aiogram-dialog-manager 2.6.0

Dialog manager for aiogram.

aiogram Dialog Manager

A library for building structured, stateful dialog flows in aiogram 3 Telegram bots.

Features

• Prototype-based design — define reusable message, menu, and button blueprints via abstract classes
• Stateful dialogs — each dialog instance maintains a conversation history as a branching tree with data snapshots
• Automatic middleware — DialogManager injects the active dialog, button, menu, and message directly into your handlers
• 13 message types — text, photo, document, video, audio, animation, voice, sticker, video note, location, contact, poll, and media group
• Standalone keyboards — create inline keyboards independent of any dialog and attach them to arbitrary messages
• Pluggable storage — MemoryStorage (in-process) and RedisStorage out of the box; custom backends via BaseStorage
• TTL support — automatic expiry of dialogs and standalone menus in storage
• Typed filters — DialogFilter, ButtonFilter, MenuFilter, MessageFilter, DialogAccessFilter for precise handler routing

Installation

pip install aiogram_dialog_manager

Quick Start

1 — Define prototypes

from aiogram_dialog_manager.prototype import DialogPrototype, ButtonPrototype, MenuPrototype
from aiogram_dialog_manager.prototype.message import TextMessagePrototype
from aiogram_dialog_manager.prototype.base import TextContent
from aiogram_dialog_manager.instance import ButtonInstance


class GreetButton(ButtonPrototype, type_name="greet_button"):
    async def get_state(self, dialog, context) -> str:
        return "👋 Say hello"


class MainMenu(MenuPrototype, type_name="main_menu"):
    _greet = GreetButton()

    async def get_buttons(self, dialog, context) -> list[list[ButtonInstance]]:
        return [[await self._greet.get_instance(dialog, context)]]


class WelcomeMessage(TextMessagePrototype, type_name="welcome"):
    _menu = MainMenu()

    async def get_text_content(self, dialog, context) -> TextContent:
        name = dialog.data.get("user_name", "stranger")
        return TextContent(text=f"Hello, {name}! Choose an action:")

    async def get_menu(self, dialog, context):
        return await self._menu.get_instance(dialog, context)


class MyDialog(DialogPrototype, type_name="my_dialog"):
    welcome = WelcomeMessage()

2 — Set up DialogManager

from aiogram import Bot, Dispatcher
from aiogram_dialog_manager import DialogManager
from aiogram_dialog_manager.storage import MemoryStorage

bot = Bot(token="YOUR_TOKEN")
dp = Dispatcher()

storage = MemoryStorage()
manager = DialogManager(storage)
manager.setup(dp)          # registers middleware on all supported event types

3 — Start a dialog in a handler

from aiogram.filters import Command
from aiogram.types import Message
from aiogram_dialog_manager import DialogManager
from aiogram_dialog_manager.instance import MessageTarget

dialog_proto = MyDialog()

@dp.message(Command("start"))
async def start(message: Message, dialog_manager: DialogManager):
    op = await dialog_manager.create_dialog(
        dialog_proto,
        user_id=message.from_user.id,
        chat_id=message.chat.id,
        bot=message.bot,
        context={"user_name": message.from_user.first_name},
    )
    await dialog_manager.set_active_dialog(op)
    target = MessageTarget.from_message(message)
    await op.send_message(dialog_proto.welcome, target)

DialogManager auto-saves the dialog after every handler call, so you do not need to call save() manually inside handlers.

