Quick install

This is a quick installation guide for an administrator to configure and deploy TeleIRC. TeleIRC configuration is divided into these steps:

  1. Create a Telegram bot
  2. Configure IRC channel
  3. Configure and run TeleIRC

Create a Telegram bot

Note

TeleIRC DOES NOT support channels, only groups. Read more about channels vs groups here.

Create a new Telegram bot to act as a bridge from the Telegram side. The bot API provides a token key for the bot. Use the bot to discover the unique chat ID of your Telegram group.

Create bot with BotFather

  1. Start new message to @BotFather user on Telegram
  2. Send /start to @BotFather [1]
  3. Follow instructions to create new bot (e.g. name, username, description, etc.)
  4. Receive token key for new bot (used to access Telegram API)
  5. (REQUIRED) Set /setprivacy to DISABLED (so bot can see messages) [2]
  6. Add bot to Telegram group you plan to bridge

Optional configuration changes

  1. Set description or profile picture for your bot with @BotFather
  2. Block your bot from being added to more groups (/setjoingroups)

Configure IRC channel

There is no required configuration for an IRC channel. However, there are recommendations for best practices:

  1. Register your channel
  2. Give permanent voice to your bridge bot via ChanServ (most networks use the +V flag)
    • Example: On freenode, /query ChanServ ACCESS #channel ADD my-teleirc-bot +V

Configure and run TeleIRC

This section explains how to configure and install TeleIRC itself.

Requirements

  • git
  • nodejs (v8 and v10 supported)
  • yarn

Install dependencies

  1. Clone the repository (git clone https://github.com/RITlug/teleirc.git)
  2. Install dependencies (yarn)

Configuration

TeleIRC uses dotenv to manage API keys and settings. The config file you use is a .env file. Copy the example file to a production file to get started (cp env.example .env). Edit the .env file with your API keys and settings.

See also

See Config file glossary for detailed information.

Relay Telegram picture messages via Imgur

TeleIRC retrieves picture messages via the Telegram API. By default, picture messages from Telegram are sent to IRC through Imgur. See context for why Imgur is enabled by default.

Note

By default, TeleIRC uses the generic Imgur API key. Imgur highly recommends registering each TeleIRC bot.

To add Imgur support, follow these steps:

  1. Create an Imgur account
  2. Register your bot with the Imgur API
    • Select OAuth2 without callback option
  3. Put client ID into .env file
[1]@BotFather is the Telegram bot for creating Telegram bots
[2]Privacy setting must be disabled for TeleIRC bot to see messages in the Telegram group. By default, bots cannot see messages unless a person uses a command to interact with the bot. Since TeleIRC forwards all messages, it needs to see all messages. Messages are not stored or tracked by TeleIRC.