Telegram Notifier MCP Server

An MCP server that lets an LLM send messages and files to a user via a Telegram bot, to a single configured recipient. No external HTTP or Telegram libraries — just the native fetch API and the official MCP SDK.

Quick Start

Install dependencies with bun install --frozen-lockfile, then configure your MCP client to run the TypeScript source directly with Bun. No build step is required. The examples below use /absolute/path/to/telegram-notifier-mcp/src/index.ts; replace it with your checkout path. Do not use the published npm package to run these local changes.

1. Create a Telegram Bot

1. Open Telegram and message @BotFather

2. Send /newbot and follow the prompts to name your bot

3. Copy the bot token you receive (e.g., 123456:ABC-DEF1234ghIkl-zyx57W2v1u123ew11)

2. Find Your Chat ID

1. Send any message to your new bot on Telegram

2. Open the following URL in your browser, replacing YOUR_BOT_TOKEN with your actual token:

   https://api.telegram.org/botYOUR_BOT_TOKEN/getUpdates

3. In the JSON response, find "chat":{"id": 123456789} — that number is your chat ID

Tip: For group chats, add the bot to the group, send a message, and check the same URL. Group chat IDs are negative numbers (e.g., -1001234567890).

3. Add to Your MCP Client

Claude Desktop

Add this to your Claude Desktop config file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "telegram-notifier": {
      "command": "bun",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/telegram-notifier-mcp/src/index.ts", "--chat-id=your-chat-id-here"],
      "env": {
        "TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN": "your-bot-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

Add to your project's .mcp.json or ~/.claude.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "telegram-notifier": {
      "command": "bun",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/telegram-notifier-mcp/src/index.ts", "--chat-id=your-chat-id-here"],
      "env": {
        "TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN": "your-bot-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Codex CLI

You can configure Codex CLI in either of these ways:

Option A: Add it manually in ~/.codex/config.toml

[mcp_servers.telegram-notifier]
command = "bun"
args = ["/absolute/path/to/telegram-notifier-mcp/src/index.ts", "--chat-id=your-chat-id-here"]

[mcp_servers.telegram-notifier.env]
TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN = "your-bot-token-here"

Option B: Add it with a CLI command

codex mcp add telegram-notifier \
  --env TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=your-bot-token-here \
  -- bun /absolute/path/to/telegram-notifier-mcp/src/index.ts --chat-id=your-chat-id-here

That's it — your LLM can now send you Telegram notifications.

Related MCP server: Telegram MCP Server

Configuration

The recipient is fixed at startup using --chat-id=<numeric-id> (for example --chat-id=-1001234567890 for a group). TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID is supported as a fallback; the command-line argument takes precedence. Tool calls cannot override the recipient.

There are no incoming-message tools, polling, attachment downloads, or offset files.

Environment variables:

The server exits with an error if the bot token is missing or the recipient is missing or invalid.

Tools

send_message

Send a text message to a Telegram chat.

send_document

Send a file/document to a Telegram chat.

send_photo

Send a photo/image to a Telegram chat.

send_video

Send a video to a Telegram chat.

send_audio

Send an audio file to a Telegram chat.

Testing with the MCP Inspector

You can test the server interactively using the MCP Inspector:

TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN="your-token" TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID="your-chat-id" \
  bunx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector bun /absolute/path/to/telegram-notifier-mcp/src/index.ts

This opens a browser UI where you can invoke each tool and see the results.

Error Handling

The server handles errors gracefully and returns descriptive messages:

All server logs go to stderr so they never interfere with the stdio MCP transport on stdout.

File Size Limits

Telegram enforces a 50 MB limit for file uploads via the Bot API. The server validates file size before uploading and returns an error if the limit is exceeded.

Development

git clone https://github.com/paulo-evangelista/telegram-notifier-mcp
cd telegram-notifier-mcp
bun install --frozen-lockfile
bun test

# Run with TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN set in the environment
bun run start --chat-id=123456789

# Watch mode — restarts on file changes
bun run dev --chat-id=123456789

Publishing

Releases are published to npm automatically via GitHub Actions when you create a GitHub release.

Setup:

1. Add your npm token as a repository secret named NPM_TOKEN in GitHub Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions

2. Bump the version in package.json

3. Create a new GitHub release — the workflow will test and publish the Bun entry point to npm

License

MIT