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