Send Telegram alerts and run approval flows from workflows

Sends messages, files, and alerts to Telegram, reads incoming replies, and runs ask-and-wait approval flows with inline-button options - all via pure bash, curl, and jq, with no install beyond a bot token (bash scripts/telegram.sh setup runs a guided BotFather walkthrough on first use). Before any setup, send, read, or hook is enabled, a safety gate requires the user's explicit approval of the target chat, bot account, and exact content or file - it never sends workspace, customer, credential, or secret data automatically, and treats the bot token itself as a secret (never echoed, committed, or left in shell history; the script passes token-bearing URLs to curl via stdin rather than process arguments). ask waits for a reply and exits 0 with the answer on stdout, or exits 2 on timeout, letting a script gate on the response - e.g. only deploying if the answer is "Yes".

Use it when a workflow, hook, cron job, or CI pipeline needs to send a Telegram alert, or when a long-running task should notify you or ask for approval on your phone before proceeding - including wiring "notify me when done" or "ask me before proceeding" into Claude Code itself via Notification and Stop hooks in settings.json. Do not use it for unattended notifications or approval flows without the user's explicit, current authorization for that specific destination - this skill cannot verify that a configured chat ID actually belongs to the intended recipient, so a new destination needs to be confirmed before first use. Telegram is a third-party service: message and file contents leave the local machine and may be retained under Telegram's own policies, so it's not suitable for anything that must stay fully local.

bash scripts/telegram.sh send "low priority" --silent                # no notification sound
bash scripts/telegram.sh send "*bold* alert" --format md             # MarkdownV2 (falls back to plain)
bash scripts/telegram.sh send "hi" --to alerts --bot work            # named target + named bot
bash scripts/telegram.sh file report.pdf "Q3 report"                 # document (photos auto-detected)
bash scripts/telegram.sh read                                        # new incoming messages since last read
ANSWER=$(bash scripts/telegram.sh ask "Deploy to prod?" --options "Yes,No" --timeout 300)

Configuration is environment variables first, then ~/.config/telegram/config (mode 600): TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN/TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID as defaults, BOT_ALERTS_TOKEN/TARGET_FAMILY for named bots/targets, and TELEGRAM_APPROVER_IDS/APPROVERS_FAMILY restricting who can answer an ask. Replies are only accepted from configured chat IDs; in a private chat the sender must equal the chat ID, and in a group chat ask fails closed unless specific approver user IDs are listed, since a group chat ID is shared by every member.

Talks directly to the Telegram Bot API via curl/jq, configured through BotFather-issued bot tokens; wires into Claude Code's own Notification and Stop hooks in settings.json to ping a phone when Claude needs input or finishes a task, and into any script or CI pipeline as an approval gate around an ask call.

Developers who want phone notifications or approval prompts from automated workflows, hooks, cron jobs, or CI pipelines - including pinging themselves when a long Claude Code session needs input or completes - without standing up anything beyond a bot token and a bash script.