tg — Telegram CLI via MTProto

CLI tool for reading Telegram data directly via MTProto protocol. No Bot API, no limits.

Required binaries

Binary	Install	Purpose
tg	npm install -g tg-mtproto-cli	Core CLI
jq (optional)	brew install jq or apt install jq	JSON filtering in workflow examples

Source and provenance:

• npm: npmjs.com/package/tg-mtproto-cli
• GitHub: github.com/cyberash-dev/tg-mtproto-cli

Verify after install:

tg --version
npm ls -g tg-mtproto-cli

Required credentials

Credential	How to obtain	Storage
Telegram api_id + api_hash	my.telegram.org/apps	System keychain (macOS Keychain / Windows Credential Vault / Linux Secret Service)
Phone number + OTP code	Interactive prompt during tg auth	Not persisted; used once for session creation

Credentials are entered interactively via tg auth. No environment variables required.

Runtime surface

Resource	Access	Details
Network	Outbound TCP to Telegram DC servers	MTProto protocol, required for all commands
Session files	Read/write ~/.tg-mtproto-cli/sessions/*.session	SQLite databases with auth keys; created by tg auth
System keychain	Read/write	Stores api_id, api_hash, account metadata, default account
Filesystem	Write (only tg download)	Saves media to --out dir or current directory

Guardrails

• The CLI is read-only by design — it has no commands to send messages, create chats, modify groups, or perform any write operations on Telegram. The only write targets are local: session files and downloaded media.
• tg download writes files only to the explicitly specified --out directory or cwd.
• Session files contain sensitive auth material — do not read, copy, or expose ~/.tg-mtproto-cli/sessions/ contents.
• Do not log or display api_id / api_hash values.
• If tg auth is needed, inform the user — it requires interactive input (phone, OTP) and cannot be automated.

Chat identification

Chats can be referenced by:

• Username: @username or username
• Numeric ID: -1001234567890 (groups/supergroups use negative IDs)
• Phone: +1234567890 (for private chats)

To find a chat's numeric ID, use tg chats --json | jq '.[] | {id, title}'.

Commands reference

List chats

tg chats [--type private|group|supergroup|channel] [--limit 50] [--offset 0]

Read messages

tg messages <chat> [-n 100] [--all] [--topic <id>] [--after <datetime>]

Flag	Description
-n <count>	Number of messages (default: 100)
--all	Entire history (shows progress)
--topic <id>	Forum topic (get IDs via tg topics <chat>)
--after <datetime>	Only messages after this time

--after formats: 2026-02-22, 2026-02-22T10:00, 10:00 (today).

When --after + -n are combined: filter by date first, then take last N.

List forum topics

tg topics <chat>

Returns topic IDs needed for --topic flag.

Download media

tg download <chat> <messageId> [--out <dir>]

Downloads the media attachment from a specific message. Get message IDs from tg messages output (shown as #<id>).

Account management

tg auth                          # authenticate (interactive)
tg logout [alias]                # remove session
tg accounts                      # list accounts
tg accounts rename <old> <new>   # rename alias
tg default <alias>               # set default

Global flags

Flag	Effect
--account <alias>	Use specific account instead of default
--json	JSON output (for scripting/piping)

JSON output

All commands support --json for structured output. Dates are ISO 8601.

tg chats --json
tg messages @chat -n 10 --json
tg download @chat 42 --json

Message JSON schema

{
  "id": 42,
  "chatId": -1001234567890,
  "senderName": "John",
  "text": "Hello",
  "date": "2026-02-22T10:15:00.000Z",
  "media": { "type": "photo", "fileName": null, "mimeType": "image/jpeg", "size": 262525 },
  "replyToId": null,
  "isOutgoing": false
}

media is null when no attachment. media.type: photo, video, document, audio, voice, sticker.

Common workflows

Extract text from a chat since a date

tg messages @channel --after 2026-02-01 --json | jq -r '.[].text // empty'

Find messages with photos

tg messages @chat -n 500 --json | jq '[.[] | select(.media.type == "photo")]'

Download all photos from recent messages

for id in $(tg messages @chat -n 50 --json | jq -r '.[] | select(.media.type == "photo") | .id'); do
  tg download @chat "$id" --out ./photos
done

Read a forum topic

tg topics -1001234567890          # find topic ID
tg messages -1001234567890 --topic 42 -n 20

Multi-account usage

tg chats --account work
tg messages @chat -n 10 --account personal

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
1	Runtime error (invalid args, chat not found)
2	Auth required (no account, expired session) — run tg auth

Troubleshooting

• "No default account" → run tg auth or use --account <alias>
• "Session expired" → run tg auth to re-authenticate
• Chat not found → use numeric ID from tg chats --json
• Empty messages → check chat ID sign (groups are negative)