Sending a notification message to Telegram using its HTTP API via cURL

readme.md

1. Create a bot
2. Get the bot's API token from @BotFather
3. Add your bot to the chat you'll be sending messages to
4. Get the ID of the chat
   a. Fetch bot updates and look for the chat id:

   curl https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/getUpdates | -r '.result[].message.chat.id'

   b. OR, run bot.rb and @-mention your bot in the chat. The chat id will appear in bot.rb's output.
   The bot may need temporary message access: @BotFather > Bot Settings > Group Privacy > Turn off
5. Send a message using the HTTP API: https://core.telegram.org/bots/api#sendmessage

   curl -X POST \
        -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
        -d '{"chat_id": "123456789", "text": "This is a test from curl", "disable_notification": true}' \
        https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/sendMessage

bot.rb

# Use this script to test that your Telegram bot works.
#
# Install the dependency
#
#   $ gem install telegram_bot
#
# Run the bot
#
#   $ ruby bot.rb
#
# Send a message to the bot to get the current chat's ID in the console output.
# If it's a group chat, invite them to the chat first.

require 'logger'
require 'telegram_bot'

TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN = "YOUR_BOT_API_TOKEN"

bot = TelegramBot.new(token: TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN, logger: Logger.new(STDOUT))

bot.get_updates(fail_silently: true) do |message|
  puts "@#{message.from.username}: #{message.text}"
  puts "Chat-ID: #{message.chat.id}"
end

Instead of:

curl https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/getUpdates | jq .message.chat.id

I think it should be:

curl https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/getUpdates | jq 'result[].message.chat.id'

Instead of:

curl https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/getUpdates | jq .message.chat.id

I think it should be:

curl https://api.telegram.org/bot$7040428535:AAH-RtS-yODyP-CIbZrEr433Y2xrLuP13vk/getUpdates | jq 'result[].message.chat.id'

hi guys, is it possible to get the bot's API token from @Botfather NOT through telegram but using some api? I need to create bots automatically in my .net app

its possible with account api, instead of bot api.

Found myself in need to send an arbitrary text with unicode and quotes, the original example didn't work.

Here is updated one, forcing jq to do all of the string escaping:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# noti-bot - send notification in telegram
# Usage:
#   echo "your text" | noti-bot
# or
#   noti-bot "your text" | noti-bot

API=yours
chat_id=yours

if [[ -n "$1" ]]; then
    msg="$1"
else
    msg="$(cat)"
fi


# to escape " and unicode, no, printf is not enough, neither is multiple -d for curl
data="$(echo '{"chat_id": "aaa", "text": "aaa", "disable_notification": false}' |
    jq --arg msg "$msg" --arg chat "$chat_id" '{"chat_id": $ARGS.named.chat, "text": $ARGS.named.msg, "disable_notification": false}')"

# echo "$data"

ans="$(curl -s --tlsv1.2 -X POST \
     -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
     -d "$data" \
     https://api.telegram.org/bot$API/sendMessage)"

if [[ "$(echo "$ans" | jq -r '.ok')" != "true" ]]; then
    echo "$ans" | jq -r '"error \(.error_code) - \(.description)"'
fi

Demo:

echo -e 'Nope!";$(pwd)"\nyes - приветこんにちは' | ./noti-bot

I know, I know, "at this point just use python or something". I needed it with curl.

If succesful - prints nothing.
If not - prints "error_code - error_description".

Is it possible to send a message to a telegram bot without the bot token? maybe by using username, since username is unique anyway.

Created a group, switching on themes\topics.
Got link for one topic (like this https://t.me/c/1234567890/1).
How to send message to this topic?