tele-cli

CLI for the Telegram Bot API, powered by node-telegram-bot-api.

Send messages, files, manage webhooks, and stream updates from your shell or scripts.

Install

npm install
npm run build
npm link    # installs `tele` globally for development

Or run without linking:

node dist/cli/index.js <command>

Auth

Get a bot token from @BotFather, then provide it via any of (in priority order):

1. --token <token> flag
2. TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN env var
3. .env.local or .env in the working directory
4. ./.tele-clirc.json ({ "token": "..." })
5. User config: ~/.config/tele-cli/config.json (or %APPDATA%\tele-cli\config.json)

Save once with:

tele login --token 123456:AA...
tele me              # verify
tele doctor          # full diagnostic

Commands

| Command | Description | | --- | --- | | tele me | Verify token (calls getMe) | | tele login --token <t> | Save token to user config | | tele doctor | Diagnose token + connectivity | | tele send <chat> <text> | Send a text message | | tele edit <chat> <msg_id> <text> | Edit a message | | tele delete <chat> <msg_id> | Delete a message | | tele forward <from> <to> <msg_id> | Forward a message | | tele send-photo <chat> <path\|url> | Send a photo | | tele send-document <chat> <path\|url> | Send a document | | tele send-audio <chat> <path\|url> | Send audio | | tele send-video <chat> <path\|url> | Send video | | tele chat <chat> | Show chat info | | tele members <chat> | Member count | | tele admins <chat> | List admins | | tele updates | Fetch pending updates once | | tele listen | Long-poll updates and stream to stdout | | tele webhook set <url> | Set webhook | | tele webhook delete | Remove webhook | | tele webhook info | Show webhook info |

Add --json to any command for structured output. Add --quiet to suppress non-error output.

Examples

# Send Markdown
tele send 123456789 "*Hello* from CLI" --parse-mode Markdown

# Send a file
tele send-document 123456789 ./report.pdf --caption "Q1 report"

# Stream incoming updates as JSON
tele listen --json | jq '.message.text'

# Configure webhook
tele webhook set https://example.com/hook --secret topsecret
tele webhook info

Development

npm run dev -- send 123 "hi"   # runs through ts-node
npm test
npm run typecheck
npm run build

License

MIT