Connector · Messaging and email

Telegram, in every client’s workflows.

Send a message, send a photo, or start when a message is sent to the bot, with the client’s own Telegram account.

Triggers: 1start a workflow
Actions: 3steps in a workflow

Start a workflow when something happens in TelegramBeta

By webhook where Telegram sends one, by checking where it does not. A webhook is checked once a day to see it is still on, and if Telegram turns it off the alert carries a Reconnect button.

A message is sent to the botWebhookA message to the bot, within seconds. A bot sends its messages to one place: one workflow per bot, and no other tool may use the same bot’s updates. In a group, the bot sees only commands, replies and mentions unless privacy mode is off (BotFather).

Do it in Telegram

A step with its own fields: values from the run go in by name, and what Telegram answers is there for the next step.

Send a messageMessage a chat, group or channel the bot is in.
Send a photoA picture from a web address (an earlier step’s link, a public URL), up to 4.5 MB, with an optional caption.
Send a fileA file from a web address (a PDF, an invoice, a report), up to 4.5 MB, with an optional caption.

Connect the client’s Telegram

On the client’s page in Thrum: Add credential, type Telegram bot token.

In Telegram, message @BotFather → /newbot → copy the token. Add the bot to the client’s group, or have the client message it once.

The key is stored encrypted and bound to that client: another client’s workflow cannot use it, and no template or pack copies it.

Telegram’s API documentation

Via HTTP

Or by web request: send a message to a chat

Owners who live in Telegram get the lead on their phone the moment it arrives. The web request step, filled in: paste it, swap in the client’s ids, add their key.

01
Add the client’s credential
On the client’s page in Thrum: Add credential, type API key. In Telegram, message @BotFather → /newbot → copy the token. Add the bot to the client’s group, or have the owner send it one message first.
```
{
  "api_key": "123456789:AA…"
}
```
02
Add a web request step
Name it “Message the owner”, set it as here, and pick the credential. Values in double braces are read from the run: here, the lead the form brought in.
CHAT_ID
The chat’s number (a group’s starts with -100), or @channelname for a public channel. Send the bot a message, then open api.telegram.org/bot<token>/getUpdates and read chat.id.
```
{
  "method": "POST",
  "url": "https://api.telegram.org/bot{{ credential.api_key }}/sendMessage",
  "body": {
    "chat_id": "CHAT_ID",
    "text": "New lead: {{ lead.name }}, {{ lead.phone }}. {{ lead.summary }}"
  }
}
```

What goes out, and what comes back

The token is part of the address; the engine keeps it out of the run’s record.

POST https://api.telegram.org/bot••••••••/sendMessage
content-type: application/json

{
  "chat_id": "CHAT_ID",
  "text": "New lead: Nadia Karim, +447700900222. Quote for a new bathroom, two basins and a shower"
}

200
{
  "ok": true,
  "result": {
    "message_id": 42,
    "chat": {
      "id": -1001234567890,
      "type": "supergroup"
    },
    "date": 1790582700,
    "text": "New lead: Nadia Karim, +447700900222. Quote for a new bathroom, two basins and a shower"
  }
}

Watched like everything else

When Telegram stops answering or refuses the client’s key, you hear about it, and your client does not.

A failing request: Tried 3 times, 5 seconds apart and doubling, only for errors a retry can fix
A service that asks for a pause: Given it, up to an hour
Requests at once, per account: 2, per worker; the rest wait their turn
Timeout: 15 seconds, unless the step sets its own
Private and internal addresses: Refused, on every redirect too
The client’s key: Encrypted, bound to the client, and kept out of every run record
A step that keeps failing: Marks the workflow Degraded and alerts you, not the client