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Telegram Connector

Send messages, photos, and documents to Telegram chats and channels from your Strand workflows via the Bot API.

Prerequisites

You need a Telegram Bot Token from @BotFather:

  1. Open Telegram and search for @BotFather
  2. Send /newbot and follow the prompts to name your bot
  3. Copy the bot token (format: 123456789:ABCdefGhIjKlMnOpQrStUvWxYz)
  4. Add the bot to the group or channel where you want it to send messages
Tip: To get a chat ID, add @userinfobot to the chat or send a message and check https://api.telegram.org/bot<TOKEN>/getUpdates.

Connector Setup

Create a Telegram connector from the Connectors page.

Configuration Fields

Field Required Description
Name Yes Friendly name (e.g., "Alerts Bot")
Bot Token Yes Telegram bot token from @BotFather (encrypted at rest)
Timeout No Request timeout in seconds (default: 30)

Operations

Send Message

Send a text message to a chat, group, or channel.

Field Required Description
Chat ID Yes Numeric chat ID or @channel_username
Message Text Yes Message text with optional formatting. Supports Jinja templates.
Parse Mode No Text formatting: None, Markdown, MarkdownV2, or HTML
Silent No Send without notification sound (default: No)
Reply To Message ID No Message ID to reply to

Example: Markdown message:

code

*Alert:* {{ payload.service }} is {{ payload.status }}

_Triggered at {{ payload.timestamp }}_

Example: HTML message:

html

<b>Alert:</b> {{ payload.service }} is {{ payload.status }}

<i>Triggered at {{ payload.timestamp }}</i>

Edit Message

Edit a previously sent message.

Field Required Description
Chat ID Yes Chat containing the message
Message ID Yes ID of the message to edit
New Text Yes Updated message text
Parse Mode No Text formatting mode

Send Photo

Send a photo to a chat by URL.

Field Required Description
Chat ID Yes Destination chat ID
Photo URL Yes URL of the photo to send
Caption No Photo caption. Supports Jinja templates.
Parse Mode No Caption formatting mode

Send Document

Send a document to a chat by URL.

Field Required Description
Chat ID Yes Destination chat ID
Document URL Yes URL of the document to send
Caption No Document caption

Get Updates

Get recent messages and updates received by the bot.

Field Required Description
Offset No Update offset to skip already-seen updates
Limit No Maximum updates to retrieve (1-100, default: 10)

Output

Send Message Output

json

{
  "success": true,
  "status": "sent",
  "data": {
    "chat_id": "123456789",
    "message_id": 42,
    "text": "Alert: API is down"
  },
  "service": "telegram",
  "operation": "send_message"
}

Key fields for subsequent nodes:

Get Updates Output

json

{
  "success": true,
  "status": "completed",
  "data": {
    "updates": [ ... ],
    "count": 5
  },
  "service": "telegram",
  "operation": "get_updates"
}

Errors

Error Meaning
Telegram authentication failed Bot token is invalid. Get a new one from @BotFather.
Telegram bot was blocked The user blocked the bot or it was removed from the chat.
Telegram rate limited Too many requests. The error includes the retry delay.
Telegram API error (400) Bad request; check chat ID, message format, or parse mode syntax.

Example Workflow

  1. Create Connector with your Telegram bot token
  2. Send alert message when a workflow triggers:
  1. Send photo with a chart:

Limitations

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