Telegram MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that enables LLMs to send notifications via Telegram and receive user responses.

Features

Send text notifications to a Telegram chat with customizable urgency levels
Wait for and retrieve user responses
Integrates with Cline and other MCP-compatible LLM applications

Prerequisites

Node.js 16 or higher
A Telegram bot token (obtained from @BotFather)
Your Telegram chat ID

Installation

From npm (recommended)

npm install -g telegram-mcp

From GitHub

git clone https://github.com/CHarrisTech/telegram-mcp.git
cd telegram-mcp
npm install
npm run build

Configuration

The server requires two environment variables:

TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN: Your Telegram bot token
TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID: Your Telegram chat ID

Getting a Telegram Bot Token

Start a chat with @BotFather on Telegram
Send the command /newbot
Follow the instructions to create a new bot
BotFather will provide you with a token for your new bot

Finding Your Chat ID

Start a chat with your new bot
Send a message to the bot
Visit https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_BOT_TOKEN>/getUpdates
Look for the chat object in the response and note the id field

Usage

Running Standalone

# Set environment variables
export TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN="your_bot_token"
export TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID="your_chat_id"

# Run the server
telegram-mcp

Integrating with Cline

Add the following to your Cline MCP settings file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "telegram-mcp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["path/to/telegram-mcp/build/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN": "your_bot_token",
        "TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID": "your_chat_id"
      },
      "disabled": false,
      "autoApprove": []
    }
  }
}

Integrating with Claude Desktop

Add the following to your Claude Desktop config file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "telegram-mcp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["path/to/telegram-mcp/build/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN": "your_bot_token",
        "TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID": "your_chat_id"
      },
      "disabled": false,
      "autoApprove": []
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

send_notification

Sends a notification message to the configured Telegram chat.

Parameters:

message (required): The message to send to the user
project (required): The name of the project the LLM is working on
urgency (optional): The urgency level ("low", "medium", or "high")

check_notification_response

Checks if the user has responded to a previously sent notification.

Parameters:

message_id (required): The ID of the message to check for responses
timeout_seconds (optional): How long to wait for a response before giving up (default: 30)

Development

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/CHarrisTech/telegram-mcp.git
cd telegram-mcp

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the project
npm run build

# Watch for changes during development
npm run watch

# Test with the MCP Inspector
npm run inspector

Testing Locally

The repository includes scripts to help you test the server locally:

Windows

# Set environment variables
set TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=your_bot_token
set TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID=your_chat_id

# Run the test script
test-server.bat

macOS/Linux

# Set environment variables
export TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=your_bot_token
export TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID=your_chat_id

# Make the script executable (first time only)
chmod +x test-server.sh

# Run the test script
./test-server.sh

Examples

The examples directory contains sample code demonstrating how to use the Telegram MCP server:

programmatic-usage.js: Shows how to use the server programmatically in your own Node.js applications

To run an example:

# Set required environment variables
export TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN="your_bot_token"
export TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID="your_chat_id"

# Run the example
node examples/programmatic-usage.js

License

MIT