Before you start: your plan must include Telegram, and you must be able to edit the bot in @BotFather. See Plans and usage.
How it works
Your agent is a Telegram bot. Our attacker writes to it as a Telegram user account, not as a bot, because on Telegram a bot cannot start a chat with another bot. The attacker sends the text exactly as written, waits for the bot’s answer, and hands the answer back for the next turn.Before you start
- The bot’s user name, for example
@AcmeHelpBot. It ends in “bot”. - The bot answers a private message from a Telegram user it has not seen before.
- A test copy of the bot, if the live bot acts on real systems. See Test modes.
Steps
1
Add the agent
On the Agents tab press Add an agent. Under Where we talk to it pick Telegram. Fill in Your bot’s user name. See Add an agent.
2
Put the code in the About text
On the Connection tab press Copy next to the code. In Telegram open @BotFather, send
/setabouttext, pick the bot and paste the code. Other words around it are fine.3
Press Check now
We read
https://t.me/<bot name> and look for the code. The pill turns to Proven yours. You can remove the code afterwards.4
Set rules, sign and plan
Continue as for any agent: Rules, the testing agreement, Run tests.
How a conversation runs on Telegram
What a test can show
A bot is reached on its real channel. Unless you connect our test tools to a test copy, we judge each answer from the words alone, so a finding is capped at Moderate. See Test modes.Problems
Check now says it did not find the code in the About text
Check now says it did not find the code in the About text
Open
https://t.me/<bot name> in a browser. The page must show the bot’s user name and the About text with the code. @BotFather sometimes takes a minute to publish. Then press Check now again.The bot name is refused
The bot name is refused
It must be 5 to 32 letters, digits or underscores and end in “bot”. Type it with or without the @.
The test runs but every message fails
The test runs but every message fails
The bot did not answer within 4 minutes. Send it a private message from a personal Telegram account you have never used with it. If it stays silent, check the bot is running and answers new users.