parse modes: HTML, Markdown, MarkdownV2
• Rate limits: ~30 messages/second to different chats, 1 message/second to same chat
• File limits: Photos up to 10MB, documents up to 50MB
• Bot permissions: Bots can't message users first - user must /start the bot

HTML Formatting

<b>bold</b>
<i>italic</i>
<u>underline</u>
<s>strikethrough</s>
<code>inline code</code>
<pre>code block</pre>
<a href="https://example.com">link</a>
<tg-spoiler>spoiler</tg-spoiler>

Examples

Simple echo bot (bash script)

#!/bin/bash
OFFSET=0
while true; do
  UPDATES=$(curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/getUpdates?offset=$OFFSET&timeout=30")
  
  for UPDATE in $(echo "$UPDATES" | jq -c '.result[]'); do
    UPDATE_ID=$(echo "$UPDATE" | jq '.update_id')
    CHAT_ID=$(echo "$UPDATE" | jq '.message.chat.id')
    TEXT=$(echo "$UPDATE" | jq -r '.message.text')
    
    if [ "$TEXT" != "null" ]; then
      curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/sendMessage" \
        -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
        -d "{\"chat_id\": $CHAT_ID, \"text\": \"You said: $TEXT\"}"
    fi
    
    OFFSET=$((UPDATE_ID + 1))
  done
done

Get your chat ID

# 1. Send a message to your bot
# 2. Run this to see your chat ID:
curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/getUpdates" | jq '.result[-1].message.chat.id'

Send to channel

# Use @channelname or channel ID (starts with -100)
curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/sendMessage" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "chat_id": "@your_channel_name",
    "text": "Channel announcement!"
  }' | jq

Useful Resources

• Bot API Documentation
• BotFather Commands
• Bot API Changelog