hermes-agent/website/docs/user-guide/messaging/telegram.md

sidebar_position	title	description
1	Telegram	Set up Hermes Agent as a Telegram bot

Telegram Setup

Hermes Agent integrates with Telegram as a full-featured conversational bot. Once connected, you can chat with your agent from any device, send voice memos that get auto-transcribed, receive scheduled task results, and use the agent in group chats. The integration is built on python-telegram-bot and supports text, voice, images, and file attachments.

Step 1: Create a Bot via BotFather

Every Telegram bot requires an API token issued by @BotFather, Telegram's official bot management tool.

1. Open Telegram and search for @BotFather, or visit t.me/BotFather
2. Send /newbot
3. Choose a display name (e.g., "Hermes Agent") — this can be anything
4. Choose a username — this must be unique and end in bot (e.g., my_hermes_bot)
5. BotFather replies with your API token. It looks like this:

123456789:ABCdefGHIjklMNOpqrSTUvwxYZ

:::warning Keep your bot token secret. Anyone with this token can control your bot. If it leaks, revoke it immediately via /revoke in BotFather. :::

Step 2: Customize Your Bot (Optional)

These BotFather commands improve the user experience. Message @BotFather and use:

Command	Purpose
/setdescription	The "What can this bot do?" text shown before a user starts chatting
/setabouttext	Short text on the bot's profile page
/setuserpic	Upload an avatar for your bot
/setcommands	Define the command menu (the / button in chat)
/setprivacy	Control whether the bot sees all group messages (see Step 3)

:::tip For /setcommands, a useful starting set:

help - Show help information
new - Start a new conversation
sethome - Set this chat as the home channel

:::

Step 3: Privacy Mode (Critical for Groups)

Telegram bots have a privacy mode that is enabled by default. This is the single most common source of confusion when using bots in groups.

With privacy mode ON, your bot can only see:

• Messages that start with a / command
• Replies directly to the bot's own messages
• Service messages (member joins/leaves, pinned messages, etc.)
• Messages in channels where the bot is an admin

With privacy mode OFF, the bot receives every message in the group.

How to disable privacy mode

1. Message @BotFather
2. Send /mybots
3. Select your bot
4. Go to Bot Settings → Group Privacy → Turn off

:::warning You must remove and re-add the bot to any group after changing the privacy setting. Telegram caches the privacy state when a bot joins a group, and it will not update until the bot is removed and re-added. :::

:::tip An alternative to disabling privacy mode: promote the bot to group admin. Admin bots always receive all messages regardless of the privacy setting, and this avoids needing to toggle the global privacy mode. :::

Step 4: Find Your User ID

Hermes Agent uses numeric Telegram user IDs to control access. Your user ID is not your username — it's a number like 123456789.

Method 1 (recommended): Message @userinfobot — it instantly replies with your user ID.

Method 2: Message @get_id_bot — another reliable option.

Save this number; you'll need it for the next step.

Step 5: Configure Hermes

Option A: Interactive Setup (Recommended)

hermes gateway setup

Select Telegram when prompted. The wizard asks for your bot token and allowed user IDs, then writes the configuration for you.

Option B: Manual Configuration

Add the following to ~/.hermes/.env:

TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=123456789:ABCdefGHIjklMNOpqrSTUvwxYZ
TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS=123456789    # Comma-separated for multiple users

Start the Gateway

hermes gateway

The bot should come online within seconds. Send it a message on Telegram to verify.

Sending Generated Files from Docker-backed Terminals

If your terminal backend is docker, keep in mind that Telegram attachments are sent by the gateway process, not from inside the container. That means the final MEDIA:/... path must be readable on the host where the gateway is running.

Common pitfall:

• the agent writes a file inside Docker to /workspace/report.txt
• the model emits MEDIA:/workspace/report.txt
• Telegram delivery fails because /workspace/report.txt only exists inside the container, not on the host

Recommended pattern:

terminal:
  backend: docker
  docker_volumes:
    - "/home/user/.hermes/cache/documents:/output"

Then:

• write files inside Docker to /output/...
• emit the host-visible path in MEDIA:, for example: MEDIA:/home/user/.hermes/cache/documents/report.txt

If you already have a docker_volumes: section, add the new mount to the same list. YAML duplicate keys silently override earlier ones.

