Telegram

Expose agents, teams, or workflows as Telegram bots with webhook endpoints.

The Telegram interface exposes an Agno Agent, Team, or Workflow on Telegram via FastAPI webhook endpoints. It handles inbound messages (text, photos, audio, video, documents, stickers) and streams responses back to the originating chat.

Setup

Follow the Telegram deploy guide to set up your bot.

Required configuration:

• TELEGRAM_TOKEN (bot token from @BotFather)
• TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_SECRET_TOKEN — required in production, skipped when APP_ENV=development
• An ngrok tunnel (for local development) and webhook pointing to /telegram/webhook

Example Usage

Create an agent, expose it with the Telegram interface, and serve via AgentOS:

basic.py

from agno.agent import Agent
from agno.db.sqlite import SqliteDb
from agno.models.google import Gemini
from agno.os.app import AgentOS
from agno.os.interfaces.telegram import Telegram

agent_db = SqliteDb(session_table="telegram_sessions", db_file="tmp/telegram_basic.db")

telegram_agent = Agent(
    name="Telegram Bot",
    model=Gemini(id="gemini-2.5-pro"),
    db=agent_db,
    instructions=[
        "You are a helpful assistant on Telegram.",
        "Keep responses concise and friendly.",
    ],
    add_history_to_context=True,
    num_history_runs=3,
    add_datetime_to_context=True,
    markdown=True,
)

agent_os = AgentOS(
    agents=[telegram_agent],
    interfaces=[Telegram(agent=telegram_agent)],
)
app = agent_os.get_app()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    agent_os.serve(app="basic:app", port=7777, reload=True)

See the Telegram examples for more usage patterns including streaming, teams, workflows, and multiple instances.

Parameters

Provide agent, team, or workflow. Call get_router() to get the FastAPI APIRouter with all endpoints attached.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
agent	Optional[Agent]	None	Agno Agent instance.
team	Optional[Team]	None	Agno Team instance.
workflow	Optional[Workflow]	None	Agno Workflow instance.
prefix	str	"/telegram"	Custom FastAPI route prefix for the Telegram interface.
tags	Optional[List[str]]	None	FastAPI route tags for API documentation. Defaults to ["Telegram"] if not provided.
token	Optional[str]	None	Bot token. Falls back to TELEGRAM_TOKEN environment variable.
streaming	bool	True	Enable token-by-token streaming with live message edits.
show_reasoning	bool	False	Show the model’s reasoning as a blockquote message. Works in both streaming and non-streaming modes.
reply_to_mentions_only	bool	True	When True (default), bot responds to @mentions and replies in groups, and all messages in DMs. When False, responds to all messages in groups.
reply_to_bot_messages	bool	True	When True, also responds when users reply to the bot’s own messages in groups.
start_message	str	"Hello! I'm ready to help..."	Message sent in response to the /start command.
help_message	str	"Send me text, photos..."	Message sent in response to the /help command.
error_message	str	"Sorry, there was an error..."	Message sent when processing fails.
new_message	str	"New conversation started..."	Message sent when a user starts a new session with /new.
commands	Optional[List[Dict]]	None	List of bot commands to register with Telegram. Each dict has command and description keys. Defaults to /start, /help, and /new when not provided.
register_commands	bool	True	Automatically register commands with the Telegram Bot API on first message.

Endpoints

Mounted under the /telegram prefix (customizable via prefix):

GET /telegram/status

Health/status check for the interface. Returns {"status": "available"}.

POST /telegram/webhook

Receives Telegram updates (messages, edited messages).

• Validates the X-Telegram-Bot-Api-Secret-Token header; bypassed when APP_ENV=development.
• Deduplicates updates by update_id.
• Processes text, photos, voice notes, audio, video, documents, stickers, and animations.
• Streams or sends responses back to the originating chat (splits long messages at Telegram’s 4096 character limit).
• Responses: 200 {"status": "processing"} or {"status": "ignored"}, 403 invalid secret token, 500 errors.

Behavior

Session Management

Sessions are scoped by chat and entity. The entity_id is the agent, team, or workflow ID (falls back to name, then type).

• DMs and basic groups: tg:Telegram Bot:123456789
• Supergroup threads and forum topics: tg:Telegram Bot:123456789:42

When a database is configured on the agent/team, the /new command creates a fresh session. Without a database, sessions reset on server restart. History and memory are not persisted.

