Why does my Telegram post fail with a permissions error?

The bot is not an admin with Post Messages rights in that channel. See the requirement above, then reconnect the channel.

How long can a Telegram message be?

4096 characters of text, or 1024 as a caption once a photo, video or document is attached. SkedCast checks the limit when you compose and returns a 422 before anything is scheduled.

Can I post silently or stop forwarding?

Yes. Set disableNotification: true to post without a notification sound, and protectContent: true to stop subscribers forwarding and saving the message.

Can one bot post to more than one channel?

Yes. Connect each channel as its own account with the same bot token, then put the channel accounts you want in targets.accountIds. Each post goes to the channel its account was connected as. There is no per-post destination field.

Send a message to a Telegram channel

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6 min read

What do you need before you publish?#

You need one connected account for the platform. Connect it in the SkedCast console. If a client owns the account, create a connect link with POST /v1/clients/{id}/connect-invites and send it to them. They authorize from that page without a SkedCast login.

GET /v1/accounts lists the connected accounts with their ids. Pass that id in targets.accountIds below.

Illustration: a code editor card with a send arrow and a clock badge, linked by a dotted line through a small bot icon to a paper-plane channel card full of message bubbles. — Schedule a Telegram channel message from code, through your own bot.

How do you schedule a Telegram post with the API?#

bash

curl -X POST https://api.skedcast.com/v1/posts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sked_live_YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "clientId": "<clientId>",
    "content": "Launch day is here 🚀",
    "mediaIds": ["<mediaAssetId>"],
    "targets": { "mode": "selection", "accountIds": ["<telegramAccountId>"] },
    "schedule": { "type": "at", "scheduledAt": "2030-01-15T15:00:00Z" }
  }'

A minimal Telegram post, scheduled for a specific time.

Which Telegram fields can you set?#

Put everything platform-specific in one variants entry with "platform": "telegram" and an overrides object. Send only telegram keys on a telegram variant. SkedCast reads the keys in the table below and ignores the rest.

Field	Type	Values / default	Notes
`parseMode`	enum	`MarkdownV2` \\| `HTML` \\| `Markdown`	How the message text is parsed.
`disableNotification`	boolean	`false`	Post without a notification sound.
`protectContent`	boolean	`false`	Prevent forwarding and saving.
`firstComment`	string	—	Posted as a reply to the published message in the same chat. Best-effort: a failed comment never fails the post. The outcome is reported as `firstCommentIssue` on `GET /v1/post-targets/{id}`.

How do you add Telegram-specific settings?#

json

{
  "clientId": "<clientId>",
  "content": "*New release* is live.",
  "mediaIds": [],
  "targets": { "mode": "selection", "accountIds": ["<telegramChannelAccountId>"] },
  "variants": [
    { "platform": "telegram", "overrides": { "parseMode": "MarkdownV2" } }
  ],
  "schedule": { "type": "at", "scheduledAt": "2030-01-15T15:00:00Z" }
}

The same POST /posts body, with a variants entry added.

How do you connect a Telegram channel?#

With a bot you own, in four steps. Telegram's Bot API only lets a bot post to a channel where it is an administrator with the Post Messages right (can_post_messages).

Create a bot with @BotFather in Telegram and copy its token.
Add the bot to your channel as an administrator, with Post Messages turned on.
In the SkedCast console, connect Telegram with the bot token and the channel's @username (or its -100… id).
Call GET /v1/accounts and use the new channel account's id in targets.accountIds.

What are Telegram's message limits?#

Limit	Value
Message text	4096 characters
Caption once media is attached	1024 characters
Media per post	Up to 10 (sent as one album)
Formatting	`parseMode`: MarkdownV2, HTML or Markdown

Telegram message limits (Telegram Bot API; SkedCast checks them before scheduling)

How do you check that the post published?#

Publishing creates one post target per account. GET /v1/post-targets/{id} (or GET /v1/posts/{id}) reports status, plus externalId (Telegram's own post id) and permalink (its public URL) once published. To avoid polling, subscribe to the target.published and target.failed webhooks (see the webhooks guide).

From a bot token to a scheduled Telegram message.

telegramapipublish

FAQ

Why does my Telegram post fail with a permissions error?: The bot is not an admin with Post Messages rights in that channel. See the requirement above, then reconnect the channel.
How long can a Telegram message be?: 4096 characters of text, or 1024 as a caption once a photo, video or document is attached. SkedCast checks the limit when you compose and returns a 422 before anything is scheduled.
Can I post silently or stop forwarding?: Yes. Set disableNotification: true to post without a notification sound, and protectContent: true to stop subscribers forwarding and saving the message.
Can one bot post to more than one channel?: Yes. Connect each channel as its own account with the same bot token, then put the channel accounts you want in targets.accountIds. Each post goes to the channel its account was connected as. There is no per-post destination field.

Send a message to a Telegram channel with the API