TelegramBot.NET

Ready-to-use .NET Standard library for convenient development of Telegram bots.

TelegramBot.NET is a production-ready .NET Standard library for building Telegram bots using an architecture familiar to ASP.NET Core developers. It allows you to define message handlers as controllers, inject services via dependency injection, and reply with rich content like text, Markdown, or inline keyboards. Setup is minimal: add your bot token, implement a controller, and you're ready to go. The library supports clean CI/CD with Docker and GitHub Actions and is available on NuGet under the MIT license.

Purposes

Many people know the ASP.NET Core platform and its convenience for developing web API applications.

Now you can see the same pattern in Telegram Bot API.

You can find usage examples in the TelegramBot.ConsoleTest project.

You can find Simple Cafe Market example in this controller sample.

Getting Started

Start by importing the library into your project

dotnet add package TelegramBot.NET

1. Implement simple handler in your Program.cs

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    BotBuilder builder = new BotBuilder(args)
        .UseApiKey(x => x.FromConfiguration());

    var app = builder.Build();
    app.MapControllers();
    app.Run();
}

2. Add your API key from BotFather to appsettings.json file, key is TelegramBotToken:

{
  "TelegramBotToken": "YOUR_API_TOKEN"
}

or use command line arguments:

./TelegramBot.Console TelegramBotToken=YOUR_API_TOKEN

3. Implement controller, in this sample - for handling /start command:

public class CommandController(ILogger<CommandController> _logger) : BotControllerBase
{
    [TextCommand("/start")]
    public IActionResult HandleStartAsync()
    {
        _logger.LogInformation("Start command received.");
        return Text("Hello!");
    }
}

4. Run application - and see result:

info: TelegramBot.BotApp[0]
      Bot started - receiving updates.
info: TelegramBot.ConsoleTest.Controllers.HomeController[0]
      Start command received.

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Features

• Dependency Injection - use Services property of BotBuilder to add services:

builder.Services.AddDbContext<AppDbContext>(x => x.UseNpgsql(connectionString));
builder.Services.AddScoped<ISomeHandler, Handler>();

• Send response to client - use BotControllerBase methods - Inline, Text, MarkDown:

[BotCommand("/start")]
public async Task<IActionResult> HandleStartAsync()
{
    string prompt = await _dbContext.Translations.GetTranslationAsync("WelcomePrompt", Language.English);
    InlineKeyboardMarkup keyboard = new KeyboardBuilder()
        .WithColumns(2)
        .AddButton("🇺🇸 English", "/language/en")
        .AddButton("🇷🇺 Русский", "/language/ru")
        .AddButton("🇪🇸 Español", "/language/es")
        .AddButton("🇺🇦 Українська", "/language/uk")
        .Build();
    return Inline(prompt, keyboard);
    // or
    return Text("Hello, it's me!");
    // or
    return Markdown("Okay, click [this](https://example.com) link");
}

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Roadmap

• Add command handlers
• Add response types:
  • Text
  • Inline
  • Markdown
  • Image
  • Video
  • Delete
  • Redirect
• Implement language dictionary service
• Implement router for inline query
• Inject user model in base controller
• Add user state service
• Add builder for message arguments

See the open issues for a full list of proposed features (and known issues).

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Contributing

Contributions are what make the open source community such an amazing place to learn, inspire, and create. Any contributions you make are greatly appreciated.

If you have a suggestion that would make this better, please fork the repo and create a pull request. You can also simply open an issue with the tag "enhancement". Don't forget to give the project a star! Thanks again!

1. Fork the Project
2. Create your Feature Branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your Changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the Branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

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License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.md for more information.

Contact

E-Mail