Telegram Bot MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that enables AI assistants to publish, edit, search, and manage messages in Telegram channels.

Features

• Publish Text Messages: Post new text messages to Telegram channels with formatting support (Markdown/HTML)
• Publish Photos: Post photos with optional captions to Telegram channels
• Edit Text Messages: Modify existing text-only messages in channels
• Edit Photo Captions: Update captions of existing photo messages
• Delete Messages: Remove messages from channels
• Search Messages: Search through cached messages (local cache)
• Channel Info: Retrieve channel metadata and statistics

Quick Reference

Task	Message Type	Tool to Use
Publish a text message	Text	publish_message
Publish a photo	Photo	publish_photo
Edit a text-only message	Text	edit_message
Edit a photo's caption	Photo	edit_message_caption
Delete any message	Any	delete_message
Search cached messages	Any	search_messages
Get channel info	-	get_channel_info

Important: You cannot use edit_message on photo messages or edit_message_caption on text messages!

Installation

Prerequisites

1. Python 3.10+ is required

2. Create a Telegram Bot:

   • Open Telegram and search for @BotFather
   • Send /newbot and follow the instructions
   • Copy the bot token (format: 123456:ABC-DEF1234ghIkl-zyx57W2v1u123ew11)

3. Add Bot to Your Channel:

   • Create a Telegram channel or use an existing one
   • Add your bot as an administrator to the channel
   • Grant the bot permissions:
     • Post messages
     • Edit messages of others
     • Delete messages of others

4. Get Channel ID:

   • For public channels, use the username format: @channelname
   • For private channels, you need the numeric chat ID (e.g., -1001234567890)
   • You can get this by:
     • Adding the bot to the channel
     • Sending a message to the channel
     • Checking the update using: https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_BOT_TOKEN>/getUpdates

Install from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/synteles/telegram-bot-mcp.git
cd telegram-bot-mcp

# Install with pip
pip install -e .

# Or install with uv (recommended)
uv pip install -e .

For Development

# Install with dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Or with uv
uv pip install -e ".[dev]"

Configuration

Environment Variable

Set your Telegram bot token as an environment variable:

export TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN="your-bot-token-here"

Or add it to your .env file:

TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=123456:ABC-DEF1234ghIkl-zyx57W2v1u123ew11

Claude Desktop Integration

Add this to your Claude Desktop configuration file:

MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "telegram-bot": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "telegram_bot"],
      "env": {
        "TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN": "your-bot-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or if installed via uv:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "telegram-bot": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["telegram-bot-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN": "your-bot-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Usage

Once configured, the server will be available to your MCP client (like Claude Desktop). You can ask the AI assistant to:

• "Post a message to @mychannel saying 'Hello from AI!'"
• "Publish a photo from /path/to/image.jpg to @mychannel with caption 'Check this out!'"
• "Edit message 12345 in @mychannel to say 'Updated message'"
• "Search for messages containing 'important' in @mychannel"
• "Delete message 12345 from @mychannel"
• "Get information about @mychannel"

Available Tools

publish_message

Publish a new message to a Telegram channel.

Parameters:

• channel_id (str, required): Channel username (@mychannel) or chat ID
• text (str, required): Message text to publish
• parse_mode (str, optional): Text formatting - "Markdown", "HTML", or "None". Default: "Markdown"
• disable_web_page_preview (bool, optional): Disable link previews. Default: False
• disable_notification (bool, optional): Send silently. Default: False

Returns:

{
  "message_id": 12345,
  "chat_id": -1001234567890,
  "date": "2024-01-15T10:30:00",
  "text": "Your message text",
  "link": "https://t.me/mychannel/12345"
}

publish_photo

Publish a photo to a Telegram channel with an optional caption.

Parameters:

• channel_id (str, required): Channel username (@mychannel) or chat ID
• photo (str, required): Photo to send (file path, URL, or file_id)
• caption (str, optional): Caption text with Markdown/HTML formatting. Max 1024 characters
• parse_mode (str, optional): Caption formatting - "Markdown", "HTML", or "None". Default: "Markdown"
• disable_notification (bool, optional): Send silently. Default: False

Returns:

{
  "message_id": 12345,
  "chat_id": -1001234567890,
  "date": "2024-01-15T10:30:00",
  "caption": "Photo caption text",
  "photo": {
    "file_id": "AgACAgIAAxkBAAMCY...",
    "file_unique_id": "AQADAgATxxx",
    "width": 1280,
    "height": 720,
    "file_size": 102400
  },
  "link": "https://t.me/mychannel/12345"
}

edit_message

Edit an existing TEXT-ONLY message in a channel.

