How to Create a Telegram Bot and Send Messages

This guide will walk you through creating a Telegram bot, retrieving your chat ID, and sending messages using the telegram-owl CLI tool.

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Step 1: Create a Telegram Bot and Get a Token

1. Open Telegram application then search for @BotFather or click here

2. Click Start

3. Click Menu -> /newbot or type /newbot and hit Send

4. Follow the instructions:

   • Choose a name for your bot
   • Choose a username (must end with bot, e.g. SpaceCatNotificationsBot)

5. You will receive a response like:

   Done! Congratulations on your new bot. You will find it at t.me/SpaceCatNotificationsBot.
   
   Use this token to access the HTTP API:
   123456789:ABCdefGhIJkLmNoPQRstuVWXyz12345678
   

6. Copy and securely store the token. This is your bot's authentication key — do not share it publicly.

   

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Step 2: Get Chat ID for a Private Chat (1-on-1)

1. Open a chat with your new bot in Telegram

2. Click Start and send any message (e.g. "hello")

   

3. In your browser, open the following URL (replace {TOKEN} with your actual bot token):

   https://api.telegram.org/bot{TOKEN}/getUpdates
   

   Example:

   https://api.telegram.org/bot123456789:ABCdefGhIJkLmNoPQRstuVWXyz12345678/getUpdates
   

4. You'll see a JSON response like this (if not, send another message to the bot and refresh the page):

   

5. Find the chat id value inside result[0].message.chat.id.
   This is your chat ID, e.g. 1122445.

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✅ Test It!

Once you have your bot token and chat ID, you can send your first message using:

telegram-owl --token=123456789:ABCdef --chat=1122445 --message="🚀 Hello from Telegram Owl!"

You’re ready to go! 🦉

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For more advanced usage, you can find information on how to get chat id for a channel, group chat, or a topic in a group chat in the following sections:

📢 Get Chat ID for a Channel

1. Add your Telegram bot into a channel

2. Send a random message to the channel

3. Visit the same URL:

   https://api.telegram.org/bot{TOKEN}/getUpdates
   

4. Look for a JSON response like:

   {
     "ok": true,
     "result": [
       {
         "channel_post": {
           "chat": {
             "id": -1001234567890,
             "title": "My Channel",
             "type": "channel"
           },
           "text": "Test message"
         }
       }
     ]
   }
   

5. The chat.id is your channel ID. Channel IDs start with -100, e.g. -1001234567890.

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👥 Get Chat ID for a Group Chat

This method works best using the Telegram desktop app.

1. Add your bot to the group chat

2. Send a message to the group

3. Right-click on the message and select Copy Message Link

4. The link looks like this:

   https://t.me/c/194xxxx987/11/13
   

5. The number after /c/ is your group ID: 194xxxx987
   To use it in the API, prefix it with -100, resulting in: -100194xxxx987

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🧵 Get Topic ID for a Group Chat (Forum Thread)

To send a message to a specific topic (thread) inside a group chat:

1. Copy a message link from the topic using Copy Message Link

2. Example link:

   https://t.me/c/194xxxx987/11/13
   

3. The number after /c/194xxxx987/ is the topic ID: 11

Use this ID with the --thread flag in telegram-owl.