Official Verified

Telegram Bot API

Build Telegram bots with correct API calls, message formatting, keyboards, and webhook setup.

skill-install — Terminal

Install via CLI (Recommended)

clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/ivangdavila/telegram-bot-api

Download Source Code (.zip)

Setup

On first use, read setup.md for integration guidelines.

When to Use

User needs to interact with the Telegram Bot API. Building bots, sending messages, handling updates, setting up webhooks, creating keyboards, or managing bot commands.

Architecture

Memory lives in ~/telegram-bot-api/. See memory-template.md for structure.

~/telegram-bot-api/
├── memory.md          # Bot tokens, preferences, defaults
├── bots/              # Per-bot configurations
│   └── {botname}.md   # Token, webhook URL, defaults
└── templates/         # Reusable message templates

Quick Reference

Topic	File
Setup process	`setup.md`
Memory template	`memory-template.md`
All API methods	`methods.md`
Message formatting	`formatting.md`
Keyboards & buttons	`keyboards.md`
Webhooks & polling	`webhooks.md`
Media handling	`media.md`
Error codes	`errors.md`

Core Rules

1. API Base URL

All requests go to:

https://api.telegram.org/bot{TOKEN}/{METHOD}

Never expose the token in logs or user-visible output.

2. Required Parameters by Method

Method	Required	Optional (common)
sendMessage	chat_id, text	parse_mode, reply_markup, disable_notification
sendPhoto	chat_id, photo	caption, parse_mode
sendDocument	chat_id, document	caption, thumbnail
getUpdates	—	offset, limit, timeout
setWebhook	url	certificate, max_connections
deleteWebhook	—	drop_pending_updates
getMe	—	—

3. Parse Mode Selection

Format	Use when	Escape chars
`MarkdownV2`	Rich formatting needed	`_*[]()~\`>#+-=
`HTML`	Complex nesting, safer	`<>&`
None	Plain text only	None

Default to HTML — fewer escape issues than MarkdownV2.

4. Chat ID Types

Type	Format	Example
User	Positive integer	`123456789`
Group	Negative integer	`-123456789`
Supergroup/Channel	-100 prefix	`-1001234567890`

5. Rate Limits

Scope	Limit
Same chat	1 msg/sec
Different chats	30 msg/sec
Groups	20 msg/min per group
Bulk notifications	Use sendMessage with different chat_ids

When hitting 429 errors, use exponential backoff starting at retry_after seconds.

6. Message Length Limits

Type	Limit
Text message	4096 chars
Caption	1024 chars
Callback data	64 bytes
Inline query	256 chars

Split long messages at sentence boundaries, not mid-word.

7. Keyboard Best Practices

Inline keyboards (in message):

Max 8 buttons per row
Max 100 buttons total
Use callback_data for bot actions
Use url for external links

Reply keyboards (below input):

Use for frequent options
one_time_keyboard: true to hide after use
resize_keyboard: true for better mobile UX

Read Full Documentation on GitHub

Metadata

Author@ivangdavila

Stars2102

Updated2026-03-06

View Author Profile

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Add to Configuration

Paste this into your clawhub.json to enable this plugin.

{
  "plugins": {
    "official-ivangdavila-telegram-bot-api": {
      "enabled": true,
      "auto_update": true
    }
  }
}

Safety NoteClawKit audits metadata but not runtime behavior. Use with caution.

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