Supported MEDIA: file extensions

The gateway extracts MEDIA:/path/to/file tags from agent replies and ships the referenced file as a platform-native attachment. Supported extensions across all gateway platforms:

Category	Extensions
Images	png, jpg, jpeg, gif, webp, bmp, tiff, svg
Audio	mp3, wav, ogg, m4a, opus, flac, aac
Video	mp4, mov, webm, mkv, avi
Documents	pdf, txt, md, csv, json, xml, html, yaml, yml, log
Office	docx, xlsx, pptx, odt, ods, odp
Archives	zip, rar, 7z, tar, gz, bz2
Books / packages	epub, apk, ipa

Anything on this list delivered as a native attachment on platforms that support it (Telegram, Discord, Signal, Slack, WhatsApp, Feishu, Matrix, etc.); on platforms without native support it falls back to a link or plain-text indicator. The bold categories were added in the last few releases — if you were relying on the model saying here is the file: /path/to/report.docx instead, swap to MEDIA:/path/to/report.docx for native delivery.

Webhook Mode

By default, Hermes connects to Telegram using long polling — the gateway makes outbound requests to Telegram's servers to fetch new updates. This works well for local and always-on deployments.

For cloud deployments (Fly.io, Railway, Render, etc.), webhook mode is more cost-effective. These platforms can auto-wake suspended machines on inbound HTTP traffic, but not on outbound connections. Since polling is outbound, a polling bot can never sleep. Webhook mode flips the direction — Telegram pushes updates to your bot's HTTPS URL, enabling sleep-when-idle deployments.

	Polling (default)	Webhook
Direction	Gateway → Telegram (outbound)	Telegram → Gateway (inbound)
Best for	Local, always-on servers	Cloud platforms with auto-wake
Setup	No extra config	Set TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_URL
Idle cost	Machine must stay running	Machine can sleep between messages

Configuration

Add the following to ~/.hermes/.env:

TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_URL=https://my-app.fly.dev/telegram
TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_SECRET="$(openssl rand -hex 32)"  # required
# TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_PORT=8443        # optional, default 8443

Variable	Required	Description
TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_URL	Yes	Public HTTPS URL where Telegram will send updates. The URL path is auto-extracted (e.g., /telegram from the example above).
TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_SECRET	Yes (when TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_URL is set)	Secret token that Telegram echoes in every webhook request for verification. The gateway refuses to start without it — see GHSA-3vpc-7q5r-276h. Generate with openssl rand -hex 32.
TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_PORT	No	Local port the webhook server listens on (default: 8443).

When TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_URL is set, the gateway starts an HTTP webhook server instead of polling. When unset, polling mode is used — no behavior change from previous versions.

Cloud deployment example (Fly.io)

1. Add the env vars to your Fly.io app secrets:

fly secrets set TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_URL=https://my-app.fly.dev/telegram
fly secrets set TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)

2. Expose the webhook port in your fly.toml:

[[services]]
  internal_port = 8443
  protocol = "tcp"

  [[services.ports]]
    handlers = ["tls", "http"]
    port = 443

3. Deploy:

fly deploy

The gateway log should show: [telegram] Connected to Telegram (webhook mode).

Proxy Support

If Telegram's API is blocked or you need to route traffic through a proxy, set a Telegram-specific proxy URL. This takes priority over the generic HTTPS_PROXY / HTTP_PROXY env vars.

Option 1: config.yaml (recommended)

telegram:
  proxy_url: "socks5://127.0.0.1:1080"

Option 2: environment variable

TELEGRAM_PROXY=socks5://127.0.0.1:1080

Supported schemes: http://, https://, socks5://.

The proxy applies to both the main Telegram connection and the fallback IP transport. If no Telegram-specific proxy is set, the gateway falls back to HTTPS_PROXY / HTTP_PROXY / ALL_PROXY (or macOS system proxy auto-detection).

