Prerequisites

• Docker # Install Docker Engine for your OS
• Docker Compose
• ...

Setup

• clone this repo
• create & activate a virtual environment named env
• install python3.10 (https://www.python.org/downloads/) # Python version 3.10 is necessary to run the bot
• run pip install -r requirements.txt
• copy config_sample.ini to config.ini and edit it with your personal App api_id and api_hash (get here: https://my.telegram.org/auth?to=apps)
• start the bot with:
  • a) python3.10 ./main.py - to run the bot temporarily
  • b) nohup python3.10 ./main.py & - to run the bot 24/7 on server as a background process

During the first session of running the bot with Python via Terminal:

• Pyrogram asks you to enter the phone number attached to your Telegram account (just digits including your Country Code digit(s), other symbols can be omitted)
• You’ll receive a confirmation code from Telegram
• If your Telegram account has two-step verification enabled - your password will be required
• If you see ‘bot started’ phrase in Terminal - the bot is working
• Three group chats (‘Keywords’, ‘Following’, ‘Mentions’) will appear in your Telegram account with @MyLittleDummyBot in every chat

Commands

1. Keywords bot

Forwards messages that contain specified keywords to 'Keywords' chat

In ‘Keywords’ chat:

• /help - show a list of Keywords bot commands
• /add keyword1 keyword2 ... - add new keyword(s) to global listener
• /remove keyword1 keyword2 ... - remove keyword(s) from global listener
• /show - show all keywords
• /exclude_chat chat_title | chat_id | @username - exclude chat or user or channel from being monitored by Keywords bot (may work slowly, wait for bot's response)
• /excluded_chats_list - show IDs of all excluded chats
• /delete_from_excluded_chats chat_id - delete a chat from your excluded chats list
• /findid chat_title | first_name last_name | id | @username - find IDs & names of chats or users or channels (may work slowly, wait for bot's response)
• /removeall - remove all keywords from global listener (turned off currently)

2. Mentions bot

Forwards to 'Mentions' chat all the messages where you were tagged (your TG account was mentioned). Replies to your messages are also counted as mentions

3. Following Bot

Forwards all messages from specified users to 'Following' chat

In ‘Following’ chat:

• To follow a Telegram user: forward manually any message from this user to ‘Following’ chat
• /show - to check IDs of all Telegram users you are currently following
• /unfollow user_ID - to remove a user from the list of who you follow

Pay attention:

• This bot is a Telegram client & an app. It is NOT a ‘usual TG bot via BotFather’, so do NOT create a new bot via BotFather
• Pyrogram is used in the bot. It is MTProto API framework to interact with the main Telegram API
• Data about your keywords & Telegram users who you follow is saved to config.ini file