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Forward Message487 notifications to Telegram

English | Русский

First follow the n8n Cloud or self-hosted n8n guide and confirm a test event. The following steps are the same for both setups. Keep the bot token in n8n Credentials; it is not needed in Android. Forwarded messages are available to the selected Telegram chat and may remain in n8n history.

1. Create a bot and credential

  1. Open the official @BotFather in Telegram.
  2. Send /newbot, then choose a name and username.
  3. Save the issued token in a new Telegram credential in n8n, in Access Token. Do not put it in node text, the webhook URL or exported workflow files.
  4. Open a private chat with the new bot and press Start or send /start so it can send you messages.

References: creating bots and n8n Telegram credentials.

2. Find the chat ID

For a new bot that is not connected to a Telegram Trigger, save this code locally as telegram-chat-id.py and run python3 telegram-chat-id.py. It prompts for the token without echoing it and reads updates without sending messages. Send /start to the bot from your Telegram account before running it.

import getpass
import json
import urllib.error
import urllib.request

bot_token = getpass.getpass('Telegram bot token: ').strip()
request = urllib.request.Request(
    f'https://api.telegram.org/bot{bot_token}/getUpdates',
    data=b'{"timeout":0,"limit":100}',
    headers={'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
)
try:
    with urllib.request.urlopen(request, timeout=10) as response:
        result = json.load(response)
except (urllib.error.URLError, TimeoutError):
    raise SystemExit('Could not read updates; check token, network and existing webhook') from None

chats = {}
for update in result.get('result', []):
    message = update.get('message') or update.get('channel_post') or {}
    chat = message.get('chat') or {}
    if 'id' in chat:
        chats[chat['id']] = chat.get('type', 'unknown')
for chat_id, chat_type in chats.items():
    print(f'chat_id={chat_id} type={chat_type}')
if not chats:
    print('No chats found. Send /start to the bot and run again.')

Copy the desired ID into the Telegram node. For a group, add the bot and send /start@your_bot_username, then read the group ID from updates. Preserve any minus sign. For a public channel, you can use @channelusername; add the bot as an administrator with permission to post messages.

getUpdates cannot be used while a Telegram webhook is installed. If the bot is already connected to Telegram Trigger, read message.chat.id from its execution instead. Do not delete a working bot's webhook just to obtain an ID. This forwarding workflow does not need Telegram Trigger: its incoming trigger is Webhook. See getUpdates.

3. Import the forwarding level you need

Example Import
Text only 03-telegram-text.json
Images, built-in Telegram nodes 04-telegram-images-standard.json
Rich Messages with all media and retry progress 05-telegram-images-advanced.json

See the complete setup and verification guide, including the two webhook-only levels, image contract, gallery/icon collages, optional cleanup and limitations. After import, select your Header Auth credential in Webhook and Telegram API credential in every Telegram node. Set your fixed chat_id in Configure. Advanced additionally needs our MIT-licensed node and a project Data Table with a String column part_key. The exports contain no personal credentials, chat IDs, table IDs or execution data.

All examples validate events before sending and acknowledge only after successful delivery. Level 3 ignores images. Level 4 sends photos/files separately using built-in nodes. Level 5 attaches Big Picture, gallery and icons to the first text Rich Message. Long text still has subsequent text-only parts. Text and image tests are independent from capture settings in Android Connection → Test message; the Overview test stays text-only. The public formatter defaults to UTC and English labels; customize its locale/time zone if needed.

4. Verify and handle retries

Publish, enter the Production URL and token in Android, then send a text test. For image-enabled levels use the Connection test switches. Match event_id in Journal, n8n Executions and ACK. Test each image type and a mixed set. Repeat an identical ID to verify level 5 progress keys. Levels 3–4 do not deduplicate retries. Level 5 reduces repeats but cannot guarantee exactly-once across concurrent requests or a crash between sending and persisting a key.

Keep On Error → Stop Workflow. HTTP 429 needs rate-limit handling; network and server errors can cause phone retries. Large uploads/many sends may exceed the phone's 10-second read timeout: use a durable server inbox/worker for heavy workloads instead of an early ACK. Do not select Telegram as a notification source on the receiving phone, to avoid a forwarding loop. Execution history may contain text, binary data and tokens in request headers: configure retention.