Home Channel

Use the /sethome command in any Telegram chat (DM or group) to designate it as the home channel. Scheduled tasks (cron jobs) deliver their results to this channel.

You can also set it manually in ~/.hermes/.env:

TELEGRAM_HOME_CHANNEL=-1001234567890
TELEGRAM_HOME_CHANNEL_NAME="My Notes"

:::tip Group chat IDs are negative numbers (e.g., -1001234567890). Your personal DM chat ID is the same as your user ID. :::

Voice Messages

Incoming Voice (Speech-to-Text)

Voice messages you send on Telegram are automatically transcribed by Hermes's configured STT provider and injected as text into the conversation.

• local uses faster-whisper on the machine running Hermes — no API key required
• groq uses Groq Whisper and requires GROQ_API_KEY
• openai uses OpenAI Whisper and requires VOICE_TOOLS_OPENAI_KEY

Outgoing Voice (Text-to-Speech)

When the agent generates audio via TTS, it's delivered as native Telegram voice bubbles — the round, inline-playable kind.

• OpenAI and ElevenLabs produce Opus natively — no extra setup needed
• Edge TTS (the default free provider) outputs MP3 and requires ffmpeg to convert to Opus:

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install ffmpeg

# macOS
brew install ffmpeg

Without ffmpeg, Edge TTS audio is sent as a regular audio file (still playable, but uses the rectangular player instead of a voice bubble).

Configure the TTS provider in your config.yaml under the tts.provider key.

Group Chat Usage

Hermes Agent works in Telegram group chats with a few considerations:

• Privacy mode determines what messages the bot can see (see Step 3)
• TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS still applies — only authorized users can trigger the bot, even in groups
• You can keep the bot from responding to ordinary group chatter with telegram.require_mention: true
• With telegram.require_mention: true, group messages are accepted when they are:
  • replies to one of the bot's messages
  • @botusername mentions
  • /command@botusername (Telegram's bot-menu command form that includes the bot name)
  • matches for one of your configured regex wake words in telegram.mention_patterns
• Use telegram.ignored_threads to keep Hermes silent in specific Telegram forum topics, even when the group would otherwise allow free responses or mention-triggered replies
• If telegram.require_mention is left unset or false, Hermes keeps the previous open-group behavior and responds to normal group messages it can see

Example group trigger configuration

Add this to ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

telegram:
  require_mention: true
  mention_patterns:
    - "^\\s*chompy\\b"
  ignored_threads:
    - 31
    - "42"

This example allows all the usual direct triggers plus messages that begin with chompy, even if they do not use an @mention. Messages in Telegram topics 31 and 42 are always ignored before the mention and free-response checks run.

Notes on mention_patterns

• Patterns use Python regular expressions
• Matching is case-insensitive
• Patterns are checked against both text messages and media captions
• Invalid regex patterns are ignored with a warning in the gateway logs rather than crashing the bot
• If you want a pattern to match only at the start of a message, anchor it with ^

Private Chat Topics (Bot API 9.4)

Telegram Bot API 9.4 (February 2026) introduced Private Chat Topics — bots can create forum-style topic threads directly in 1-on-1 DM chats, no supergroup needed. This lets you run multiple isolated workspaces within your existing DM with Hermes.

Use case

If you work on several long-running projects, topics keep their context separate:

• Topic "Website" — work on your production web service
• Topic "Research" — literature review and paper exploration
• Topic "General" — miscellaneous tasks and quick questions

Each topic gets its own conversation session, history, and context — completely isolated from the others.

