telegram-bot-mcp 0.1.2
Telegram Bot MCP Server - publish, edit, and search messages in Telegram channels
Requires Python: >=3.10
Keywords: bot, mcp, model-context-protocol, server, telegram

# 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](https://t.me/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

```bash
# 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

```bash
# 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:

```bash
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`

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

Or if installed via uv:

```json
{
  "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:**
```json
{
  "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:**
```json
{
  "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:**
```json
{
  "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

```bash
# 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

```bash
# Type checking
mypy telegram_bot

# Linting
ruff check .

# Formatting
ruff format .
```

### Running the Server Locally

For testing purposes, you can run the server directly:

```bash
# 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](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/)
- [MCP Python SDK](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/python-sdk)
- [Telegram Bot API Documentation](https://core.telegram.org/bots/api)
- [python-telegram-bot Library](https://python-telegram-bot.readthedocs.io/)

## Support

For issues and questions:
- GitHub Issues: [Report a bug](https://github.com/synteles/telegram-bot-mcp/issues)
- MCP Discord: [Join the community](https://discord.gg/mcp)