Telegram Agent Skill

Telegram

_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._

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.

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.

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 Bot API directly (e.g. a code-execution sandbox) | references/use-as-recipe.md |

Scripts

All scripts use a single telegram connection.

| Script | Script name | Connections | Description |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------- | ------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- |

| scripts/sendMessage.ts | sendMessage | Single (telegram) | Send a text message to a chat. |

| scripts/sendPhoto.ts | sendPhoto | Single (telegram) | Send a photo by URL or file_id. |

| scripts/sendDocument.ts | sendDocument | Single (telegram) | Send a file/document by URL or file_id. |

| scripts/sendVideo.ts | sendVideo | Single (telegram) | Send a video by URL or file_id. |

| scripts/sendAudio.ts | sendAudio | Single (telegram) | Send an audio file (music) by URL or file_id. |

| scripts/sendLocation.ts | sendLocation | Single (telegram) | Send a point on the map. |

| scripts/sendContact.ts | sendContact | Single (telegram) | Send a phone contact. |

| scripts/sendPoll.ts | sendPoll | Single (telegram) | Send a poll or quiz. |

| scripts/editMessageText.ts | editMessageText | Single (telegram) | Edit the text of a message the bot sent. |

| scripts/deleteMessage.ts | deleteMessage | Single (telegram) | Delete a message from a chat. |

| scripts/forwardMessage.ts | forwardMessage | Single (telegram) | Forward a message, keeping attribution. |

| scripts/copyMessage.ts | copyMessage | Single (telegram) | Copy a message's content without attribution. |

| scripts/pinChatMessage.ts | pinChatMessage | Single (telegram) | Pin a message in a chat. |

| scripts/unpinChatMessage.ts | unpinChatMessage | Single (telegram) | Unpin a message (or the most recent pin). |

| scripts/getMe.ts | getMe | Single (telegram) | Get the bot's identity and verify the token. |

| scripts/getChat.ts | getChat | Single (telegram) | Get info about a chat by id or @username. |

| scripts/listRecentChats.ts | listRecentChats | Single (telegram) | List chats the bot recently interacted with (chat_id resolver). |

| scripts/getChatMember.ts | getChatMember | Single (telegram) | Get a member's status and role in a chat. |

| scripts/getChatAdministrators.ts | getChatAdministrators | Single (telegram) | List a chat's administrators. |

| scripts/getChatMemberCount.ts | getChatMemberCount | Single (telegram) | Get the number of members in a chat. |

| scripts/getFile.ts | getFile | Single (telegram) | Get a file's metadata and download path. |

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:

| | Load |

| ------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |

| Pass the credential directly | references/use-without-zapier.md |

| Route it through a Zapier connection | references/use-with-zapier.md |

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.

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.

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. |