Configuration

:::caution Prerequisites Before adding topics to your config, the user must enable Topics mode in the DM chat with the bot:

1. Open your private chat with the Hermes bot in Telegram
2. Tap the bot's name at the top to open chat info
3. Enable Topics (the toggle to turn the chat into a forum)

Without this, Hermes will log The chat is not a forum on startup and skip topic creation. This is a Telegram client-side setting — the bot cannot enable it programmatically. :::

Add topics under platforms.telegram.extra.dm_topics in ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

platforms:
  telegram:
    extra:
      dm_topics:
      - chat_id: 123456789        # Your Telegram user ID
        topics:
        - name: General
          icon_color: 7322096
        - name: Website
          icon_color: 9367192
        - name: Research
          icon_color: 16766590
          skill: arxiv              # Auto-load a skill in this topic

Fields:

Field	Required	Description
name	Yes	Topic display name
icon_color	No	Telegram icon color code (integer)
icon_custom_emoji_id	No	Custom emoji ID for the topic icon
skill	No	Skill to auto-load on new sessions in this topic
thread_id	No	Auto-populated after topic creation — don't set manually

How it works

1. On gateway startup, Hermes calls createForumTopic for each topic that doesn't have a thread_id yet
2. The thread_id is saved back to config.yaml automatically — subsequent restarts skip the API call
3. Each topic maps to an isolated session key: agent:main:telegram:dm:{chat_id}:{thread_id}
4. Messages in each topic have their own conversation history, memory flush, and context window

Skill binding

Topics with a skill field automatically load that skill when a new session starts in the topic. This works exactly like typing /skill-name at the start of a conversation — the skill content is injected into the first message, and subsequent messages see it in the conversation history.

For example, a topic with skill: arxiv will have the arxiv skill pre-loaded whenever its session resets (due to idle timeout, daily reset, or manual /reset).

:::tip Topics created outside of the config (e.g., by manually calling the Telegram API) are discovered automatically when a forum_topic_created service message arrives. You can also add topics to the config while the gateway is running — they'll be picked up on the next cache miss. :::

Multi-session DM mode (/topic)

A ChatGPT-style multi-session DM — one bot, many parallel conversations. Unlike the operator-curated extra.dm_topics above, this mode is user-driven: no config, no pre-declared topic names. The end user flips it on with /topic, then taps the Telegram + button to create as many topics as they want, each one a fully independent Hermes session.

/topic subcommands

Form	Context	Effect
/topic	Root DM, not yet enabled	Check BotFather capabilities, enable multi-session mode, create pinned System topic
/topic	Root DM, already enabled	Show status: unlinked sessions available for restore
/topic	Inside a topic	Show the current topic's session binding
/topic help	Any	Inline usage
/topic off	Root DM	Disable multi-session mode and clear all topic bindings for this chat
/topic <session-id>	Inside a topic	Restore a previous Telegram session into the current topic

Only authorized users (allowlist via TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS / platform auth config) can run /topic. An unauthorized sender gets a refusal instead of activation.

DM Topics vs Multi-session DM mode

	extra.dm_topics (config-driven)	/topic (user-driven)
Who activates it	Operator, in config.yaml	End user, by sending /topic
Topic list	Fixed set declared in config	User creates/deletes topics freely
Topic names	Chosen by operator	Chosen by user; auto-renamed to match Hermes session title
Root DM behavior	Unchanged — normal chat	Becomes a system lobby (non-command messages are rejected)
Primary use case	Permanent workspaces with optional skill binding	Ad-hoc parallel sessions
Persistence	extra.dm_topics in config	telegram_dm_topic_mode + telegram_dm_topic_bindings SQLite tables

Both features can coexist on the same bot — you'd run /topic from a user's DM, and extra.dm_topics continues to manage operator-declared topics for other chats.

Prerequisites

In @BotFather, open your bot → Bot Settings → Threads Settings:

1. Turn on Threaded Mode (enables has_topics_enabled)
2. Do not disable users creating topics (keeps allows_users_to_create_topics on)

When the user first runs /topic, Hermes calls getMe to verify both flags. If either is off, Hermes sends a screenshot of the BotFather Threads Settings page and explains what to toggle — no activation happens until prerequisites are met.

Activation flow

From the root DM, send:

/topic

Hermes will:

1. Check getMe().has_topics_enabled and allows_users_to_create_topics
2. If both are true, enable multi-session topic mode for this DM
3. Create and pin a System topic for status/commands (best-effort)
4. Reply with a list of previous unlinked Telegram sessions the user can restore

After activation, the root DM is a lobby: normal prompts are rejected with guidance pointing at All Messages. System commands (/status, /sessions, /usage, /help, etc.) still work in the root.

