Telegram Repost Bot

Are you in a Telegram group with a bunch of people posting memes or other content?
Do they sometimes send something that's been posted before?
If this gets your blood boiling, Repost Bot is what you need. Repost Bot keeps track of messages with pictures or URLs in them by creating a hash of them, similar to how reverse image search works. If someone posts unoriginal content, they will be called out and, ideally, be very embarrassed.

How to run your own instance of Repost Bot

• Create a bot by talking to @BotFather on Telegram.
• Use BotFather to turn off privacy mode -- this is required since RepostBot needs to check messages as they come in.
• Ensure you have at least Python 3.8 installed on your computer.
• Clone the repo from GitHub and install the dependencies:
  git clone https://github.com/sglowery/Telegram-Repost-Bot.git <FOLDER_NAME>
cd <FOLDER_NAME>
pip install -r requirements.txt inside the folder you created (I recommend doing this in a virtual environment)
• Create a copy of defaultconfig.yaml, name it whatever you want, add your token from BotFather and replace any of the string values you want.
  • Note: Do not use defaultconfig.yaml as your primary config; it will receive updates if new configuration options and strings are added.
• Run Repost Bot with the command python main.py -c CONFIG_FILE_PATH
  • If you want to use environment variables to set the Telegram API token and the admin ID, run the above command with -e as well. This will be handy if you want to run this on a service like Heroku.
    • Set the Telegram token and, optionally, your user id in the .env.example file and save a new file with .example removed.
• Add the bot to your group and enjoy your oasis of original content!

If you don't want to run your own:

• Simply add @REEEEPost Bot to your group! My own configuration may not be to your liking, however.

Commands

• /help - Bot will reply with information on what it does and what it stores.
• /toggle - Toggles various group-wide settings for the bot. Can be called with multiple arguments, e.g. /toggle url autodelete
  • Valid arguments: picture, url, autocallout, autodelete
• /settings - Display the bot's settings for the current group.
• /whitelist - Reply to a picture or URL with this command to toggle the whitelist status of what you're replying to.
• /reset - Only group admins and the user whose ID is set as the bot's admin can call this. Will reset a group's repost and whitelist data and revert tracking to the default settings.
• /stats - Show some basic stats about reposts vs. unique posts in the current group.

How To Use

• Private chats

  • You can't do anything in private chats besides use the /help command.

• Groups and Supergroups

  • Add the bot to your group.
  • Use commands to interact with it.
  • Use the /settings command to see what's being tracked, and use /toggle with the arguments listed above to change what the bot tracks and how it behaves in the group.
  • Admins can /reset the group's repost data, clearing it entirely.
  • Is RepostBot calling out something that you don't want it to? Reply to the message containing what you don't want called out anymore and use the /whitelist command.
    • Use this command again while replying to a message with a whitelisted entity to remove it from the whitelist.
  • Want to know some basic stats about the group's repost data? Use the /stats command.
  • RepostBot has anti-flood measures implemented for commands and repost callouts. If it appears the bot is unresponsive, wait a minute and try again. If it's still not responsive, try a command like /help. If that doesn't work, it's likely the bot is tied up processing other updates or it could be down.

• Channels

  • RepostBot can be added to channels, but has limited functionality:
    • It can still track pictures and URLs and abide by the default settings for tracking callouts.
    • It can not receive commands.
      • The bot cannot delete channel posts, but it can delete the post that gets forwarded to the linked discussion group, which will remove the comments for the post and the channel link to the comments.
  • If you have a discussion group linked, do not put RepostBot in both the channel and the discussion group.
    • Linked discussion groups function like normal groups and RepostBot will work normally and will track posts that get forwarded from the channel.

Repost Bot Updates

If you want to keep up with development updates and give feedback on future improvements, check out the Repost Bot Development News channel on Telegram!