Updating the Project

A step-by-step guide for migrating to a new TG Support Bot release.

Updating the code

Go to the project root directory and run the following commands:

# Fetch the latest branch information
git fetch origin

# Switch to the main branch
git checkout main

# Pull the latest changes
git pull origin main

Checking the configuration

Compare the .env.example file with your .env — a new release may introduce new environment variables that need to be added.

Updating the Docker environment

# Stop the containers
docker compose down

# Pull the updated images
docker compose pull

# Rebuild the local images
docker compose build

# Start the containers in the background
docker compose up -d

Updating the Laravel application

# Connect to the application container
docker compose exec app bash

# Install Composer dependencies
composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader

# Apply new database migrations
php artisan migrate

Moving to the version without a separate AI bot

A separate Telegram bot for the AI Assistant is no longer used: the main bot publishes its messages. If you had an AI bot configured, update in this order:

1. Before updating, disable the AI Assistant in the "AI Assistant" section.

2. Update the project using the steps above.

3. Run the command in the application container:

   php artisan ai-bot:retire

   The command removes old drafts from the topics, deletes the AI bot webhook and removes its settings. The drafts stay in the "Chats" section. If Telegram is unavailable, the command exits with an error: run it again.

4. Enable the AI Assistant.

5. Remove the AI bot from the group and, optionally, revoke its token via @BotFather.

Verifying that everything works

After updating, make sure everything works correctly:

• The bot replies to messages in Telegram
• Messages are forwarded to the support group
• Sending media files works
• Migrations were applied without errors