Telegram

Telegram alerts come from a bot that you create.

Create a bot

1. In Telegram, open a chat with @BotFather and send /newbot.
2. Choose a name and a username ending in bot.
3. Copy the bot token. It looks like 123456789:AAH....

Find the chat ID

• Private chat with you: send any message to your bot, then open https://api.telegram.org/bot<token>/getUpdates in a browser and read chat.id.
• Group: add the bot to the group, send a message, and read chat.id from getUpdates. Group IDs are negative, for example -1001234567890.
• Public channel: add the bot as an administrator and use the channel name, for example @my_alerts.

Add it to Watchdog

1. Open Integrations and choose Add channel → Telegram.
2. Paste the bot token and chat ID, and give the channel a name.
3. Select Send test to check that a message arrives.

Troubleshooting

• 401 Unauthorized: the token is wrong or was revoked in BotFather.
• 400 chat not found: the bot has not been added to the chat, or nobody has sent it a message yet.
• Your bot token is stored encrypted and is never shown again after you save it.