Before you begin
- A Telegram account to create the bot from.
- A few minutes with BotFather — Telegram’s official tool for creating bots. It gives you a bot token (a long string that lets Cura send and receive on the bot’s behalf).
- Admin access in Cura. Only an admin can add a new channel.
BotFather gives you one value — the bot token. You’ll paste that into Cura, which is the only credential you need to provide. Cura generates a webhook secret for you automatically.
1
Create a bot in Telegram
- In Telegram, open a chat with @BotFather (the verified official account).
- Send the
/newbotcommand and follow the prompts to name your bot and pick a username. - Copy the bot token BotFather sends back. It looks like a long string of numbers and letters separated by a colon.
2
Start the connection in Cura
- Go to Integrations → Channels.
- Click Add channel and choose Telegram.
- Review the requirements screen, then click Continue.
3
Configure and connect
On the Configure Telegram screen:
- Give the channel a name so you can recognise it in your Inbox (e.g. “Telegram — Front Desk”).
- Paste the bot token into the Bot Token field. Cura checks the format as you go.
- Leave the Webhook Secret as the value Cura pre-filled (you can regenerate it with Generate). Cura uses this to verify that incoming messages really came from Telegram.
- Choose whether to Enable AI Assistant for this channel.
- Click Create & Connect.
Telegram is connected. Cura can now receive and send messages on this bot.
4
Test it
- From a different Telegram account, search for your bot by its username and send it a message.
- Open the Cura Inbox — the message should appear within a few seconds, tagged as a Telegram conversation.
- If Master AI is on for this channel, the AI will reply automatically. If not, reply manually to confirm the connection works both ways.
You’re live on Telegram.
Configure how Telegram behaves
Once connected, fine-tune the channel under its per-channel settings:- Master AI — turn the AI on or off for this channel.
- AI schedule — have the AI answer only during business hours.
- Owner and notifications — decide who owns the channel and who gets notified of new messages.
Troubleshooting
- Messages aren’t arriving in Cura. Re-check that the bot token was pasted correctly (watch for trailing spaces) and that the channel shows as connected. If needed, remove and re-add the channel to re-register the webhook.
- “Invalid token” when saving. Re-copy the token from BotFather; if in doubt, ask BotFather to reissue it and paste the fresh one.
- The bot doesn’t respond to a customer’s first message. Some Telegram clients require the customer to tap Start before the bot can reply — that’s normal Telegram behaviour.
