Self-host Telegram bots

agent-framework-hosting-telegram converts Telegram Bot API updates into Agent Framework run values and renders final or streaming runs as Bot API operations. It does not provide a bot client, polling runtime, webhook router, command registry, or delivery framework.

pip install --pre agent-framework agent-framework-foundry agent-framework-hosting agent-framework-hosting-telegram azure-identity

Use any Telegram client library that can supply an update payload and execute the operations returned by the helpers. The sample uses aiogram, but the helpers are not tied to it.

Process an update

The aiogram webhook sample verifies Telegram's secret header, dispatches the update, and uses a bot-scoped session ID to preserve an agent session for each private chat or shared group chat.

async def handle_update(update: Mapping[str, Any]) -> None:
    """Process one Telegram update through the sample agent."""
    callback_query_id = telegram_callback_query_id(update)
    if callback_query_id is not None:
        await bot.answer_callback_query(callback_query_id=callback_query_id)

    chat_id = telegram_chat_id(update)
    session_id = telegram_session_id(update, bot_id=bot.id)
    if chat_id is None or session_id is None:
        return

    # Background webhook tasks may overlap. Serialize each chat so /new cannot
    # delete a session while an earlier response is still updating it.
    async with session_locks.setdefault(session_id, asyncio.Lock()):
        if (command := telegram_command(update)) is not None and await handle_command(update, command):
            return

        async def resolve_file_url(file_id: str) -> str | None:
            file = await bot.get_file(file_id)
            if file.file_path is None or (file.file_size is not None and file.file_size > MAX_MEDIA_BYTES):
                return None
            destination = BytesIO()
            await bot.download_file(file.file_path, destination=destination)
            data = destination.getvalue()
            if len(data) > MAX_MEDIA_BYTES:
                return None
            encoded = base64.b64encode(data).decode("ascii")
            return f"data:application/octet-stream;base64,{encoded}"

        try:
            run = await telegram_to_run(update, resolve_file_url=resolve_file_url, stream=True)
        except ValueError:
            LOGGER.debug("Ignoring non-actionable Telegram update", exc_info=True)
            return

        await bot.send_chat_action(chat_id=chat_id, action="typing")
        placeholder = await bot.send_message(chat_id=chat_id, text=PLACEHOLDER_TEXT)

        target = await state.get_target()
        # Reuse one AgentSession per Telegram chat. The /new command removes this
        # mapping so get_or_create_session creates a clean session next time.
        session = await state.get_or_create_session(session_id)
        stream = target.run(
            run["messages"],
            stream=True,
            session=session,
            options=run["options"],
        )
        if not isinstance(stream, ResponseStream):
            raise RuntimeError("agent did not return a response stream")

        last_edit_at = 0.0
        async for operation in telegram_from_streaming_run(
            stream,
            chat_id=chat_id,
            message_id=placeholder.message_id,
            initial_text=PLACEHOLDER_TEXT,
        ):
            if operation["method"] == "editMessageText":
                delay = EDIT_INTERVAL_SECONDS - (time.monotonic() - last_edit_at)
                if delay > 0:
                    await asyncio.sleep(delay)
                last_edit_at = time.monotonic()
            await execute_operation(operation)

        # Persist the updated AgentSession back under the stable per-chat key after
        # streaming has finalized and the history provider has recorded the turn.
        await state.set_session(session_id, session)

For polling and webhook setup, command handling, inbound media policy, streaming edits, and production deployment guidance, see the local Telegram sample.

Next steps

Go deeper:

• Self-hosting overview
• OpenAI Responses
• MCP
• Foundry Hosted Agents