4 — React to button clicks

from aiogram.types import CallbackQuery
from aiogram_dialog_manager import DialogOperator, ButtonFilter
from aiogram_dialog_manager.instance import ButtonInstance, MessageTarget

greet_btn = GreetButton()

@dp.callback_query(ButtonFilter(greet_btn))
async def on_greet(
    callback: CallbackQuery,
    dialog: DialogOperator,
    button: ButtonInstance,
):
    await callback.answer()
    target = MessageTarget(chat_id=callback.message.chat.id)
    await dialog.send_message(
        dialog_proto.welcome,
        target,
        context={"user_name": "World"},
    )

---

Core Concepts

Prototypes vs Instances

Prototype	Instance
Stateless blueprint — subclass and override	Live object created at runtime
ButtonPrototype → ButtonInstance	Created via prototype.get_instance(dialog, context)
MenuPrototype → MenuInstance	Created via prototype.get_instance(dialog, context)
DialogPrototype → DialogInstance	Created via DialogManager.create_dialog()
TextMessagePrototype → BotMessageInstance	Created by DialogOperator internally

Each prototype class registers itself by name at definition time using the type_name= keyword argument:

class MyButton(ButtonPrototype, type_name="my_button"):
    ...

Names must be unique within each prototype base class — reusing a name raises ValueError at import time.

DialogOperator

The object injected into handlers as dialog. Provides:

Method	Description
send_message(proto, target)	Send a text message
send_photo / send_video / ...	Send media (13 types total)
reply_to_message(proto, reply_to)	Send a reply
edit_message(record, proto)	Edit text or caption
edit_message_media(record, proto)	Edit media file
edit_reply_markup(record, menu_proto)	Replace inline keyboard with a new one
delete_reply_markup(record)	Remove the inline keyboard from a message
edit_live_location(record, proto)	Update live location
delete_message(record, delete_node, delete_messages, preserve_data)	Delete a Telegram message; optionally also remove its dialog node and descendant messages
delete_all_messages(only_current_branch, delete_nodes, preserve_data)	Bulk-delete Telegram messages; optionally also remove dialog nodes
delete_node(node_id, delete_messages, preserve_data)	Remove a dialog node and all its descendants; optionally delete their Telegram messages
append_user_message(message)	Manually track an incoming user message
append_bot_message(record)	Manually add a bot message record to the dialog tree
rollback(index, delete_nodes, delete_messages, preserve_data)	Roll dialog state back to position index; optionally delete rolled-back nodes and their Telegram messages
switch_node(node_id)	Jump to any node in the dialog tree
data	Current dialog data dict (read/write)
temp	Per-request scratch dict (not persisted)

DialogManager

Method	Description
create_dialog(proto, user_id, chat_id, bot, context, ttl)	Create a new dialog instance
set_active_dialog(operator)	Mark a dialog as active for its user+chat
get_active_dialog(user_id, chat_id, bot)	Fetch the active dialog for a user+chat
get_dialog(dialog_id, bot)	Fetch any dialog by ID
save(operator, ttl)	Persist dialog state and refresh button index
delete(operator)	Delete a dialog and all its button index entries
save_standalone_menu(instance, ttl)	Register a menu instance in storage and index its buttons
delete_standalone_menu(menu)	Delete a standalone menu by instance or ID and remove its button index entries
cleanup_orphaned()	Delete dialogs with no active pointer and standalone menus with no live buttons; returns count
set_active_dialog(operator)	Mark a dialog as active for its user+chat
set_user_message_filter(dialog, filter_fn)	Register a per-dialog-type message filter
set_dead_button_handler(handler)	Register a callback for button presses that resolve to nothing
setup(dp)	Register middleware on all supported event types

Active dialog

Each user+chat pair has at most one active dialog — the dialog injected into Message handlers via middleware. Set it explicitly after creation:

op = await manager.create_dialog(proto, user_id, chat_id, bot)
await manager.set_active_dialog(op)

Creating a new dialog does not automatically replace the active one. Call set_active_dialog whenever you want to switch.

Deleting a dialog

await manager.delete(dialog)

Removes the dialog, its active:* pointer (if it was active), and all button index entries. Safe to call from inside a handler.

Standalone keyboards

Keyboards that exist independently of any dialog — useful for persistent menus, welcome screens, or any message not part of a dialog flow.

menu_proto = MainMenu()

# create instance yourself, then register it in storage
instance = await menu_proto.get_instance(None, context)
await manager.save_standalone_menu(instance)

markup = instance.get_markup()
await bot.send_message(chat_id, "Choose:", reply_markup=markup)

# update keyboard — create a fresh instance and register it
await manager.delete_standalone_menu(instance)  # or delete_standalone_menu(instance.id)
new_instance = await menu_proto.get_instance(None, new_context)
await manager.save_standalone_menu(new_instance)
await bot.edit_message_reply_markup(chat_id, message_id, reply_markup=new_instance.get_markup())

When a standalone button is pressed, the middleware injects button and menu but dialog is None.

