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Telegram

Telegram is the fastest channel to set up in Faberiq: you create a bot, paste one token, and Faberiq wires everything else. This guide assumes you have never made a Telegram bot before.

What You Will End Up With​

A Telegram bot (for example @YourShopBot) that customers can message. Every message they send starts your Faberiq workflow, and the agent's answer is sent back to them in the same Telegram chat.

Step 1: Create a Bot with @BotFather​

BotFather is Telegram's official bot for creating bots. You do this inside the Telegram app (phone or desktop).

  1. Open Telegram and search for @BotFather. Make sure it is the verified account with a blue check mark, since impostors exist.
  2. Open the chat and send the command /newbot.
  3. BotFather asks for a name. This is the display name customers see, for example Acme Plumbing Assistant. It can contain spaces.
  4. BotFather then asks for a username. This must be unique across all of Telegram, must end in bot (for example AcmePlumbingBot or acme_plumbing_bot), and cannot be changed as easily later, so pick carefully.
  5. When the username is accepted, BotFather replies with a congratulations message that contains your HTTP API token. It looks like this:
123456789:ABC-DEF1234ghIkl-zyx57W2v1u123ew11

That token is the bot's password.

Keep the token secret

Anyone who has this token can fully control your bot: read incoming messages, send messages as the bot, and hijack the webhook. Do not post it in chat groups, screenshots, or code repositories. If it ever leaks, open @BotFather, send /token (or use /mybots, pick the bot, then API Token, then Revoke current token), and Telegram will issue a new token and invalidate the old one. After regenerating, paste the new token into Faberiq and save again.

Optional but worthwhile: in @BotFather you can also set a profile photo (/setuserpic), a description shown before the first message (/setdescription), and an about text (/setabouttext).

Step 2: Connect the Bot in Faberiq​

  1. In Faberiq, open Workflow, then the Connectors tab.
  2. Find Telegram in the catalogue and click it.
  3. Step 1 (Name): name the connection, for example "Support bot".
  4. Step 2 (Configure): the dialog asks for exactly one credential:
    • Bot token: paste the token from BotFather. The field is a password field, so it shows dots. On a later edit, leaving it blank keeps the token you already stored.
  5. Click Test if you want to verify the token before saving. Faberiq calls Telegram and shows your bot's username (for example @AcmePlumbingBot) when the token is valid.
  6. Click Save. Faberiq verifies the token and registers its webhook with Telegram in the same step. You should see "Connected and webhook set."
  7. Step 3 (Skills): leave both skills enabled: Receive messages (inbound) and Respond to messages (outbound). Finish the wizard.

The connector card now shows a green connected badge, plus the bot's ID, username, and webhook URL.

How the Webhook Works (Nothing for You to Do)​

The Configure step displays a read-only Telegram Webhook URL that looks like https://studio.faberiq.ai/webhooks/telegram/<connectorId>. You do not need to copy it anywhere: when you save, Faberiq calls Telegram's setWebhook API with this URL and a shared secret. From then on Telegram pushes every message your bot receives straight to Faberiq, and Faberiq rejects any request that does not carry the secret. Deleting the connector removes the webhook again.

Step 3: Put a Workflow Behind the Bot​

A connected bot does nothing until a workflow uses it as a channel. Two ways:

Option A: Install the Telegram Bot recipe (fastest)​

  1. Open Workflow, then the Recipes tab.
  2. Install Telegram Bot (about 3 minutes of setup). It requires the Telegram connector you just created.
  3. The recipe creates a complete workflow: a Telegram trigger, a knowledge assistant agent that searches your Knowledge Base, can convert interested visitors into customers, and can book appointments, and a Telegram reply step.

Option B: Add Telegram as a channel on an existing workflow​

  1. Open your workflow in the designer (Workflow tab) and open Workflow Settings.
  2. In the Channels section, check Telegram. Every checked channel becomes an entry point, and the agent replies on whichever channel the customer used. The checkbox shows "Connected" when your Telegram connector is live, or "Needs setup in the next steps" when it is not.
  3. Save the workflow.

Step 4: Test It​

Open Telegram, search for your bot's username, press Start, and send a question. Within a few seconds the workflow runs and the bot replies. You can watch the conversation appear in Faberiq under chat history and, if your agent converts leads, in Customer Management.

Troubleshooting​

SymptomLikely cause and fix
"Unable to verify Telegram bot" when testing or savingThe token is wrong or was revoked. Copy it again from @BotFather (/mybots, your bot, API Token) and paste the full string, including the colon.
Bot never repliesCheck three things in order: the connector card says connected; the workflow has Telegram checked as a channel (or came from the Telegram Bot recipe); your workspace still has credits (see Billing and Credits).
Bot replied before but stopped after you connected the token elsewhereTelegram allows exactly one webhook per bot. If another service (a previous vendor, a test script, or a getUpdates poller) registered itself, Telegram stops delivering to Faberiq. Open the connector in Faberiq and click Save again: re-saving re-registers Faberiq's webhook and takes the bot back. Use one bot token per service to avoid the tug-of-war.
Replies work in a private chat but not in a groupAdd the bot to the group and note that Telegram bots in groups only see commands and replies by default (BotFather privacy mode). Send /setprivacy to @BotFather and disable it if the bot should read all group messages.
You regenerated the tokenThe old token died the moment BotFather issued the new one. Paste the new token into the connector's Configure step and save; the webhook is re-registered automatically.