Creating a new topic (end-user flow)

1. Open the bot DM in Telegram
2. Tap All Messages at the top of the bot interface, then send any message
3. Telegram creates a new topic for that message
4. Hermes responds inside that topic — the topic is now a standalone session

Every topic gets its own conversation history, model state, tool execution, and session ID. The isolation key is agent:main:telegram:dm:{chat_id}:{thread_id} — identical to the config-driven DM topics isolation.

Auto-renamed topics

When Hermes generates a session title for a topic (via the auto-title pipeline, after the first exchange), the Telegram topic itself is renamed to match — e.g. "New Topic" becomes "Database migration plan". The rename is best-effort: failures are logged but don't break the session.

/new inside a topic

Resets the current topic's session (new session ID, fresh history) without touching other topics. Hermes replies with a reminder that for parallel work, creating another topic (via All Messages) is usually what you want.

Restoring a previous session

Inside a topic, send:

/topic <session-id>

This binds the current topic to an existing Hermes session instead of starting fresh. Useful for continuing a conversation that started before topic mode was enabled. Restrictions:

• The target session must belong to the same Telegram user
• The target session must not already be bound to another topic

Hermes confirms with the session title and replays the last assistant message for context.

To discover session IDs, send /topic (no argument) in the root DM — Hermes lists the user's unlinked Telegram sessions.

/topic inside a topic (no argument)

Shows the current topic's binding: session title, session ID, and hints for /new vs creating another topic.

Under the hood

• Activation persists to telegram_dm_topic_mode(chat_id, user_id, enabled, ...) in state.db
• Each topic binding persists to telegram_dm_topic_bindings(chat_id, thread_id, session_id, ...) with ON DELETE CASCADE on session_id — pruning a session automatically clears its topic binding
• The topic-mode SQLite migration is opt-in: it runs on the first /topic call, never on gateway startup. Until a user runs /topic in this profile, state.db is unchanged
• Each inbound DM message looks up its (chat_id, thread_id) binding. If present, the lookup routes the message to the bound session via SessionStore.switch_session() so the session-key-to-session-id mapping stays consistent on disk
• /new inside a topic rewrites the binding row to point at the new session ID, so the next message stays on the fresh session
• Topics declared in extra.dm_topics are never auto-renamed — the operator-chosen name is preserved even when multi-session mode is enabled
• The General (pinned top) topic in a forum-enabled DM is treated as the root lobby, regardless of whether Telegram delivers its messages with message_thread_id=1 or with no thread_id
• Root-lobby reminders are rate-limited to one message per 30 seconds per chat — a user who forgets topic mode is on and types ten prompts in the root won't get ten replies
• BotFather setup screenshots are rate-limited to one send per 5 minutes per chat — repeated /topic attempts while Threads Settings are still disabled won't re-upload the same image
• /background <prompt> started inside a topic delivers its result back to the same topic; background sessions don't trigger auto-rename of the owning topic
• /topic itself is gated by the bot's user authorization check — unauthorized DMs get a refusal instead of activation

Disabling multi-session mode

Send /topic off in the root DM. Hermes flips the row off, clears the chat's (thread_id → session_id) bindings, and the root DM reverts to a normal Hermes chat. Existing topics in Telegram aren't deleted — they just stop being gated as independent sessions. Re-run /topic later to turn it back on.

If you need to clean up by hand (e.g. a bulk reset across many chats), remove the rows directly:

sqlite3 ~/.hermes/state.db \
  "UPDATE telegram_dm_topic_mode SET enabled = 0 WHERE chat_id = '<your_chat_id>'; \
   DELETE FROM telegram_dm_topic_bindings WHERE chat_id = '<your_chat_id>';"

Downgrading Hermes

If you downgrade to a Hermes version that predates /topic, the feature simply stops working — the telegram_dm_topic_mode and telegram_dm_topic_bindings tables remain in state.db but are ignored by older code. DMs revert to the native per-thread isolation (each message_thread_id still gets its own session via build_session_key), so your existing Telegram topics keep working as parallel sessions. The root DM is no longer a lobby — messages there go into the agent like they used to. Re-upgrading reactivates multi-session mode exactly where it was.

