Using Telegram CLI

Overview

Use tg as an account-aware Telegram client and local SQLite message index. Keep network reads, local reads, and externally visible writes distinct.

Require explicit user authorization before send, edit, delete, or any group mutation. These affect real Telegram state; several have no built-in confirmation.
Treat API hashes, proxy URLs, sessions, account metadata, exported messages, and databases as secrets. Never print config list --show-secrets, expose a credential-bearing proxy, or commit DATA_DIR.
Select an account explicitly with --account <name> in automation. Do not change the current account merely to run one command.
Use --json for finite scripted commands. Check the process exit status and top-level ok. Use refresh and inspect data.failures when automation must detect per-chat sync failures; sync-all omits that field.
Never combine --json and --yaml.
Do not claim that chats are contacts. This CLI has no contact-list or contact-sync command.

Prefer an installed tg and inspect live help: