Telegram Channel Plugin

The Telegram channel plugin is an alert_deliver plugin that sends alert messages to Telegram chats through the Telegram Bot API. It receives Core-rendered messages and adapts them to Telegram transport.

Highlights

• Sends messages with bot token and chat id configuration.
• Supports plain, HTML, and MarkdownV2 parse modes.
• Provides disable-notification, protected-content, timeout, retry, and backoff settings.
• Separates bot-token validation from optional test-chat message delivery in health checks.

Before Registration

• Prepare a BotFather-issued bot token and target chat id.
• For groups or supergroups, confirm that the bot can send messages.
• Review escaping rules before enabling formatted parse modes.

Operations Tips

• Bot tokens are sensitive and must not appear in health or action responses.
• Core-rendered plain text is the safest default.
• Telegram does not provide a universal idempotency key; use Core delivery sessions when investigating duplicates.

Operator Views

• Channel settings cover bot token, chat id, parse mode, notification/protected-content options, timeout, and retry policy.
• Telegram has no standalone channel page. Draft diagnostics appear in the registration/edit form and test-result details.
• The form assistant previews the selected chat source, rendered message, parse mode, message length, retry schedule, and rate-limit hints without calling Telegram.
• Connection tests separate bot-token validation from sending a test message to the target chat.
• Delivery results connect Telegram API responses with Core delivery sessions to narrow failure causes.

Delivery Model And Limits

• The plugin converts Core-rendered text into Telegram messages.
• HTML and MarkdownV2 parse modes can fail on escaping, so plain text is the most reliable choice for critical operational alerts.
• Telegram rate limits and group permissions are downstream-provider policies; check both channel settings and bot permissions.
• Thread/topic routing, interactive buttons, file upload, and bot command workflows are outside the current CE channel scope.

Example Workflows

• If messages do not send, check bot-token validity, chat id, group permissions, and Telegram API error codes.
• If the preview looks correct but no message arrives, run the connection test, then send a synthetic test message to test_chat_id.
• For formatting failures, switch to plain text to confirm delivery, then adjust escaping.
• For duplicate messages, review Core delivery sessions, retry history, and Telegram API timeout behavior together.