setup-botlisted
Install: claude install-skill n24q02m/better-telegram-mcp
# Setup Bot -- Error Diagnosis
Diagnose and fix Telegram bot connectivity issues. This skill assumes the bot already exists in BotFather -- focus is on getting it working with better-telegram-mcp.
## Steps
1. **Verify connection status**:
- `config(action="status")` to check current bot token and connection state
- If status shows "not configured", the user needs to set `TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN` env var and restart the MCP server (token is NOT runtime-configurable)
2. **Test send to obtain chat_id**:
- `chat(action="list")` to see known chats
- If no chats appear, instruct user to send any message to the bot first (the bot must receive at least one message to discover chat_id)
- Send test: `message(action="send", chat_id="<id>", text="Connection test")`
3. **Diagnose errors** using the flowchart below
## Error Diagnosis Flowchart
```
Send fails
|
+-- HTTP 403 "Forbidden: bot was blocked by the user"
| -> User blocked the bot. They must unblock it in Telegram.
|
+-- HTTP 403 "Forbidden: bot is not a member of the channel/group"
| -> Bot not added to the group/channel.
| -> For groups: add bot as member via group settings.
| -> For channels: add bot as admin (channels require admin for posting).
|
+-- HTTP 400 "Bad Request: chat not found"
| -> Wrong chat_id format.
| -> Groups use negative IDs (e.g., -1001234567890).
| -> Channels use negative IDs or @channel_username.
| -> Users use positive numeric