Group Forum Topic Skill Binding

Supergroups with Topics mode enabled (also called "forum topics") already get session isolation per topic — each thread_id maps to its own conversation. But you may want to auto-load a skill when messages arrive in a specific group topic, just like DM topic skill binding works.

Use case

A team supergroup with forum topics for different workstreams:

• Engineering topic → auto-loads the software-development skill
• Research topic → auto-loads the arxiv skill
• General topic → no skill, general-purpose assistant

Configuration

Add topic bindings under platforms.telegram.extra.group_topics in ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

platforms:
  telegram:
    extra:
      group_topics:
      - chat_id: -1001234567890       # Supergroup ID
        topics:
        - name: Engineering
          thread_id: 5
          skill: software-development
        - name: Research
          thread_id: 12
          skill: arxiv
        - name: General
          thread_id: 1
          # No skill — general purpose

Fields:

Field	Required	Description
chat_id	Yes	The supergroup's numeric ID (negative number starting with -100)
name	No	Human-readable label for the topic (informational only)
thread_id	Yes	Telegram forum topic ID — visible in t.me/c/<group_id>/<thread_id> links
skill	No	Skill to auto-load on new sessions in this topic

How it works

1. When a message arrives in a mapped group topic, Hermes looks up the chat_id and thread_id in group_topics config
2. If a matching entry has a skill field, that skill is auto-loaded for the session — identical to DM topic skill binding
3. Topics without a skill key get session isolation only (existing behavior, unchanged)
4. Unmapped thread_id values or chat_id values fall through silently — no error, no skill

Differences from DM Topics

	DM Topics	Group Topics
Config key	extra.dm_topics	extra.group_topics
Topic creation	Hermes creates topics via API if thread_id is missing	Admin creates topics in Telegram UI
thread_id	Auto-populated after creation	Must be set manually
icon_color / icon_custom_emoji_id	Supported	Not applicable (admin controls appearance)
Skill binding	✓	✓
Session isolation	✓	✓ (already built-in for forum topics)

:::tip To find a topic's thread_id, open the topic in Telegram Web or Desktop and look at the URL: https://t.me/c/1234567890/5 — the last number (5) is the thread_id. The chat_id for supergroups is the group ID prefixed with -100 (e.g., group 1234567890 becomes -1001234567890). :::

Recent Bot API Features

• Bot API 9.4 (Feb 2026): Private Chat Topics — bots can create forum topics in 1-on-1 DM chats via createForumTopic. Hermes uses this for two distinct features: operator-curated Private Chat Topics (config-driven, fixed topic list) and user-driven Multi-session DM mode (activated by /topic, unlimited user-created topics).
• Privacy policy: Telegram now requires bots to have a privacy policy. Set one via BotFather with /setprivacy_policy, or Telegram may auto-generate a placeholder. This is particularly important if your bot is public-facing.
• Message streaming: Bot API 9.x added support for streaming long responses, which can improve perceived latency for lengthy agent replies.

Rendering: Tables and Link Previews

Telegram's MarkdownV2 has no native table syntax — pipe tables render as backslash-escaped noise if passed through raw. Hermes normalizes markdown tables automatically:

• Small tables are flattened into row-group bullets — each row becomes a readable bulleted list under the column headings. Good for 2–4 columns and short cells.
• Larger or wider tables fall back to a fenced code block with aligned columns so nothing collapses. A one-line prompt hint is added so the agent knows to prefer prose follow-ups over more tables on Telegram.

There's nothing to configure — the adapter picks the right fallback per message. If you want the legacy "always code-block" behavior, disable table normalization by setting telegram.pretty_tables: false in config.yaml (default: true).

Link previews. Telegram auto-generates link previews for URLs in bot messages. If you'd rather suppress those (long /tools output, agent reply that mentions ten links, etc.):

gateway:
  platforms:
    telegram:
      extra:
        disable_link_previews: true

When enabled, Hermes attaches Telegram's LinkPreviewOptions(is_disabled=True) to every outgoing message and falls back to the legacy disable_web_page_preview parameter on older python-telegram-bot versions.

