using-telegram-bot

Telegram (Telegraf) Skill — Node.js

Short guide to build Telegram bots with telegraf (Node.js).

Overview

• Library: https://github.com/telegraf/telegraf
• Install: npm install telegraf
• Get a bot token from BotFather and store it in BOT_TOKEN.

Minimal polling bot

// bot.js
const { Telegraf, Markup } = require('telegraf');
const bot = new Telegraf(process.env.BOT_TOKEN);

bot.start(ctx => ctx.reply('Welcome! I can help with commands.'));

bot.command('echo', ctx => {
  const text = ctx.message.text.split(' ').slice(1).join(' ');
  ctx.reply(text || 'usage: /echo your message');
});

bot.on('text', ctx => ctx.reply(`You said: ${ctx.message.text}`));

bot.launch();

process.once('SIGINT', () => bot.stop('SIGINT'));
process.once('SIGTERM', () => bot.stop('SIGTERM'));

Run:

BOT_TOKEN=123:ABC node bot.js

Send media and files

// send photo
await ctx.replyWithPhoto('https://example.com/image.jpg', { caption: 'Nice pic' });

// send document
await ctx.replyWithDocument('https://example.com/file.pdf');

Inline keyboards and callbacks

// show inline buttons
await ctx.reply('Choose:', Markup.inlineKeyboard([
  Markup.button.callback('OK', 'ok'),
  Markup.button.callback('Cancel', 'cancel')
]));

bot.action('ok', ctx => ctx.reply('You pressed OK'));
bot.action('cancel', ctx => ctx.reply('Cancelled'));

Webhook (Express) example

const express = require('express');
const { Telegraf } = require('telegraf');
const bot = new Telegraf(process.env.BOT_TOKEN);
const app = express();

app.use(bot.webhookCallback('/telegraf'));
bot.telegram.setWebhook(`${process.env.PUBLIC_URL}/telegraf`);

app.listen(process.env.PORT || 3000);

Use webhooks for production deployments (faster, lower resource use).

Error handling

bot.catch((err, ctx) => {
  console.error('Bot error', err);
});

Tips

• Use environment variables for tokens and URLs.
• Respect Telegram rate limits (avoid flooding large groups).
• For local testing, use polling; for deployment use webhooks behind HTTPS.
• Add NODE_ENV=production and graceful shutdown hooks for reliability.