Telegram

The Telegram notifier sends messages through a Telegram bot. One bot token and one chat_id point at one destination: a direct chat, a group, or a channel.

[notifiers.tg-oncall]
type      = "telegram"
bot_token = "${TG_BOT_TOKEN}"
chat_id   = "-1001234567890"

Fields

Key	Required	What it does
bot_token	yes	The bot token. Keep it out of the file; see Storing the secret.
chat_id	yes	Where to send. A string, so negative group ids stay intact.
parse_mode	no	Telegram’s parse mode. Default HTML, which the built-in template uses.
template_path	no	A Go template file that replaces the built-in message.

Creating the bot

Message @BotFather in Telegram:

1. Send /newbot.
2. Pick a display name.
3. Pick a username ending in bot, like runwisp_ops_bot.
4. BotFather replies with a token like 123456789:AAEa-PXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Save it.

Anyone with the token can post as your bot, so treat it as a secret.

Finding the chat_id

First make the bot see a message in the chat you want:

• Direct chat: send your bot a message.
• Group: add the bot to the group and send any message there.
• Channel: add the bot as an administrator with “Post Messages” permission, then post a message.

Then open this URL with your token:

https://api.telegram.org/bot<TOKEN>/getUpdates

Find "chat": { "id": ... } in the JSON. A direct chat has a positive number like 123456789. Groups have negative ids, and channels and supergroups start with -100, like -1001234567890.

To send some tasks to another chat with the same bot, use "tg-oncall:<chat id>" in notify; see One channel, several destinations.

When messages don’t arrive

If the bell shows a notify.delivery_failed warning, it includes Telegram’s error. Common causes:

• A wrong chat_id: Telegram answers 400 Bad Request: chat not found.
• The bot isn’t in the group, or can’t post in the channel.
• A bad token. Check it with curl https://api.telegram.org/bot<TOKEN>/getMe, which returns the bot’s profile when the token is valid.

What a message looks like

❌ backup-postgres failed

Exited with code 1 after 0.3s.
Triggered via the REST API · 14 May, 17:11.

> Error: connection refused
> dial tcp 127.0.0.1:5432: connect:
> connection refused

🔗 View full run

from runwisp · bright-falcon

• The output block appears for failures and timeouts, up to three lines or 300 bytes, when there is a log.
• The View full run link points at <external_url>/tasks/<task>/<run id> and appears only when external_url is set.
• The footer names the daemon that sent it.

Changing the message

Point template_path at your own Go template. Start from the built-in telegram.tmpl.html. It gets the whole event and the same helpers as the Slack template.

The built-in template is HTML. To write yours in Markdown, set parse_mode = "MarkdownV2" together with template_path.

What’s rejected

• A missing or empty bot_token or chat_id.
• parse_mode = "MarkdownV2" without template_path.