Group Allowlisting

Telegram groups and forum chats have two orthogonal gates you can configure:

• Sender user IDs (group_allow_from / TELEGRAM_GROUP_ALLOWED_USERS) — sender-scoped allowlist that applies only to group/forum messages. Use this when you want specific users to be able to invoke the bot in groups without adding them to TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS (which would also give them DM access).
• Chat IDs (group_allowed_chats / TELEGRAM_GROUP_ALLOWED_CHATS) — chat-scoped allowlist. Any member of these groups/forums can interact with the bot. Useful for team/support bots where group membership itself is the access signal.

gateway:
  platforms:
    telegram:
      extra:
        # Global access (DMs + groups). Users here can always invoke the bot.
        allow_from:
          - "123456789"
        # Sender IDs allowed in groups/forums only. Does NOT grant DM access.
        group_allow_from:
          - "987654321"
        # Entire groups/forums — any member is authorized.
        group_allowed_chats:
          - "-1001234567890"

Equivalent env vars:

TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS="123456789"
TELEGRAM_GROUP_ALLOWED_USERS="987654321"
TELEGRAM_GROUP_ALLOWED_CHATS="-1001234567890"

Behavior:

• TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS covers all chat types (DMs, groups, forums).
• TELEGRAM_GROUP_ALLOWED_USERS only authorizes the listed senders in groups/forums. They still can't DM the bot unless listed in TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS.
• A chat in TELEGRAM_GROUP_ALLOWED_CHATS authorizes every member of that chat, regardless of sender.
• Use * in any of these to allow any sender/chat.
• This layers on top of existing mention/pattern triggers and on top of group_topics + ignored_threads.

Migration from before PR #17686

Prior to this split, TELEGRAM_GROUP_ALLOWED_USERS was the only knob and users put chat IDs in it. For backward compatibility, chat-ID-shaped values (starting with -) in TELEGRAM_GROUP_ALLOWED_USERS are still honored as chat IDs and a deprecation warning is logged once. Migration:

# Old (still works, but deprecated)
TELEGRAM_GROUP_ALLOWED_USERS="-1001234567890"

# New
TELEGRAM_GROUP_ALLOWED_CHATS="-1001234567890"

Interactive Model Picker

When you send /model with no arguments in a Telegram chat, Hermes shows an interactive inline keyboard for switching models:

1. Provider selection — buttons showing each available provider with model counts (e.g., "OpenAI (15)", "✓ Anthropic (12)" for the current provider).
2. Model selection — paginated model list with Prev/Next navigation, a Back button to return to providers, and Cancel.

The current model and provider are displayed at the top. All navigation happens by editing the same message in-place (no chat clutter).

:::tip If you know the exact model name, type /model <name> directly to skip the picker. You can also type /model <name> --global to persist the change across sessions. :::

DNS-over-HTTPS Fallback IPs

In some restricted networks, api.telegram.org may resolve to an IP that is unreachable. The Telegram adapter includes a fallback IP mechanism that transparently retries connections against alternative IPs while preserving the correct TLS hostname and SNI.

How it works

1. If TELEGRAM_FALLBACK_IPS is set, those IPs are used directly.
2. Otherwise, the adapter automatically queries Google DNS and Cloudflare DNS via DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) to discover alternative IPs for api.telegram.org.
3. IPs returned by DoH that differ from the system DNS result are used as fallbacks.
4. If DoH is also blocked, a hardcoded seed IP (149.154.167.220) is used as a last resort.
5. Once a fallback IP succeeds, it becomes "sticky" — subsequent requests use it directly without retrying the primary path first.

Configuration

# Explicit fallback IPs (comma-separated)
TELEGRAM_FALLBACK_IPS=149.154.167.220,149.154.167.221

Or in ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

platforms:
  telegram:
    extra:
      fallback_ips:
        - "149.154.167.220"

:::tip You usually don't need to configure this manually. The auto-discovery via DoH handles most restricted-network scenarios. The TELEGRAM_FALLBACK_IPS env var is only needed if DoH is also blocked on your network. :::

Proxy Support

If your network requires an HTTP proxy to reach the internet (common in corporate environments), the Telegram adapter automatically reads standard proxy environment variables and routes all connections through the proxy.

