Setup

Requirements

Node.js 20+ or newer
npm
A Telegram bot token from @BotFather

Project Setup

Install dependencies:

npm install

Create .env from .env.example and fill in your bot token:

BOT_TOKEN=your_telegram_bot_token_here
BOT_API_ROOT=

Start the bot:

npm start

What The Bot Does

Saves text messages to assets/request.txt by appending new lines
Saves photos, videos, voice messages, and documents to assets/
Replies with Ок for supported message types

Optional: Local Bot API Server For Files Larger Than 20 MB

Telegram's hosted Bot API cannot download files larger than 20 MB. To support larger files, run a local telegram-bot-api server and point the bot to it with BOT_API_ROOT.

Official references:

1. Get `api_id` and `api_hash`

Create them here:

https://core.telegram.org/api/obtaining_api_id

2. Build The Local Bot API Server In `~/dev/lamda/bot_api`

The commands below match the local layout already prepared on this machine.

mkdir -p ~/dev/lamda/bot_api

~/miniconda3/bin/conda create -y \
  -p ~/dev/lamda/bot_api/.buildenv \
  --override-channels \
  -c conda-forge \
  gperf openssl zlib cmake

git clone --recursive https://github.com/tdlib/telegram-bot-api.git ~/dev/lamda/bot_api/telegram-bot-api

git -C ~/dev/lamda/bot_api/telegram-bot-api submodule update --init --depth 1 td

mkdir -p ~/dev/lamda/bot_api/telegram-bot-api/build
mkdir -p ~/dev/lamda/bot_api/install

export PATH=~/dev/lamda/bot_api/.buildenv/bin:$PATH
export CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=~/dev/lamda/bot_api/.buildenv

cmake -S ~/dev/lamda/bot_api/telegram-bot-api \
  -B ~/dev/lamda/bot_api/telegram-bot-api/build \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=~/dev/lamda/bot_api/install \
  -DOPENSSL_ROOT_DIR=~/dev/lamda/bot_api/.buildenv \
  -DZLIB_ROOT=~/dev/lamda/bot_api/.buildenv

cmake --build ~/dev/lamda/bot_api/telegram-bot-api/build -j"$(nproc)"
cmake --install ~/dev/lamda/bot_api/telegram-bot-api/build

3. Start The Local Bot API Server

mkdir -p ~/dev/lamda/bot_api/data
mkdir -p ~/dev/lamda/bot_api/tmp

~/dev/lamda/bot_api/install/bin/telegram-bot-api \
  --api-id <API_ID> \
  --api-hash <API_HASH> \
  --local \
  --http-port 8081 \
  --dir ~/dev/lamda/bot_api/data \
  --temp-dir ~/dev/lamda/bot_api/tmp

4. Switch The Bot To The Local Server

Before switching away from Telegram's hosted Bot API, log the bot out there once:

https://api.telegram.org/bot<BOT_TOKEN>/logOut

Then set this in .env:

BOT_TOKEN=your_telegram_bot_token_here
BOT_API_ROOT=http://127.0.0.1:8081

Restart the bot after that:

npm start

Notes

BOT_API_ROOT is optional. Leave it empty to use the default Telegram hosted Bot API.
The local Bot API server listens over HTTP by default.
If both the bot and the local Bot API server run on the same machine, 127.0.0.1:8081 is enough.

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