Telegram

The mobile-first surface for Z.E.N. Use it to fire workflows from your phone, receive a scheduled morning brief as a Telegram message, or approve a workflow that's waiting on a human reply.

Telegram uses long-polling the Bot API. Nothing to expose publicly, no webhook URL to configure; Z.E.N. talks to Telegram and Telegram pushes events back over the same connection.

Prerequisites

• Z.E.N. server running (see Getting Started)
• A Telegram account

Create Telegram Bot

1. Message @BotFather on Telegram
2. Send /newbot and follow the prompts
3. Copy the bot token (format: 123456789:ABCdefGHIjklMNOpqrsTUVwxyz)

Set Environment Variable

TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=123456789:ABCdefGHI...

Configure User Whitelist (Optional)

To restrict bot access to specific users:

1. Message @userinfobot on Telegram to get your user ID
2. Add to environment:

TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USER_IDS=123456789,987654321

When set, only listed user IDs can interact with the bot. When empty/unset, the bot responds to all users.

Configure Streaming Mode (Optional)

TELEGRAM_STREAMING_MODE=stream  # stream (default) | batch

For streaming mode details, see Configuration.

Further Reading

• Configuration