Dead button handler

Called when a user presses a button whose dialog or standalone menu no longer exists (expired TTL, deleted, etc.):

from aiogram_dialog_manager import DeadButtonHandler

async def on_dead_button(callback: CallbackQuery):
    await callback.answer("This button is no longer active.", show_alert=True)

manager.set_dead_button_handler(on_dead_button)

Dialog Tree

Each message is stored as a node in a branching tree. Every node snapshots the dialog data before and after processing, enabling rollback and branching. Use dialog.dialog.build_tree() to inspect the full history.

Whether messages are saved automatically is controlled by DialogConfig, which you override in DialogPrototype.get_config():

from aiogram_dialog_manager.instance import DialogConfig

class MyDialog(DialogPrototype, type_name="my_dialog"):
    async def get_config(self, context) -> DialogConfig:
        return DialogConfig(
            save_bot_message_nodes=True,    # default — send_* auto-appends to tree
            save_user_message_nodes=False,  # default — user messages not auto-appended
        )

When auto-saving is off, use append_user_message / append_bot_message to add messages manually.

Per-dialog user message filter

When save_user_message_nodes=True, you can additionally filter which messages get saved by registering a UserMessageFilter on the manager:

from aiogram_dialog_manager import UserMessageFilter

my_dialog = MyDialog()

# accepts a prototype instance or a plain string type name
manager.set_user_message_filter(
    my_dialog,
    lambda msg: not (msg.text and msg.text.startswith("/")),
)

The filter receives the Message object and returns True to save or False to skip. One filter per dialog type; if no filter is registered for a type, all messages are saved.

Reply-based dialog lookup

By default the Message middleware resolves the dialog only for the dialog owner (via the active dialog pointer). You can optionally enable reply-based lookup so that any user who replies to a message belonging to a dialog receives that dialog in data["dialog"].

Enable it via three flags in DialogConfig:

Flag	Default	Description
allow_reply_lookup	False	Master switch — enables reply-based lookup
index_bot_messages	False	Index bot messages so replies to them resolve the dialog
index_user_messages	False	Index user messages so replies to them resolve the dialog

class MyDialog(DialogPrototype, type_name="my_dialog"):
    async def get_config(self, context) -> DialogConfig:
        return DialogConfig(
            allow_reply_lookup=True,
            index_bot_messages=True,   # reply to any bot message → this dialog
            index_user_messages=False, # user messages not indexed
        )

Indexes are built automatically on every save() call and cleaned up automatically on delete().

When operator is None (the sender has no active dialog) but the incoming message is a reply, the middleware looks up reply_to_message.message_id in the index. If found, the owning dialog is returned as data["dialog"]. If the sender already has an active dialog, that takes priority and the reply index is not consulted.

Saving messages from non-owner users

When reply lookup is enabled you may also want to record the replies of non-owner users as nodes in the dialog tree. Set save_foreign_user_messages=True — it works only in combination with save_user_message_nodes=True:

class MyDialog(DialogPrototype, type_name="my_dialog"):
    async def get_config(self, context) -> DialogConfig:
        return DialogConfig(
            save_user_message_nodes=True,
            allow_reply_lookup=True,
            index_bot_messages=True,
            save_foreign_user_messages=True,  # save replies from any user
        )

Without this flag only the dialog owner's messages are appended to the tree even when another user's reply resolves the dialog.

Node deletion

Dialog nodes can be removed from the tree independently of Telegram messages, or together with them. All deletion methods accept an optional delete_messages flag that controls whether the corresponding Telegram messages are deleted via the Bot API.