Supported variables

The adapter checks these environment variables in order, using the first one that is set:

1. HTTPS_PROXY
2. HTTP_PROXY
3. ALL_PROXY
4. https_proxy / http_proxy / all_proxy (lowercase variants)

Configuration

Set the proxy in your environment before starting the gateway:

export HTTPS_PROXY=http://proxy.example.com:8080
hermes gateway

Or add it to ~/.hermes/.env:

HTTPS_PROXY=http://proxy.example.com:8080

The proxy applies to both the primary transport and all fallback IP transports. No additional Hermes configuration is needed — if the environment variable is set, it's used automatically.

:::note This covers the custom fallback transport layer that Hermes uses for Telegram connections. The standard httpx client used elsewhere already respects proxy env vars natively. :::

Message Reactions

The bot can add emoji reactions to messages as visual processing feedback:

• 👀 when the bot starts processing your message
• ✅ when the response is delivered successfully
• ❌ if an error occurs during processing

Reactions are disabled by default. Enable them in config.yaml:

telegram:
  reactions: true

Or via environment variable:

TELEGRAM_REACTIONS=true

:::note Unlike Discord (where reactions are additive), Telegram's Bot API replaces all bot reactions in a single call. The transition from 👀 to ✅/❌ happens atomically — you won't see both at once. :::

:::tip If the bot doesn't have permission to add reactions in a group, the reaction calls fail silently and message processing continues normally. :::

Per-Channel Prompts

Assign ephemeral system prompts to specific Telegram groups or forum topics. The prompt is injected at runtime on every turn — never persisted to transcript history — so changes take effect immediately.

telegram:
  channel_prompts:
    "-1001234567890": |
      You are a research assistant. Focus on academic sources,
      citations, and concise synthesis.
    "42":  |
      This topic is for creative writing feedback. Be warm and
      constructive.

Keys are chat IDs (groups/supergroups) or forum topic IDs. For forum groups, topic-level prompts override the group-level prompt:

• Message in topic 42 inside group -1001234567890 → uses topic 42's prompt
• Message in topic 99 (no explicit entry) → falls back to group -1001234567890's prompt
• Message in a group with no entry → no channel prompt applied

Numeric YAML keys are automatically normalized to strings.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
Bot not responding at all	Verify TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN is correct. Check hermes gateway logs for errors.
Bot responds with "unauthorized"	Your user ID is not in TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS. Double-check with @userinfobot.
Bot ignores group messages	Privacy mode is likely on. Disable it (Step 3) or make the bot a group admin. Remember to remove and re-add the bot after changing privacy.
Voice messages not transcribed	Verify STT is available: install faster-whisper for local transcription, or set GROQ_API_KEY / VOICE_TOOLS_OPENAI_KEY in ~/.hermes/.env.
Voice replies are files, not bubbles	Install ffmpeg (needed for Edge TTS Opus conversion).
Bot token revoked/invalid	Generate a new token via /revoke then /newbot or /token in BotFather. Update your .env file.
Webhook not receiving updates	Verify TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_URL is publicly reachable (test with curl). Ensure your platform/reverse proxy routes inbound HTTPS traffic from the URL's port to the local listen port configured by TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_PORT (they do not need to be the same number). Ensure SSL/TLS is active — Telegram only sends to HTTPS URLs. Check firewall rules.

Exec Approval

When the agent tries to run a potentially dangerous command, it asks you for approval in the chat:

⚠️ This command is potentially dangerous (recursive delete). Reply "yes" to approve.

Reply "yes"/"y" to approve or "no"/"n" to deny.

Security

:::warning Always set TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS to restrict who can interact with your bot. Without it, the gateway denies all users by default as a safety measure. :::

Never share your bot token publicly. If compromised, revoke it immediately via BotFather's /revoke command.

For more details, see the Security documentation. You can also use DM pairing for a more dynamic approach to user authorization.