IMPORTANT: This only works for text messages. If the message contains a photo, use edit_message_caption instead.

Parameters:

• channel_id (str, required): Channel username or chat ID
• message_id (int, required): ID of the message to edit
• new_text (str, required): New message text
• parse_mode (str, optional): Text formatting. Default: "Markdown"

edit_message_caption

Edit the caption of an existing PHOTO message in a channel.

IMPORTANT: This only works for messages with media. For text-only messages, use edit_message instead.

Parameters:

• channel_id (str, required): Channel username or chat ID
• message_id (int, required): ID of the photo message to edit
• new_caption (str, required): New caption text
• parse_mode (str, optional): Caption formatting. Default: "Markdown"

delete_message

Delete a message from a channel.

Parameters:

• channel_id (str, required): Channel username or chat ID
• message_id (int, required): ID of the message to delete

search_messages

Search messages in local cache (messages published/edited in current session).

Note: Telegram Bot API doesn't support native message search. This searches locally cached messages.

Parameters:

• channel_id (str, required): Channel username or chat ID
• query (str, optional): Search query (case-insensitive). If None, returns all cached messages
• limit (int, optional): Maximum results to return. Default: 10

get_channel_info

Get information about a Telegram channel.

Parameters:

• channel_id (str, required): Channel username or chat ID

Returns:

{
  "id": -1001234567890,
  "title": "My Channel",
  "username": "mychannel",
  "type": "channel",
  "description": "Channel description",
  "invite_link": "https://t.me/mychannel",
  "member_count": 1234,
  "status": "success"
}

Development

Running Tests

# Install dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run all tests
pytest

# Run tests with verbose output
pytest -v

# Run tests with coverage
pytest --cov=telegram_bot --cov-report=html

# Run specific test
pytest tests/test_telegram.py::TestTelegramClient::test_publish_message

Code Quality

# Type checking
mypy telegram_bot

# Linting
ruff check .

# Formatting
ruff format .

Running the Server Locally

For testing purposes, you can run the server directly:

# Set your bot token
export TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN="your-token"

# Run the server
python -m telegram_bot

The server will start and communicate via stdio, following the MCP protocol.

Architecture

Component Structure

telegram-bot-mcp/
├── main.py                  # Entry point for the server
├── telegram_bot/
│   ├── __init__.py          # Package initialization
│   ├── server.py            # FastMCP server implementation with tool decorators
│   └── telegram_bot_client.py  # TelegramBotClient wrapper
└── tests/
    └── test_telegram.py     # Comprehensive tests

Design Patterns

• Singleton Client: Global TelegramBotClient instance reused across tool calls
• Async-First: All I/O operations are async for better performance
• Error Handling: Graceful error responses with status information
• Local Cache: Message caching for search functionality (since Telegram API doesn't support search)

Limitations

1. Message Types and Editing:

   • Text messages: Use edit_message (won't work on photo messages)
   • Photo messages: Use edit_message_caption (won't work on text-only messages)
   • You cannot change a text message to a photo or vice versa
   • The bot can only edit messages it sent itself

2. Message Search: Only searches locally cached messages from current session (Telegram Bot API limitation)

   • Messages are cached in-memory during the current session
   • Cache is cleared when the server restarts
   • You can still edit messages from previous sessions if you know the message_id

3. Message Retrieval: Telegram Bot API doesn't provide a way to fetch arbitrary messages by ID

4. Bot Permissions: Bot must be channel admin with appropriate permissions:

   • Post messages
   • Edit messages
   • Delete messages

5. Edit Time Limit: Telegram has a 48-hour limit for editing messages

6. Rate Limits: Telegram enforces rate limits on bot API calls

Troubleshooting

"Telegram bot token is required" Error

Make sure you've set the TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN environment variable or configured it in your MCP client.

"Chat not found" Error

• For public channels, ensure you use @channelname format
• For private channels, use numeric chat ID (e.g., -1001234567890)
• Verify the bot is added to the channel as an admin

"Not enough rights to send messages" Error

The bot needs admin permissions in the channel with:

• Post messages
• Edit messages
• Delete messages

"Message can't be edited" Error

This usually means:

1. Wrong edit method for message type: Use edit_message_caption for photos, edit_message for text
2. Bot didn't send the message: Bots can only edit messages they sent themselves
3. Message is too old: Telegram has a 48-hour limit for editing messages

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Add tests for new functionality
4. Ensure all tests pass
5. Submit a pull request

Resources

• Model Context Protocol Documentation
• MCP Python SDK
• Telegram Bot API Documentation
• python-telegram-bot Library

Support

For issues and questions:

• GitHub Issues: Report a bug
• MCP Discord: Join the community