Delete a single node and its entire subtree:

# Remove from dialog tree only (Telegram messages are kept)
await op.delete_node(node_id)

# Remove from dialog tree AND delete Telegram messages
await op.delete_node(node_id, delete_messages=True)

When a node is deleted, all its descendants are deleted too. If the current node is inside the deleted subtree, current_id is moved to the parent of the deleted subtree root.

Delete a Telegram message and optionally its node:

# Delete only the Telegram message (default behaviour, unchanged)
await op.delete_message(record)

# Delete the Telegram message and remove the node from the tree
await op.delete_message(record, delete_node=True)

# Delete the Telegram message, remove the node, and also delete descendant messages
await op.delete_message(record, delete_node=True, delete_messages=True)

Bulk delete with node cleanup:

# Delete all messages and clear the entire dialog tree
await op.delete_all_messages(delete_nodes=True)

# Delete messages on the current branch only and remove those nodes
await op.delete_all_messages(only_current_branch=True, delete_nodes=True)

When only_current_branch=True, nodes on the current path are removed. Any sibling branches that branch off from the deleted path are re-parented to the virtual root and preserved.

Rollback with node deletion:

# Standard rollback — nodes are kept in the tree (history is preserved)
await op.rollback(1)

# Rollback and discard the rolled-back nodes from the tree
await op.rollback(1, delete_nodes=True)

# Rollback, discard nodes, and delete their Telegram messages
await op.rollback(1, delete_nodes=True, delete_messages=True)

Preserving dialog data during deletion

By default, all deletion and rollback operations restore dialog.data to the snapshot that was active before the deleted/rolled-back nodes were created. Pass preserve_data=True to keep the current value of dialog.data unchanged:

# Rollback cursor position but keep current data
await op.rollback(1, preserve_data=True)

# Remove a node without restoring an older data snapshot
await op.delete_node(node_id, preserve_data=True)

# Bulk delete with node cleanup, keeping current data
await op.delete_all_messages(delete_nodes=True, preserve_data=True)
await op.delete_message(record, delete_node=True, preserve_data=True)

This is useful when you have already updated dialog.data with information that should survive the structural cleanup (e.g. clearing old message nodes after a multi-step form while keeping the collected form values).

Storage

from aiogram_dialog_manager.storage import MemoryStorage, RedisStorage
from redis.asyncio import Redis

# In-process (development / single instance)
storage = MemoryStorage()

# Redis (production / multi-instance)
redis = Redis.from_url("redis://localhost")
storage = RedisStorage(redis)

Custom backend: subclass aiogram_dialog_manager.storage.BaseStorage and implement all abstract methods.

TTL

Configure default TTL (in seconds) for dialogs and standalone menus:

manager = DialogManager(
    storage,
    dialog_ttl=86400,           # dialogs expire after 24 h of inactivity
    standalone_menu_ttl=604800, # standalone menus expire after 7 days
)

TTL is refreshed on every save() call for dialogs (and for the active:* pointer if the dialog is active). Override per call:

# this dialog has a shorter TTL
op = await manager.create_dialog(proto, user_id, chat_id, bot, ttl=3600)

# this standalone menu never expires
instance = await proto.get_instance(None, context)
await manager.save_standalone_menu(instance, ttl=None)

Cleanup

Remove stale records that were never explicitly deleted:

deleted = await manager.cleanup_orphaned()
# dialogs with no active pointer → deleted
# standalone menus with no live button entries → deleted

Run periodically (e.g. via a scheduled task or cron).

