Why Telegram bots with Node.js?

Node.js offers a huge ecosystem, simple async I/O, and great libraries like Telegraf. You can ship MVPs fast and scale later.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ and npm

• A Telegram account

• Basic JS knowledge

1) Create a bot in BotFather

1. Search @BotFather in Telegram.

2. Send /newbot, choose a name and a unique username.

3. Copy the HTTP API token — keep it secret.

2) Project setup

mkdir tg-bot && cd tg-bot
npm init -y
npm i telegraf dotenv
echo "BOT_TOKEN=PASTE_YOUR_TOKEN" > .env echo "node_modules\n.env" >> .gitignore

Create index.js:

import 'dotenv/config';
import { Telegraf, Markup } from 'telegraf';

const bot = new Telegraf(process.env.BOT_TOKEN);

// Basic /start
bot.start((ctx) => {
  const name = ctx.from.first_name ?? 'friend';
  return ctx.reply(
    `Hi, ${name}! I am your Node.js bot.`,
    Markup.keyboard([['Help', 'About']]).resize()
  );
});

// Text handler
bot.hears('Help', (ctx) =>
  ctx.reply('Use /start or type "About" to learn more.')
);

bot.hears('About', (ctx) =>
  ctx.reply('Built with Node.js + Telegraf. Open source friendly!')
);

// Command with parameters
bot.command('echo', (ctx) => {
  const msg = ctx.message.text.split(' ').slice(1).join(' ');
  ctx.reply(msg || 'Send: /echo your text');
});

// Error boundary
bot.catch((err, ctx) => {
  console.error('Bot error:', err);
  ctx.reply('Oops. Try again later.');
});

bot.launch();
console.log('Bot is running…');

// Graceful stop (for hosting)
process.once('SIGINT', () => bot.stop('SIGINT'));
process.once('SIGTERM', () => bot.stop('SIGTERM'));

Run:

node index.js

Send /start to your bot and test the buttons.

3) Middleware, scenes, and rate-limits

• Middleware: bot.use(async (ctx, next) => { /* logging, auth */; await next(); })

• Session: @telegraf/session to store per-user data.

• Rate-limit: implement a simple map (userId → lastTime) or use packages like telegraf-ratelimit.

4) Webhooks vs long polling

• Development: long polling (default) is simplest.

• Production: prefer webhooks (less latency, fewer dropped updates).

// Example (Express) import express from 'express';
const app = express();

app.use(bot.webhookCallback('/tg-webhook'));
await bot.telegram.setWebhook('https://your-domain.com/tg-webhook');

app.listen(3000, () => console.log('Server 3000'));

5) Deployment (Railway/Render/VPS)

• Set environment variable BOT_TOKEN in your host dashboard.

• If using webhooks, expose HTTPS (custom domain or host URL).

• Add graceful stop signals (already in the code).

6) Storing data

• Start with SQLite or MongoDB:

npm i mongoose

import mongoose from 'mongoose';
await mongoose.connect(process.env.MONGO_URL);

7) Security checklist

• Never hard-code tokens. Use .env.

• Validate user input.

• Handle errors with bot.catch.

• Limit admin-only commands by checking ctx.from.id.

8) Next ideas

• Payment + invoices

• Mini-apps (WebApp) with React/Next.js

• CRON jobs (node-cron) for reminders

Final words

With Telegraf, you can go from idea to production in hours. Start small, add tests and monitoring, and iterate.