The /new command only works when a database is configured. Without a database, each server restart already starts a fresh session.

Streaming

When streaming=True (the default), the bot edits the response message in real time as tokens arrive. Edits are throttled to roughly once per second to stay within Telegram’s rate limits. The user sees incremental output instead of waiting for the full response.

For workflows, streaming also surfaces step progress (e.g., which agent in the workflow is currently running).

Group Chat Support

By default, the bot only responds when mentioned (@your_bot) or replied to in group chats. This is controlled by two parameters:

• reply_to_mentions_only=True (default): only respond to @mentions and direct replies
• reply_to_bot_messages=True (default): also respond when users reply to the bot’s own messages

To have the bot respond to all messages in a group, set reply_to_mentions_only=False.

BotFather privacy mode: By default, Telegram bots in groups only receive messages that mention them or are commands. To let the bot see all group messages (required for reply_to_mentions_only=False), message @BotFather, send /setprivacy, select your bot, and choose Disable.

Media Support

Inbound (user sends to bot): photos, stickers, voice notes, audio files, video, video notes, animations (GIFs), and documents. Media is downloaded and passed to the agent as images, audio, video, or file inputs.

Outbound (agent sends to user): images, audio, video, and files generated by agent tools (e.g., DALL-E, ElevenLabs). Media is sent as native Telegram media messages alongside the text response.

TelegramTools

TelegramTools is a standalone toolkit that lets agents proactively send messages and media to Telegram chats. It is independent from the Telegram interface. The interface handles inbound webhooks; the toolkit gives agents outbound actions.

from agno.tools.telegram import TelegramTools

agent = Agent(
    tools=[TelegramTools(chat_id="123456789", all=True)],
)

Toolkit Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
chat_id	Optional[str]	None	Default chat ID. Falls back to TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID env var.
token	Optional[str]	None	Bot token. Falls back to TELEGRAM_TOKEN env var.
enable_send_message	bool	True	Enable send_message tool.
enable_send_photo	bool	False	Enable send_photo tool.
enable_send_document	bool	False	Enable send_document tool.
enable_send_video	bool	False	Enable send_video tool.
enable_send_audio	bool	False	Enable send_audio tool.
enable_send_animation	bool	False	Enable send_animation tool (GIFs).
enable_send_sticker	bool	False	Enable send_sticker tool.
enable_edit_message	bool	False	Enable edit_message tool.
enable_delete_message	bool	False	Enable delete_message tool.
all	bool	False	Enable all tools. Overrides individual flags.

Toolkit Methods

Method	Description
send_message	Send a text message to a chat.
send_photo	Send a photo (bytes) with optional caption.
send_document	Send a document (bytes) with filename and optional caption.
send_video	Send a video (bytes) with optional caption.
send_audio	Send an audio file (bytes) with optional caption and title.
send_animation	Send an animation/GIF (bytes) with optional caption.
send_sticker	Send a sticker (bytes).
edit_message	Edit a previously sent message by message_id.
delete_message	Delete a message by message_id.

All methods return a JSON string with {"status": "success", "message_id": ...} on success or {"status": "error", "message": ...} on failure.

For the full toolkit reference, see TelegramTools.

Testing the Integration

1. Run the app locally: python <my-app>.py (ensure ngrok is running)
2. Register the webhook: curl "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_TOKEN}/setWebhook?url=${NGROK_URL}/telegram/webhook"
3. Open your bot in Telegram and send /start or any message
4. In a group: add the bot and mention it with @your_bot hello

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
403 errors on webhook	Running in production mode without a webhook secret	Set APP_ENV=development for local testing, or set TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_SECRET_TOKEN and register the webhook with the matching secret_token
No response from the bot	Server not running or webhook not set	Check server: curl http://localhost:7777/telegram/status. Check webhook: curl "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_TOKEN}/getWebhookInfo"
Bot ignores group messages	Privacy mode enabled (default)	Message @BotFather, send /setprivacy, select your bot, choose Disable
/new has no effect	No database configured	Add a SqliteDb (or other DB) to the agent/team. Without a DB, sessions are ephemeral and /new cannot create a new one.
TELEGRAM_TOKEN is not set	Missing env var	Export TELEGRAM_TOKEN before running

Developer Resources

• Telegram deploy guide
• Telegram examples
• TelegramTools reference
• Deployment templates