Learn-skills.dev telegram-cli

Use `tele` to authenticate, list dialogs, and fetch messages from Telegram.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/NeverSight/learn-skills.dev

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/NeverSight/learn-skills.dev "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/data/skills-md/afutured/tele-cli/telegram-cli" ~/.claude/skills/neversight-learn-skills-dev-telegram-cli && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: data/skills-md/afutured/tele-cli/telegram-cli/SKILL.md

source content

Telegram CLI Usage Guide

Overview

Use

tele

to authenticate, list dialogs, and fetch messages from Telegram directly from the terminal.

Setup

Requires
```
uv
```
.

Install/upgrade (one-time per session):

uv tool install --upgrade git+https://github.com/AFutureD/tele-cli

Verify install:
```
tele -V
```
Per terminal session: run
```
tele -h
```
once, then confirm auth with
```
tele -f json me
```
(log in if needed).

Notice

Call
```
tele -h
```
once before running any command for the first time in the session.
Always use JSON output: always pass
```
-f json
```
to
```
tele
```
(example:
```
tele -f json me
```
).
In each session, confirm authentication before running non-auth commands: run
```
tele -f json me
```
.
Commands under
```
tele auth ...
```
do not require an existing authenticated session.

Quick Start

Read help once:
```
tele -h
```
Log in (interactive prompts):
```
tele auth login
```
Confirm who you are:
```
tele -f json me
```
List dialogs and find a
```
dialog_id
```
:
```
tele -f json dialog list
```

Fetch recent messages from a dialog:

tele -f json message list <dialog_id> -n 20

Session Management

Global options:

--config <path>

: alternate config file (default:

~/.config/tele/config.toml

)

```
--session <name>
```
: use a specific session file by name (listed by
```
tele auth list
```
)

```
tele auth login
```
(creates a local session; prompts for phone, code, and optional 2FA password)
```
tele auth login --switch
```
(log in and make the new session active)
```
tele auth logout
```
(logs out of the selected session)

List and switch sessions:

```
tele auth list
```
```
tele auth switch --uid <user_id>
```

tele auth switch --username <username>

(accepts

@alice

alice

)

tele auth switch --session <session_name>

Where sessions live on disk (macOS/Linux default):

Sessions folder:
```
~/.config/tele/sessions/
```
Current activated session symlink:
```
~/.config/tele/sessions/Current.session
```

Dialog List

List all dialogs (users, groups, channels):

```
tele -f json dialog list
```

Notes:

For
```
-f text
```
, the output follows the template:
- ```
[TYPE.UI.STATE] [UNREAD COUNT] [DIALOG_ID] NAME
```
- ```
TYPE
```
  :
```
U
```
  user,
```
G
```
  group,
```
C
```
  channel
- ```
UI
```
  :
```
P
```
  pinned,
```
A
```
  archived,
```
-
```
  normal
- ```
STATE
```
  :
```
M
```
  muted,
```
-
```
  not muted
For
```
-f json
```
, each dialog includes keys like
```
name
```
,
```
entity
```
(with
```
id
```
),
```
unread_count
```
, and the latest
```
message
```
.

Message List

Fetch messages from a dialog:

```
tele -f json message list <dialog_id>
```

Common options:

Limit count:

-n <num>

(example:

tele -f json message list <dialog_id> -n 20

)

Pagination:
```
--offset_id <message_id>
```
(fetch around/older than a known message id;
```
offset_id
```
is excluded)
Output order:
```
--order asc|desc
```

Time filters:

```
--from "<natural language or date>"
```
```
--to "<natural language or date>"
```

--range "<natural language range>"

(overrides

--from/--to

, special:

"this week"

)

Examples:

tele -f json message list 1375282077 -n 10

tele -f json message list 1375282077 --range "last week"

tele -f json message list 1375282077 --from "2025-02-05" --to "yesterday"

Send Message

Send a text message to a user, group, or channel:

Basic:

tele message send <receiver> "<message>"

Force peer id:

tele message send -t peer_id "<peer_id>" "<message>"

Receiver formats:

Username:
```
alice
```
or
```
@alice
```
Phone:
```
"+15551234567"
```
Dialog name:
```
"My Group"
```
Numeric peer id:
```
"-1001234567890"
```
(common for channels)

How the receiver is resolved:

With
```
--entity/-t peer_id
```
,
```
<receiver>
```
is treated as a numeric peer id (no name matching).
Without
```
--entity
```
, it first tries Telegram/Telethon resolution (username/phone/id). If that fails, it scans your dialogs and picks the first match by:
- dialog name contains
```
<receiver>
```
  (case-insensitive), or
- dialog id / entity id equals
```
<receiver>
```
  (string compare).

Examples:

```
tele message send alice "hi"
```
```
tele message send "+15551234567" "hi"
```
```
tele message send "My Group" "hi"
```

tele message send -t peer_id "-1001234567890" "hi"

Notes:

Quote negative peer ids (or use
```
--
```
) so the shell/CLI does not treat them as options.
The command prints no output on success; verify by listing messages:
```
tele -f json message list <dialog_id> -n 5
```
.

Additional Informations

Config file:
```
tele
```
reads
```
~/.config/tele/config.toml
```
by default and will create it on first run;