Tool · ProductivityFree

Telegram combines classic messaging with a mature bot platform. The angle here: create a bot in 2 minutes via @BotFather, get a token, use it as a webhook to receive or send messages from your scripts. Alerts, auto-digests, triggers: Telegram is often simpler than Slack when you work solo.

Visit the site ↗Free. Telegram Premium $5/month (optional, unrelated to bots)

Installation

Prérequis.Telegram account (phone number). For the bot part, nothing more: bot creation happens in the app itself via @BotFather.

One line, one terminal

$ brew install --cask telegram

The desktop app makes it easy to copy-paste tokens and test your bots. Keep it open during development.

Configs and workflows worth knowing

Create a bot to receive notifications from Claude Code

In Telegram, open @BotFather, type /newbot, give a name and a username ending in 'bot'. You get a token. Then get your chat_id via @userinfobot. With both, a curl is enough to send a message from any script.

Example

curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_TOKEN/sendMessage" \
     -d "chat_id=$TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID" \
     -d "text=Build terminé : 14s, 0 erreurs."

Get your weekly digest every Friday morning

Cron + /veille:digest + send via Telegram bot. You get your digest directly on your phone without opening the laptop. Perfect for Friday morning coffee.

Example

# crontab -e
0 8 * * 5 cd ~ && claude --print "/veille:digest" | \
  curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TELEGRAM_TOKEN/sendMessage" \
       --data-urlencode "chat_id=$TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID" --data-urlencode "text@-"

Trigger actions via the bot

Set up a webhook: when you send '/deploy staging' to the bot, a server receives it, triggers the deploy, and replies with the log. DevOps remote from your couch.

Alternatives

Slack webhooksDiscord webhooksPushover