Node Editor

Telegram remote control

Send a photo from your phone, type one word, and the workflow runs and sends the result back. A setup you do once, in about five minutes.

Last reviewed October 25, 2026

What you are setting up

Two nodes make a workflow answer to a Telegram chat. Telegram Trigger owns a bot: whatever you send to that bot lands in the inputs wired to it, and a trigger word starts the run. Telegram Send delivers results back to the same chat when the run completes. Build the workflow first, then add the two nodes and follow the steps below.

The chat is a private one between you and your own bot. Groups and channels are not supported, and nobody else can use your bot: a stranger who finds it is told it is private.

Step 1: create a bot

1
Open BotFather in Telegram
Search for BotFather, the official account that makes bots, and start a chat.
2
Send /newbot
Give the bot a display name, then a username that ends in bot. BotFather replies with a token: a number, a colon, and a long string.
3
Copy the token
Copy it in full. It is the key to the bot; do not post it anywhere public.

Step 2: connect it to the node

1
Add Telegram Trigger
Find it in the Automation group and add it to the canvas.
2
Paste the token
Put it in the Bot token field and connect. The token is checked with Telegram, encrypted on the server, and never shown or stored in the workflow itself.
3
Pair your chat
A pairing panel appears with a QR code and a link. Scan the code with your phone, or copy the link and open it, then press Start in the chat that opens.

Expected result

The pairing panel disappears and the node shows the bot's username and your paired chat. From now on only that chat can talk to the workflow.

One bot, one workflow

A bot can be connected to one workflow at a time. To use Telegram on a second workflow, create a second bot in BotFather. To move a bot, disconnect it from the first workflow, then connect it to the other. To pair a different phone or account, use Pair a different chat on the node; it replaces the current pairing.

Step 3: wire the node

The trigger has four outputs and one trigger port. Wire what you will send:

Image → Image Input: Photos you send, as compressed photos or as image files, land in the wired Image Input.
Video → Video Input: Clips you send land in the wired Video Input.
Text and Prompt → Text Input: Messages you type land in the wired Text Inputs, for a prompt, a headline or a variable.
Run → your generators: The trigger word starts the chains wired to this port, and nothing else on the canvas.

Press Test on the node to fire the wired chains exactly as a chat message would, before you leave the desk.

Step 4: use it from your phone

Send media and text: Each photo, clip or message is collected into the wired inputs as it arrives, and the bot replies to every one, accepted or refused. Nothing is ever silently dropped.
Fire the run: Send the trigger word, /run unless you changed it on the node. A photo captioned with the trigger word is stored and fires the run in one go, which is the natural camera gesture.
Follow the run: The bot posts a status message and keeps editing it as the run progresses, then reports the outcome.
/status or /help: Shows what has been collected so far and the trigger word.
/clear: Empties what has been collected, to start a fresh set.
The limit: Telegram hands bots files up to 20 MB. A larger photo or clip is refused with a reply saying so; send a smaller one.

What you send is not written into the workflow

Items from the chat become inputs for that run only. The Image Input on the canvas keeps whatever it held, so a phone session never rewrites the board.

Step 5: get the results back

Add a Telegram Send node and wire the previews, or the generators' outputs, into its Auto Send port. When the run completes, each result is delivered to the paired chat. The node uses the bot from the workflow's Telegram Trigger; with one trigger it binds by itself, with several it offers a picker.

Pictures: Sent as photos. A very large or unusually shaped picture is sent as a file instead, at full quality.
Clips and files: Sent as files up to Telegram's limit. Anything beyond it arrives as a link to download.
Failures are reported: An item that could not be delivered is named in the chat rather than counted as sent.
Manual Send: The second port, which queues results until you send them by hand, is coming soon.

If something goes wrong

That doesn't look like a token: Copy it again from BotFather, the whole line including the part before the colon.
Telegram rejected the token: The token was revoked or mistyped. Ask BotFather for a new one with /token and connect again.
The bot is connected elsewhere: Disconnect it from the other workflow, or make a new bot for this one.
Nothing happens after Start: Open the pairing link from the node again; a link is tied to the connection that made it. If you changed phones, use Pair a different chat.
The run did not start: The trigger word fires only the chains wired to the Run port. Check the wire, and that the run has what it needs: a run that is missing an input or credits replies with the reason.

The other triggers: Run node and Schedule