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On this page

You first have to create a Telegram bot to get credentials. Once you have them you can add these to your `credentials.yml`.

## Getting Credentials

**How to get the Telegram credentials:** You need to set up a Telegram bot.

1. To create the bot, go to [Bot Father](https://web.telegram.org/#/im?p=@BotFather), enter `/newbot` and follow the instructions. The URL that Telegram should send messages to will look like `http://<host>:<port>/webhooks/telegram/webhook`, replacing the host and port with the appropriate values from your running Rasa server.

2. At the end you should get your `access_token` and the username you set will be your `verify`.

3. If you want to use your bot in a group setting, it's advisable to turn on group privacy mode by entering `/setprivacy`. Then the bot will only listen when a user's message starts with `/bot`.

For more information, check out the [Telegram HTTP API](https://core.telegram.org/bots/api).

## Running on Telegram

Add the Telegram credentials to your `credentials.yml`:

```yaml
telegram:
  access_token: "490161424:AAGlRxinBRtKGb21_rlOEMtDFZMXBl6EC0o"
  verify: "your_bot"
  webhook_url: "https://your_url.com/webhooks/telegram/webhook"
```

Restart your Rasa server to make the new channel endpoint available for Telegram to send messages to.

Handling `/start` message

At the beginning of a conversation, the user will press the 'Start' button in Telegram. This will trigger a message with the content _/start_ to be sent. Make sure your bot can handle this intro message by designing a specific intent in the nlu training data file. Then add this `start` intent to the domain alongside a story or rule to handle it.

## Supported Response Attachments

In addition to standard `text:` responses, this channel also supports the following components from the [Telegram API](https://core.telegram.org/bots/api/#message):

- `button`arguments:
  - button_type: inline | vertical | reply
- `custom`arguments:
  - photo
  - audio
  - document
  - sticker
  - video
  - video_note
  - animation
  - voice
  - media
  - latitude, longitude (location)
  - latitude, longitude, title, address (venue)
  - phone_number
  - game_short_name
  - action

Examples:

```yaml
  utter_ask_transfer_form_confirm:
  - buttons:
    - payload: /affirm
      title: Yes
    - payload: /deny
      title: No, cancel the transaction
    button_type: vertical
    text: Would you like to transfer {currency}{amount_of_money} to {PERSON}?
    image: "https://i.imgur.com/nGF1K8f.jpg"
```

```yaml
  utter_giraffe_sticker:
  - text: Here's my giraffe sticker!
    custom:
      sticker: "https://github.com/TelegramBots/book/raw/master/src/docs/sticker-fred.webp"
```

- [Getting Credentials](/content/docs/reference/channels/telegram/#getting-credentials/index.html)
- [Running on Telegram](/content/docs/reference/channels/telegram/#running-on-telegram/index.html)
- [Supported Response Attachments](/content/docs/reference/channels/telegram/#supported-response-attachments/index.html)