ProxyAI

Telegram

Telegram connection walkthrough

One Visit to BotFather, One Paste

Telegram only lets bots be created inside Telegram itself, by chatting with an account called @BotFather, that is true for every service, not just ProxyAI. So the dialog opens with a short walkthrough that gets it done in about ninety seconds and one paste.

Open Configurations → Channels in the dashboard sidebar, and on the Telegram card choose Configure.

The walkthrough at the top, Create your bot (about 90 seconds), gives you:

  1. An Open BotFather button that takes you straight to that chat.
  2. A one-tap copy of the /newbot command to send there.
  3. A prompt for the display name, anything you like.
  4. A prompt for the username, Telegram requires it to end in bot, for example acme_support_bot.
  5. BotFather's reply, which contains the code you paste back here.

The walkthrough disappears once you have saved a bot, so a set-up channel shows only its settings.

Treat that code like a password. If it ever gets out, send /revoke to BotFather, take the new code, and save it here.

Fill In the Dialog

Bot Token, paste the code BotFather sent you. This is the only thing you must fill in.

Bot Username, without the @. ProxyAI checks the real username with Telegram when you save, so a small mistake here corrects itself.

Privacy Mode, this tells ProxyAI what to expect in group chats. The setting itself lives in BotFather, not here.

  • Group Privacy on (Telegram default), in groups the bot only sees commands, replies to its own messages, and messages that @mention it.
  • All group messages, the bot sees everything said in a group. To actually get that, first send /setprivacy to BotFather and choose Disable, then remove the bot from each group and add it back. A bot that is a group admin always sees everything anyway.

Menu Button and Inline Keyboard, you can set these now, but the bot's replies do not show buttons yet, so expect no visible change in Telegram today.

What Happens When You Save

ProxyAI checks the code with Telegram and connects your bot for you. There is nothing to paste back into BotFather.

If saving fails:

  • Invalid token, the code was replaced or cancelled after you copied it. Get a fresh one from BotFather.
  • Webhook failed, the code was fine but the connection did not complete, usually a passing glitch. Save again.

Test It

Open your bot in Telegram, send it a message, and check the reply. Then add it to a group and confirm it behaves the way you chose under Privacy Mode. This is the setting most often misread: changing it in BotFather does not affect groups the bot is already in, remove and re-add it there.

Very long answers are trimmed to fit Telegram's message limit rather than failing to send.