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Bot

  • Telegram doesn't have traditional REST API where we generate a client and use that to interact with the API. We instead have bots that can act as an actual telegram account and can be controlled via code.
  • We use a single bot for both attestation and rewarding user.
  • The Bot is, at present, a passive one: It doesn't try to start a conversation with anyone or sends messages to anyone or any group. However, it replies to every message sent to it via DM.
  • For most part, the bot only reads the messages sent in private and in groups it is added to.
  • All the updates that we receive through webhooks or polling is from the bots.

Bridge can receive telegram updates in two ways:

  • Using webhooks: Bridge exposes an endpoint that is registered with Telegram as a webhook. When an event happens, telegram posts the update to the webhook
  • Without webhook: Bridge polls the Telegram API every few seconds for new updates

An update isn't always a message. It can also be events like a user joining a group or leaving a group.

To listen to a group's events and messages, you have to add the bot to the group.

How updates are processed:

Bridge, by behaviour, only looks for messages directly sent to the bot and new_chat_members event on groups originprotocolkorea and originprotocol

  • When a direct message is received,
    • If it is a /start command with valid address param, it creates a telegram attestation entry.
    • Otherwise, the chat message is logged to the DB and emailed to support@originprotocol.com
  • When new_chat_members event exists, it creates the FollowedOnTelegram growth event

Replying to updates:

  • When running in webhook mode, the reply message has to be written to the response stream before ending it.
  • When polling, a separate XHR request has to be made. This has rate-limit of 30 messages per second (overall and across all users)

Operational playbook

To setup the webhook:

  1. Remove the key TELEGRAM_DISABLE_WEBHOOKS or set it's to false
  2. Restart the bridge server
  3. Go to following URL in the browser: /hooks/telegram/__init

To setup polling:

  1. Set TELEGRAM_DISABLE_WEBHOOKS to true
  2. Restart the bridge server

Checking status of webhook

Send a POST request (using postman or any HTTP client/library) to /hooks/telegram/__getWebhookInfo

The value of authorization header should be same as env variable WEBHOOK_ADMIN_SECRET

Deleting webhook

Send a POST request to /hooks/telegram/__deleteWebhook with authorization header. This deletes the webhook but doesn't start polling

Clear the queue

Send a POST request to /hooks/telegram/__clearQueue with authorization header. This recursively marks the first 10k messages on the queue as read

A few notes:

  • It is not possible to get updates through polling/HTTP requests, when a webhook is active. So, you have to delete the webhook. If you start polling on bridge, it tries and deletes webhook before starting
  • To check the logs, you have to check the logs of the bridge.