How to Integrate Lovable with Telegram

Every Telegram bot starts with BotFather — Telegram's official bot for creating and managing other bots. Open Telegram (app or web at web.telegram.org) and search for '@BotFather' in the search bar, then tap the verified BotFather account (it has a blue checkmark). Send the message '/newbot' to start the creation flow. BotFather will ask you for two things: a display name for your bot (this is what users see in their chat list, e.g., 'My App Notifications') and a username that must end in 'bot' (e.g., 'myapp_notifybot'). Usernames must be unique across all of Telegram — if your first choice is taken, try adding your app name or a number. Once you confirm both, BotFather replies with a success message containing your bot's API token — a long string that looks like '7312456789:AAHxxx...'. Copy this token immediately and store it somewhere safe. You will paste it into Lovable's Cloud Secrets in the next step. Also note the t.me/yourbotusername link BotFather provides — this is how users will start a conversation with your bot. Do not share your API token publicly; anyone with this token can control your bot.

In your Lovable project, click the gear icon in the top-right corner to open Settings, then navigate to the Connectors section in the left sidebar. You will see two tabs: 'Shared connectors' and 'Personal connectors (MCP)'. Stay on the Shared connectors tab. Scroll down the list of 17 connectors until you find Telegram — it sits in the Communication category alongside Twilio. Click on the Telegram connector card to expand it. You will see a toggle to activate the connector and a field to enter your Bot API token. Flip the toggle to the active position. A prompt appears to enter your credentials — do NOT paste your token into this visible form field if you are on the free plan, as free-tier chat history is publicly visible. Instead, click 'Manage in Cloud Secrets' (or navigate directly to Cloud → Secrets via the + button next to your project preview). In the Secrets panel, click 'New secret', name it TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN (all caps, underscores), and paste your Bot API token as the value. Click Save. Return to Settings → Connectors → Telegram and confirm the connector shows as active. Lovable will now have full awareness of the Telegram Bot API when you describe features in chat, and your token will be securely injected into Edge Functions at runtime via Deno.env.get('TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN').

With the connector active, open Lovable's chat and describe what you want your bot to do. The AI now understands the Telegram Bot API in full — you just need to express your requirements in plain English. Be specific about the commands you want, the data those commands should read or write (e.g., from your Supabase database), and the format of replies. Lovable will generate a Supabase Edge Function as the webhook receiver, register the webhook URL with Telegram's Bot API automatically, and wire the handler to your app's logic. The generated Edge Function will live at supabase/functions/telegram-webhook/index.ts in your project. If you want a notification system instead of a command bot, describe the trigger (e.g., 'when a new order is placed, send the order details to this Telegram chat ID'). For command bots, list each command and what it returns. The AI handles routing, parsing the update object, extracting chat IDs and message text, and formatting the sendMessage API call — you do not need to know the Bot API specification to get working code.

Beyond responding to user commands, one of the most powerful use cases is sending proactive notifications from your app to a Telegram chat. This requires knowing the chat ID of the recipient — Telegram assigns a unique numeric chat ID to every conversation. The easiest way to capture a user's chat ID is to have them send your bot any message (even just /start), then log the chat ID from the incoming webhook update to your Supabase database. From that point, your app can send them messages at any time by calling Telegram's sendMessage API with their stored chat ID. In Lovable's chat, describe the notification trigger and the message format you want. The AI will generate an Edge Function (or add logic to an existing one) that calls the Telegram Bot API's sendMessage endpoint with your bot token and the target chat ID. This pattern works for order confirmations, alert systems, SaaS usage warnings, team notifications, or any event-driven message your app needs to push. Lovable automatically routes this call through an Edge Function so your bot token never touches the browser, and Deno.env.get('TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN') is used server-side throughout.

Testing your Telegram integration requires using the live bot, not Lovable's preview mode. Lovable's preview runs in an iframe that cannot receive Telegram webhooks. Open the t.me/yourbotusername link BotFather gave you, or search for your bot username in Telegram, and start a conversation. Send each command you configured (/start, /status, /help, or whatever you specified) and verify the replies match your expectations. For notification tests, trigger the relevant action in your live app (e.g., submit a signup form) and check that the Telegram message arrives. If a command does not respond, go to Cloud → Logs in your Lovable project (click the + icon next to your preview, then choose Logs). Filter by your telegram-webhook function. You will see each incoming update logged with its status code. A 200 OK means the function ran successfully. A 500 error means the function threw an exception — click the log entry to see the full error message. Common first-time issues are a missing or misnamed secret (check TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN spelling in Cloud → Secrets matches exactly what the Edge Function uses) or the webhook not being registered (prompt Lovable: 'Re-register the Telegram webhook URL for my bot'). Once commands and notifications are working in your live app, your integration is production-ready.