How do I install the Telegram skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add laude-institute/telegram in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

What does the Telegram skill do?

Send and receive messages via the Telegram Bot API using curl It is listed under Integrations & APIs on SkillMD.

Is Telegram safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Telegram?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Telegram free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Telegram?

laude-institute (@laude-institute) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Telegram by laude-institute — Agent Skill

Name: Telegram
Author: laude-institute

File contents

Instructions

Use this skill to interact with Telegram via the Bot API. All operations use curl against https://api.telegram.org/bot<TOKEN>/....

Prerequisites

The environment variable TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN must be set to a valid Telegram Bot API token (obtained from @BotFather). The variable TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID should be set to the target chat/group/channel ID for sending messages.

Sending a message

curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}/sendMessage" \
  -d chat_id="${TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID}" \
  -d text="Hello from shellm" \
  -d parse_mode=Markdown

Sending a file/document

curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}/sendDocument" \
  -F chat_id="${TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID}" \
  -F document=@/path/to/file.txt

Getting updates (receiving messages)

Poll for new messages using getUpdates. Use offset to acknowledge previously seen updates and only receive new ones.

# Get latest updates
curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}/getUpdates" \
  -d limit=10 \
  -d timeout=0

# Acknowledge up to update_id 12345 and get only newer updates
curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}/getUpdates" \
  -d offset=12346 \
  -d limit=10

Parse the JSON response with jq:

curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}/getUpdates" \
  | jq -r '.result[] | "\(.update_id) \(.message.from.username): \(.message.text)"'

Replying to a specific message

curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}/sendMessage" \
  -d chat_id="${TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID}" \
  -d text="Reply text" \
  -d reply_to_message_id=MESSAGE_ID

Getting chat info

curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}/getChat" \
  -d chat_id="${TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID}" | jq .

Error handling

All Telegram API responses return JSON with an ok field. Check it:

response=$(curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}/sendMessage" \
  -d chat_id="${TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID}" \
  -d text="test")
if [ "$(echo "$response" | jq -r '.ok')" != "true" ]; then
  echo "Telegram API error: $(echo "$response" | jq -r '.description')" >&2
fi

Rate limits

Telegram limits bots to ~30 messages/second to different chats, and ~20 messages/minute to the same chat. Add short delays between batch sends.

---name: telegramdescription: Send and receive messages via the Telegram Bot API using curl---# telegram## InstructionsUse this skill to interact with Telegram via the Bot API. All operations use`curl` against `https://api.telegram.org/bot<TOKEN>/...`.### PrerequisitesThe environment variable `TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN` must be set to a valid TelegramBot API token (obtained from @BotFather). The variable `TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID` shouldbe set to the target chat/group/channel ID for sending messages.### Sending a message```bashcurl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}/sendMessage" \ -d chat_id="${TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID}" \ -d text="Hello from shellm" \ -d parse_mode=Markdown```### Sending a file/document```bashcurl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}/sendDocument" \ -F chat_id="${TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID}" \ -F document=@/path/to/file.txt```### Getting updates (receiving messages)Poll for new messages using `getUpdates`. Use `offset` to acknowledgepreviously seen updates and only receive new ones.```bash# Get latest updatescurl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}/getUpdates" \ -d limit=10 \ -d timeout=0# Acknowledge up to update_id 12345 and get only newer updatescurl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}/getUpdates" \ -d offset=12346 \ -d limit=10```Parse the JSON response with `jq`:```bashcurl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}/getUpdates" \ | jq -r '.result[] | "\(.update_id) \(.message.from.username): \(.message.text)"'```### Replying to a specific message```bashcurl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}/sendMessage" \ -d chat_id="${TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID}" \ -d text="Reply text" \ -d reply_to_message_id=MESSAGE_ID```### Getting chat info```bashcurl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}/getChat" \ -d chat_id="${TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID}" | jq .```### Error handlingAll Telegram API responses return JSON with an `ok` field. Check it:```bashresponse=$(curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}/sendMessage" \ -d chat_id="${TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID}" \ -d text="test")if [ "$(echo "$response" | jq -r '.ok')" != "true" ]; then echo "Telegram API error: $(echo "$response" | jq -r '.description')" >&2fi```### Rate limitsTelegram limits bots to ~30 messages/second to different chats, and ~20messages/minute to the same chat. Add short delays between batch sends.

Frequently asked questions

Telegram