Telegram Bots

Why Telegram

Where your users are

900M+ active users. If your community, customers, or team uses Telegram — meet them there.

Rich bot features

Commands, inline keyboards, media, groups, channels, DMs. Telegram has one of the best bot APIs available.

Zero friction

Users don’t need to install anything. They just message your bot on Telegram.

Step-by-step setup

Create your bot with BotFather

Open Telegram and search for @BotFather. Send /newbot and follow the prompts:

Enter a display name (e.g., Acme Support)
Enter a username — must end in bot (e.g., AcmeSupportBot)
BotFather sends you a token: 7123456789:AAFxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Save this token — you’ll need it in the next step.

Connect the token to Bothive

In your Bothive dashboard:

Open your bot → Channels
Click Telegram → Connect
Paste your bot token
Click Save

Bothive automatically sets the webhook. You’ll see a green when the connection is live.

Write your HiveLang bot

bot TelegramSupportBot {
  description: "Customer support for Telegram users"

  capabilities {
    knowledgebase.search
    support.createTicket
    billing.getSubscription
  }

  instructions {
    You are a helpful support agent for Acme SaaS.

    When users ask about their account:
    - Ask for their email if not provided
    - Look up their subscription status
    - Explain issues clearly, in plain language

    Format responses for Telegram:
    - Use *bold* for important information
    - Use bullet points for steps
    - Keep responses concise — under 200 words

    If you cannot resolve an issue, create a support ticket
    and tell the user they'll hear back within 24 hours.
  }

  on "/start" {
    say "*Welcome to Acme Support!* \n\nI can help you with billing, account issues, and product questions. What do you need help with?"
  }

  on "/status" {
    say "All systems operational \nCheck https://status.acme.com for live status."
  }
}

Test in Telegram

Search for your bot in Telegram → send /start → confirm the welcome message appears.Send a real support question and check that:

The response arrives within 2 seconds
Formatting looks correct in Telegram
Tool calls (if any) succeed

Set BotFather commands (optional)

Add a command menu so users know what your bot can do:

Message @BotFather → /setcommands
Select your bot
Paste your command list:

start - Welcome and intro
status - Check service status
help - List all commands

Telegram-specific formatting

Bothive uses Telegram’s MarkdownV2 formatting when responding on the Telegram channel:

Format	Syntax	Example
Bold	`text`	Important
Italic	`_text_`	note
Code	`code`	`bot_id`
Code block	```code```	Multi-line code
Link	`[text](url)`	Dashboard

Tell your agent explicitly in the instructions to use Telegram formatting. The model adapts its output to whichever channel it’s responding on if you guide it.

Common Telegram setup issues

Bot doesn't respond to messages

Check that the webhook is set correctly. In Bothive, open Channels → Telegram and click Verify webhook. If it shows a red , try reconnecting with the token.

Privacy mode blocking group messages

By default, Telegram bots only receive messages that start with / in groups. To change this, send /setprivacy to @BotFather and disable privacy mode — or ensure users tag your bot with @YourBotUsername.

Agent sends duplicate responses

This usually means you’ve connected the same bot token in multiple places. Make sure the token is only connected to one Bothive bot.

Slow responses (>5 seconds)

Check which tools are being called in the Run trace. Slow tool calls are usually integration issues — check your integration credentials. You can also switch to a faster model (e.g., GPT-4o mini or Groq) for response-speed-critical bots.

Groups vs DMs

Feature	Direct Messages	Group Chats
Setup complexity	Simple	Requires privacy mode config
Session persistence	Per user	Per (group_id, user_id)
Best for	Personal assistants, support	Community bots, team tools
@mention required	No	Yes (with privacy mode on)

Test with real people and inspect the result

Once Telegram is connected, share https://t.me/YourBotUsername with a small tester group. Testers only see the Telegram bot; they cannot see your Bothive project, credentials, knowledge base, or internal traces. After each meaningful test, open Agent dashboard -> Observability. Bothive records the run’s Telegram channel, session boundary, message delivery activity, latency, final response, failures, and any tool or memory events that the runtime emitted. The channel health panel also shows whether the Telegram connection is active and its inbound/outbound message counts.

Ask testers to send a known answer, an unknown answer, a follow-up question, and a request that would need a tool. That gives you a much better signal than only testing /start.

Start Here

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Building Agents

Deployment & Operations

Teams & Organisations

Integrations

API Reference

Resources

Why Telegram

Where your users are

Rich bot features

Zero friction

Step-by-step setup

Telegram-specific formatting

Common Telegram setup issues

Groups vs DMs

Test with real people and inspect the result

Next reads

Slack Bots

Deploy to Channels

Observability

​Why Telegram

Where your users are

Rich bot features

Zero friction

​Step-by-step setup

​Telegram-specific formatting

​Common Telegram setup issues

​Groups vs DMs

​Test with real people and inspect the result

​Next reads

Slack Bots

Deploy to Channels

Observability

Why Telegram

Step-by-step setup

Telegram-specific formatting

Common Telegram setup issues

Groups vs DMs

Test with real people and inspect the result

Next reads