Simple Node Telegram Bot API

Overview

Motivation

There are many good packages for creating Telegram bots in Node.js environment but some of them don't have typings (if we want to use TypeScript as a main syntax), some of them outdated and probably overloaded a bit.

I want to keep this package as small as possible - to have a possibility to use it as Telegram API, but not as framework for creating bots.

It will be useful for:

1. Creating some telegram notifiers, alerts, etc. where you don't need to listen updates, have some input state.
2. Creating your own framework - this package can be used as simple API layer.
3. You can use telegram API typings for all your purposes.

Usage

Simple usage:

import { TelegramAPI } from '@alximicus/simple-node-telegram-bot-api';

const myTgAPI = new TelegramAPI('your_bot_token');

myTgAPI.getMe().then(({ result }) => {
  console.log(result); // Telegram.User object
});

myTgAPI.sendMessage({
  chat_id: 123456789,
  text: `Hello, it's me, your alert!`,
});

Requirements

Node.js 22 or newer is required. The package uses native Node.js HTTPS and multipart APIs and has no runtime dependencies.

The package ships compiled CommonJS JavaScript and TypeScript declarations. TypeScript 7 is used only to build the package; consumers do not need to upgrade to it. The declarations have been checked with TypeScript 5.0.4 and 5.9.3, with skipLibCheck disabled. TypeScript projects need a version of @types/node compatible with their compiler because InputFile uses Buffer.

Request timeouts

Requests have a 60-second client deadline by default. You can set it in milliseconds:

const api = new TelegramAPI('your_bot_token', 120_000);

For getUpdates, the deadline is at least the requested Telegram long-poll timeout plus 15 seconds. Expired requests are destroyed and reject with code: 'ETIMEDOUT'. Interrupted responses also reject so callers can retry. Requests are not automatically retried by this API layer, because retrying a write operation may duplicate its effect. API errors retain Telegram's parameters, including retry_after when supplied.

Installation

NPM:

npm i @alximicus/simple-node-telegram-bot-api

Yarn:

yarn add @alximicus/simple-node-telegram-bot-api

Development

Use Node.js 22, then run:

npm ci
npm test

Tests use the built-in Node.js test runner and mock HTTPS; they do not send Telegram requests. npm run test:types builds the package and checks test/consumer.ts against the generated declarations. The test configuration maps the package name to lib/index.d.ts for local checks and editor support. To check a different TypeScript version against the packed package, copy the fixture into a separate consumer project with that package installed.

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2023 Alximicus

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.