Filters

All filters work with objects resolved by the middleware.

from aiogram_dialog_manager import (
    DialogFilter,        # match by dialog prototype or name and/or data
    ButtonFilter,        # match by button prototype or name and/or data
    MenuFilter,          # match by menu prototype or name and/or data
    MessageFilter,       # match CallbackQuery by the bot message that contained the button
    EditedMessageFilter, # pass only if the edited message was tracked in the dialog
    DialogAccessFilter,  # pass only if event.from_user.id == dialog.user_id
)

# Examples
DialogFilter(my_dialog_proto)                 # by prototype instance
DialogFilter("my_dialog", step="confirm")     # name + data field
ButtonFilter(my_button_proto)                 # by prototype instance
ButtonFilter("greet_button", color="red")     # by name + data field
MenuFilter(my_menu_proto)                     # by prototype instance
MenuFilter("main_menu")                       # by name
MessageFilter(my_message_proto)               # by prototype instance
MessageFilter(my_message_proto, step="input") # prototype + data field
EditedMessageFilter()                         # any tracked user message was edited
EditedMessageFilter(step="input")             # edited message has matching data
DialogAccessFilter()                          # ownership check

What the middleware injects

On Message

Key	Type	Description
dialog	DialogOperator | None	Active dialog for this user+chat, or dialog resolved via reply (if allow_reply_lookup is enabled), or None
dialog_manager	DialogManager	The manager instance

On EditedMessage

Key	Type	Description
dialog	DialogOperator | None	Active dialog for this user+chat, or None
message_record	UserMessageRecord | None	The saved record matching the edited message, or None if not tracked
dialog_manager	DialogManager	The manager instance

On CallbackQuery (button press)

Key	Type	Description
dialog	DialogOperator | None	Dialog that owns the button, or None for standalone / not found
button	ButtonInstance | None	The pressed button
message_record	BotMessageRecord | None	The bot message that contained the button (dialog buttons only)
menu	AnyMenuInstance | None	The menu that contained the button
dialog_manager	DialogManager	The manager instance

On MyChatMember / ChatMember

Key	Type	Description
dialog	DialogOperator | None	Active dialog for the user who triggered the update, or None
dialog_manager	DialogManager	The manager instance

On PollAnswer

Resolved via the poll index built automatically when a dialog sends a poll via send_poll. If the poll was not sent through the dialog framework, dialog and message_record are None.

Key	Type	Description
dialog	DialogOperator | None	Dialog that sent the poll, or None
message_record	BotMessageRecord | None	The bot message record for the poll, or None
dialog_manager	DialogManager	The manager instance

On MessageReaction

Key	Type	Description
dialog	DialogOperator | None	Active dialog for the reacting user, or None (also None for anonymous reactions)
message_record	AnyMessageRecord | None	The dialog message record that was reacted to, or None if not tracked
dialog_manager	DialogManager	The manager instance

Message Types

All message prototypes live in aiogram_dialog_manager.prototype.message:

Class	Bot API method
TextMessagePrototype	sendMessage
PhotoMessagePrototype	sendPhoto
DocumentMessagePrototype	sendDocument
VideoMessagePrototype	sendVideo
AudioMessagePrototype	sendAudio
AnimationMessagePrototype	sendAnimation
VoiceMessagePrototype	sendVoice
StickerMessagePrototype	sendSticker
VideoNoteMessagePrototype	sendVideoNote
LocationMessagePrototype	sendLocation
ContactMessagePrototype	sendContact
PollMessagePrototype	sendPoll
MediaGroupMessagePrototype	sendMediaGroup

Media types (Photo, Document, Video, Audio, Animation) also implement get_input_media() for use with edit_message_media.

Menu Types

Class	Telegram keyboard
MenuInstance	Inline or Reply keyboard (controlled by keyboard_type)
ForceReplyMenuInstance	ForceReply
RemoveKeyboardMenuInstance	ReplyKeyboardRemove

---

Project Layout

src/aiogram_dialog_manager/
├── __init__.py                 # DialogManager, DialogOperator, filters, storage
├── dialog_manager.py           # DialogManager + middleware
├── dialog_operator.py          # DialogOperator
├── filter/                     # DialogFilter, ButtonFilter, MenuFilter, DialogAccessFilter
├── instance/                   # Runtime objects (ButtonInstance, MenuInstance, …)
├── prototype/                  # Abstract base classes to subclass
│   ├── button.py
│   ├── dialog.py
│   ├── menu.py
│   └── message/                # 13 message prototype classes
└── storage/                    # BaseStorage, MemoryStorage, RedisStorage

License

MIT