telegram-bot-builder

# Telegram Bot Builder Comprehensive guidance for building Telegram bots using the Bot API (v9.4). Covers both Node.js and Python ecosystems with production-ready patterns for authentication, messaging, keyboards, media handling, payments, inline mode, webhooks, and deployment. ## When to Use This Skill Use this skill when: - Building a new Telegram bot from scratch - Integrating Telegram messaging into an existing application - Setting up webhooks or long polling for bot updates - Creating interactive menus with inline keyboards and callback queries - Handling media (photos, videos, documents, stickers) - Implementing Telegram Payments or Telegram Stars - Building inline mode functionality - Managing groups, channels, or forum topics via bot - Deploying bots to production (Docker, PM2, serverless) ## Core Concepts ### Authentication Every bot has a unique token obtained from [@BotFather](https://t.me/BotFather). Token format: `123456:ABC-DEF1234ghIkl-zyx57W2v1u123ew11`. All API calls go to: `https://api.telegram.org/bot<TOKEN>/METHOD_NAME` ```bash # .env file BOT_TOKEN=123456:ABC-DEF1234ghIkl-zyx57W2v1u123ew11 ``` Store the token in environment variables. Never commit it to source code. ### Receiving Updates: Polling vs Webhook **Long Polling** (`getUpdates`) - Simpler, no HTTPS required, ideal for development: ```javascript // Node.js with node-telegram-bot-api const bot = new TelegramBot(process.env.BOT_TOKEN, { polling: true }); ``` ```python # Python with py...