The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a system that lets AI apps, like Claude Desktop, connect to external tools and data sources. It gives a clear and safe way for AI assistants to work with local services and APIs while keeping the user in control.

As of not, the server provides read-only access to the Telegram API.

• Get the list of dialogs (chats, channels, groups)
• Get the list of (unread) messages in the given dialog
• Mark chanel as read
• Retrieve messages by date and time
• Download media files
• Get the list of contacts
• Draft a message
• ...

• Create a summary of the unread messages
• Find contacts with upcoming birthdays and schedule a greeting
• Find discussions on a given topic, summarize them and provide a list of links

• uv tool

uv tool install git+https://github.com/sparfenyuk/mcp-telegram

Before you can use the server, you need to connect to the Telegram API.

1. Get the API ID and hash from Telegram API

2. Run the following command:

   mcp-telegram sign-in --api-id <your-api-id> --api-hash <your-api-hash> --phone-number <your-phone-number>

   Enter the code you received from Telegram to connect to the API.

   The password may be required if you have two-factor authentication enabled.

Configure Claude Desktop to recognize the Exa MCP server.

1. Open the Claude Desktop configuration file:

   • in MacOS, the configuration file is located at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
   • in Windows, the configuration file is located at %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

   Note: You can also find claude_desktop_config.json inside the settings of Claude Desktop app

2. Add the server configuration

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "mcp-telegram": {
           "command": "mcp-server",
           "env": {
             "TELEGRAM_API_ID": "<your-api-id>",
             "TELEGRAM_API_HASH": "<your-api-hash>",
           },
         }
       }
     }
   }

Before working with Telegram’s API, you need to get your own API ID and hash:

1. Login to your Telegram account with the phone number of the developer account to use.
2. Click under API Development tools.
3. A 'Create new application' window will appear. Fill in your application details. There is no need to enter any URL, and only the first two fields (App title and Short name) can currently be changed later.
4. Click on 'Create application' at the end. Remember that your API hash is secret and Telegram won’t let you revoke it. Don’t post it anywhere!

1. Clone the repository

2. Install the dependencies

   uv sync

3. Run the server

   uv run mcp-telegram --help

Tools can be added to the src/mcp_telegram/tools.py file.

How to add a new tool:

1. Create a new class that inherits from ToolArgs

   class NewTool(ToolArgs):
       """Description of the new tool."""
       pass

   Attributes of the class will be used as arguments for the tool. The class docstring will be used as the tool description.

2. Implement the tool_runner function for the new class

   @tool_runner.register
   async def new_tool(args: NewTool) -> t.Sequence[TextContent | ImageContent | EmbeddedResource]:
       pass

   The function should return a sequence of TextContent, ImageContent or EmbeddedResource. The function should be async and accept a single argument of the new class.

3. Done! Restart the client and the new tool should be available.

Validation can accomplished either through Claude Desktop or by running the tool directly.

To run the tool directly, use the following command:

# List all available tools
uv run cli.py list-tools

# Run the concrete tool
uv run cli.py call-tool --name ListDialogs --arguments '{"unread": true}'

The MCP inspector is a tool that helps to debug the server using fancy UI. To run it, use the following command:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv run mcp-telegram

If you see the message 'Could not connect to MCP server mcp-telegram' in Claude Desktop, it means that the server configuration is incorrect.

Try the following:

• Use the full path to the uv binary in the configuration file
• Check the path to the cloned repository in the configuration file