holagram docs

Create the bot

Open @BotFather and send /newbot.
Pick a name and a username ending in bot.
Copy the token into TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN.

Find your chat id

A bot can't write to you first: open your bot in Telegram and press Start. Then:

bash

npx holagram chat-id

It lists the chats that wrote to your bot. Copy the id of your private chat into TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID. The CLI reads .env.local and .env from the current folder.

getUpdates and webhooks don't mix

Telegram only answers getUpdates while no webhook is set. If chat-id fails after you registered one, run npx holagram webhook --delete, then chat-id, then register the webhook again.

Register the webhook

Your replies reach your site through a webhook. Generate a secret, set it as TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_SECRET in your host, deploy, and register:

bash

npx holagram secret
npx holagram webhook https://your-site.com

This calls setWebhook with https://your-site.com/api/holagram/webhook, your secret and allowed_updates: ["message"]. If your route lives elsewhere, pass the full URL ending in /webhook. npx holagram status shows what Telegram has registered: your URL, pending_update_count and the last error, if any.

You do this once per site, and again only if the URL or the secret change.

Replying to visitors

Everything happens in your private chat with the bot:

A new conversation arrives as 🆕 New chat #a1b2c3 with the topic, name and email.
Each visitor message arrives as 💬 #a1b2c3 · Name.
To answer, reply to any of those messages (swipe ↩️ on mobile, or right click → Reply). The #a1b2c3 tells you which visitor it is.
You can also reply to your own earlier answers in the thread: they're linked to the same visitor.
A message that isn't a reply can't be delivered, and the bot tells you so.

A command (a message starting with /, like /start) gets a short "connected" confirmation instead.

Replies are plain text: Telegram formatting, photos and stickers don't reach the visitor.