Telegram

Overview

Telegram is a messaging platform with a powerful Bot API. Enbbox uses Telegram Bots to send notifications directly to users or groups.

[!IMPORTANT] Telegram requires a Bot Token from BotFather and the recipient's Chat ID. Unlike webhook-based providers, you must create a Telegram bot and have users interact with it first.

Step 1: Create a Telegram Bot

1. Open Telegram and search for @BotFather
2. Start a conversation and send /newbot
3. Choose a name for your bot (e.g., "My App Notifications")
4. Choose a username for your bot (must end in bot, e.g., myapp_notify_bot)
5. BotFather will respond with your Bot Token — save it securely

Use this token to access the HTTP API:
7123456789:AAHxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[!CAUTION] Keep your Bot Token secret. Anyone with the token can control your bot.

Step 2: Get the Chat ID

The Chat ID identifies who receives the notification — a user, group, or channel.

For a User

1. Have the user open your bot in Telegram and click Start
2. Send any message to the bot
3. Call the Telegram API to find the chat ID:

curl https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_BOT_TOKEN>/getUpdates

4. In the response, find "chat": { "id": 123456789 } — this is the user's chat ID

For a Group

1. Add your bot to the group
2. Send a message in the group
3. Call getUpdates as above — the group chat ID will be a negative number (e.g., -987654321)

For a Channel

1. Add your bot as an administrator to the channel
2. The chat ID is @channel_username or use getUpdates after posting

Step 3: Connect to Enbbox

1. Navigate to Integrations in the Enbbox dashboard
2. Click Add Provider → select Chat → Telegram
3. Enter your Bot Token from Step 1
4. Click Test Connection to verify the token is valid
5. Activate the integration

Step 4: Configure Subscriber Credentials

Store each subscriber's Telegram chat ID in their credentials:

import { SubscriberCredentialsApi, Configuration } from "@enbbox/api";

const config = new Configuration({ accessToken: "your-api-key" });
const credentialsApi = new SubscriberCredentialsApi(config);

await credentialsApi.setCredentials("subscriber-123", "telegram", {
  credentials: { chat_id: "123456789" },
});

[!NOTE] The chat_id is a numeric string. For groups it's negative (e.g., "-987654321").

Step 5: Send a Test Notification

Create a workflow with a Chat step, then trigger it:

import { EventsApi, Configuration } from "@enbbox/api";

const config = new Configuration({ accessToken: "your-api-key" });
const eventsApi = new EventsApi(config);

await eventsApi.triggerEvent({
  name: "welcome-message",
  to: { subscriberId: "subscriber-123" },
  payload: { message: "Hello from Enbbox! 🎉" },
});

Troubleshooting