tgbot #

tgbot is a Dart CLI that connects Telegram bots to the Codex CLI. It long-polls Telegram, forwards authorized messages into Codex, preserves a per-chat thread, and sends text, files, and images back to Telegram.

Install #

dart pub global activate tgbot

Requirements #

• Dart SDK installed
• Codex CLI installed and available on PATH unless you override codex_cmd
• A Telegram bot token from @BotFather
• Your Telegram user ID

Quick Start #

Initialize a config:

tgbot init

Edit tgbot.yaml:

bots:
  - name: my-bot
    telegram_bot_token: "YOUR_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN"
    allowed_user_id: 123456789
    project_path: /absolute/path/to/project

Validate it:

tgbot validate

Start the bridge:

tgbot start

CLI #

tgbot <command> [options]

Global flags:

Examples:

tgbot start
tgbot start -c custom.yaml

tgbot init
tgbot init -o other.yaml

tgbot validate
tgbot validate -c custom.yaml

tgbot upgrade

Getting Telegram Credentials #

Bot token #

1. Open Telegram and find @BotFather.
2. Run /newbot.
3. Follow the prompts.
4. Copy the token into telegram_bot_token.

User ID #

1. Open Telegram and find @userinfobot.
2. Send it any message.
3. Copy the numeric ID into allowed_user_id.

Only this user ID can interact with the configured bot.

Configuration #

tgbot loads one YAML file, defaulting to tgbot.yaml.

Top-level keys:

• bots (required): non-empty list of bot definitions.
• defaults (optional): shared values inherited by each bot.

Minimal config #

bots:
  - name: my-bot
    telegram_bot_token: "YOUR_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN"
    allowed_user_id: 123456789
    project_path: /absolute/path/to/project

Config with shared defaults #

defaults:
  codex_cmd: codex
  codex_args:
    - --model
    - gpt-5
  codex_allow_dirs:
    - ~/Workspace/shared
  poll_timeout_sec: 60
  codex_timeout_sec: 1000

bots:
  - name: repo-a
    telegram_bot_token: "TOKEN_A"
    allowed_user_id: 123456789
    project_path: /absolute/path/to/repo-a

  - name: repo-b
    telegram_bot_token: "TOKEN_B"
    allowed_user_id: 123456789
    project_path: /absolute/path/to/repo-b
    additional_system_prompt: |
      Keep answers brief and focus on production issues.

Bot fields #

Notes:

• defaults values are used when a bot omits that key.
• project_path can be inherited from defaults, but every bot must have an effective value.
• codex_args accepts either a YAML list or a whitespace-delimited string.
• codex_allow_dirs accepts either a YAML list or a comma-delimited string.
• Built-in /start and /new commands are always present. If you redefine them in telegram_commands, your definition wins.

Custom Telegram Commands #

You can register additional slash commands that map to prompt templates:

bots:
  - name: my-bot
    telegram_bot_token: "YOUR_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN"
    allowed_user_id: 123456789
    project_path: /absolute/path/to/project
    telegram_commands:
      - command: review
        description: Review the current branch and list bugs first.
      - command: fix
        description: Fix this issue: {args}

Behavior:

• Telegram shows these commands via setMyCommands.
• Command names must match ^[a-z0-9_]{1,32}$.
• If description contains {args}, the message text after the command replaces that placeholder.
• Otherwise the command arguments are appended after the description.

Examples:

• /review -> Review the current branch and list bugs first.
• /fix login race -> Fix this issue: login race

Runtime Behavior #

• One polling loop runs per configured bot.
• Only messages from allowed_user_id are processed.
• /start returns usage help plus all registered commands.
• /new resets the saved Codex thread for that Telegram chat.
• Any other text message is sent to Codex.
• The current Codex thread ID is stored per chat, so follow-up messages continue the same conversation until /new.

When invoking Codex, tgbot currently runs:

codex ...args exec --skip-git-repo-check --json <prompt>

If a thread already exists for the chat, it instead resumes with:

codex ...args exec resume --skip-git-repo-check --json <thread_id> <prompt>

Streaming and Replies #

tgbot reads Codex JSON output incrementally and forwards assistant messages to Telegram as they arrive. It also:

• keeps Telegram's typing indicator active while Codex is running
• avoids re-sending duplicate streamed messages
• chunks long Telegram messages at newline or word boundaries
• falls back to the final parsed message if Codex only emits a completed result

File and Image Delivery #

tgbot can send local artifacts back to Telegram in the same response flow.

Preferred mechanism:

TG_ARTIFACT: {"kind":"image","path":"artifacts/plot.png","caption":"Latest chart"}

Supported artifact detection:

• TG_ARTIFACT: {...} marker lines
• standalone JSON artifact objects in Codex output
• local Markdown image/link syntax when no explicit artifact marker is present

Rules:

• image files are uploaded with sendPhoto
• non-image files are uploaded with sendDocument
• relative paths are resolved from project_path
• artifact paths must stay inside project_path
• missing files and path traversal are rejected

Error Handling #

• Telegram API calls retry up to 3 times on HTTP 429
• retry_after is respected when Telegram provides it
• empty outgoing messages are skipped
• Codex process failures and timeouts are returned to the Telegram chat as errors
• bot tokens are never logged

Project Layout #

• bin/tgbot.dart: CLI entry point and subcommands
• lib/tgbot.dart: public package exports
• lib/src/app.dart: bridge runtime and message routing
• lib/src/config.dart: YAML parsing and validation
• lib/src/codex/codex_runner.dart: Codex process execution and output parsing
• lib/src/telegram/telegram_client.dart: Telegram Bot API client
• lib/src/session/session_store.dart: in-memory per-chat thread state
• lib/src/models/telegram_models.dart: Telegram API models

Development #

Validate package metadata and code locally with standard Dart tooling:

dart analyze
dart test

dart test requires tests to exist in the package. At the moment this repository does not include a test/ directory.

License #

MIT. See LICENSE.