Bots & chats

Bots send your notifications; chats receive them. You can add any number of both and mix them freely in connections.

Bots

Creating a bot

  1. In Telegram, open a chat with @BotFather.
  2. Send /newbot and follow the prompts: pick a display name, then a username ending in bot.
  3. BotFather replies with a token that looks like 123456789:AAExampleTokenString.

Adding the bot to the plugin

In CF7 Telegram → Bots & Chats, click Add bot, give it a label, and paste the token. The token is validated against the Telegram API on save and the bot's profile is fetched — if the token is wrong, you'll know right away.

You can add multiple bots — useful when different sites, brands, or teams should message from different senders.

Keep tokens secret. Anyone with the token can send messages as your bot. If a token leaks, revoke it with BotFather (/revoke) and save the new one in the plugin.

Chats

A chat is anywhere the bot can deliver a message:

TypeNotes
Private chatStart a chat with your bot and press Start first — bots can't message you before that.
Group / supergroupAdd the bot as a member.
Supergroup topic (thread)Add the bot to the supergroup, then set the optional thread ID on the chat so messages land in that specific topic.
ChannelAdd the bot as an administrator with permission to post.

Detecting chat IDs

You don't need to hunt for chat IDs manually:

  1. Add the bot to the target chat (or message it directly for a private chat) and send any message there.
  2. In Bots & Chats, click Detect chats and pick the bot.
  3. The plugin lists every chat the bot has recently seen — pick the right one and it's saved with the correct ID.

If detection doesn't show your chat, send a fresh message in that chat and detect again — Telegram only exposes recent updates.

Entering a chat ID manually

If you already know the ID, you can enter it directly. Group and channel IDs are negative numbers (channels/supergroups usually start with -100), private chat IDs are positive.

Supergroup topics

For forums (supergroups with topics enabled), set the thread ID on the chat. Each topic has its own thread ID — the easiest way to get it is from a topic message link: in https://t.me/c/1234567890/45/123, the middle number (45) is the thread ID.

Testing

Every chat row has a Send test action that delivers a test message immediately — use it to confirm the bot has access before wiring up a connection.