Connecting Telegram

Telegram is the primary support channel. The bot receives incoming user messages through a webhook and creates a separate topic (thread) for each conversation in a private Telegram support group. Manager replies from that topic are delivered back to the user in Telegram.

Webhook endpoint: POST /api/telegram/bot

Prerequisites

Before connecting, make sure the project is deployed using one of the guides:

• Installation via Docker Compose
• Installation on hosting

For local development, you can set up a webhook via Cloudflare Tunnel (macOS).

1. Connecting the Telegram integration

1. Go to the "Settings" -> "Integrations" section.
2. Click the "Telegram" card.
3. Do not close the page; in the following steps you will need to fill in the fields.

1. Creating a bot in @BotFather

1. Open @BotFather in Telegram.
2. Send the /newbot command.
3. Set a name and a username for the bot.
4. Paste the token you receive into the "Bot Token" field.

2. Creating a group to receive messages

1. Create a new private Telegram group.
2. Add the bot you created in @BotFather to the group and make it an administrator.
3. In the group settings, enable topics.
4. To find out the group ID, temporarily add @getMyId or a similar bot to the group. After getting the ID, remove it from the group.

3. Telegram integration settings

1. In the "Token" field, paste the token you received when creating the bot.
2. In the "Webhook Secret Key" field, paste a random string (a password to protect the integration).
3. In the "Group ID for receiving messages" field, paste the group ID you obtained in the previous step.

Links

• Telegram Bot API — developer documentation
• @BotFather