Your own Telegram bot in 5 minutes

Coming in the next update

This lesson needs askTheodor 0.9.283 or later.

Telegram is the easiest way to reach your team from a phone. You create a bot for free, paste one token, and that’s it: no bridge to install, no phone to pair, and it uses Telegram’s official Bot API.

What you’ll learn

• How to create a bot with @BotFather and connect it.
• How to find your chat id and make it a phone-console owner.
• How to keep strangers away from your bot.

1. Create the bot

1. In Telegram, open a chat with @BotFather and send /newbot.
2. Give it a name and a username (it must end in bot).
3. BotFather replies with a token that looks like 123456:ABC-DEF…. Copy it and keep it to yourself: whoever has it controls the bot.

2. Connect it

1. In askTheodor, open Settings → Channels. Under Add a channel, click the Telegram card.
2. Tick Enabled on the new row, then click ▾ Configure.
3. Paste the token into Bot token and click Save.
4. Click 🔍 Test on the row. ✓ Health check passed means the token works.

Connect each bot on one machine only. Two machines polling the same bot would take each other’s messages.

3. Find your chat id

1. On your phone, open your new bot, tap Start and send it any message, e.g. hi.
2. In askTheodor, open the Inbox. Your message shows up there, and the sender is your chat id, a number like 123456789.

4. Make yourself the owner

1. At the top of Settings → Channels, open 📱 Phone console → Set up.
2. Tick Let my own number/address command the team if it isn’t on yet.
3. Click + Add my number / address. Pick your Telegram channel in the dropdown and paste your chat id.
4. Click Save.

Now write help to your bot. From here on it works exactly like the WhatsApp phone console: plain text goes to Theodor, @name and #company reach a worker or a CEO, and tasks → show → approve clears your queue.

Where do pushes go?

Pushes and the daily report go to the first address in your owner list. If that row says any channel, askTheodor picks the first enabled messenger, and it prefers WhatsApp and Signal over Telegram. To be sure they arrive in Telegram, choose your Telegram channel in that first row.

5. Keep strangers out

Anyone who finds your bot’s username can write to it. Their messages can’t command anything, because only your registered chat id can do that. They go through the normal routing rules, like any other inbound message.

To shut the door completely, put your chat id into Allowed chat ids in the Telegram form and click Save. Messages from every other chat are then dropped before routing. Leave it empty and anyone may write to the bot.

Try it

1. Type your chat id into chat id for a test and click 📨 Test send. “Hello from askTheodor 🎩” should arrive.
2. Send your bot tasks, then report.
3. Send @<a worker's name> summarise your week, and end when you’re done.

Recap

A Telegram bot is a token from @BotFather, pasted into Settings → Channels, plus your chat id registered in the phone console. It’s official, needs no pairing, and Allowed chat ids keeps it yours. Next: back to the curriculum, or see how a secretary handles the people who write to you.

📖 Reference in the docs: Channels · Phone console

➡️ Next: Back to the curriculum