tg

Telegram terminal client.

Features

view mediafiles: photo, video, voice/video notes, documents
ability to send pictures, documents, audio, video
reply, edit, forward, delete, send messages
stickers
notifications
record and send voice msgs
auto download files
toggle chats: pin/unpin, mark as read/unread, mute/unmute
Message history

TODO:

secret chats
list contacts
search
show users and their status in current chat
create new chat
bots (bot keyboard)

Usage

python3.8 required.

From pip:

pip3 install tg

From sources:

pip3 install python-telegram
git clone git@github.com:paul-nameless/tg.git
cd tg
PYTHONPATH=. python3 tg/main.py

Docker (voice recordings and notifications won't work):

docker run -it --rm tg

Optional dependencies

terminal-notifier or other program for notifications (see configuration)
ffmpeg to record voice msgs and upload videos correctly
tdlib - in case of incompatibility with built in package For example, macOS:
```
brew install tdlib
```
and then set in config TDLIB_PATH

Configuration

Config file should be stored at ~/.config/tg/conf.py. This is simple python file.

Simple config:

PHONE = "[your phone number]"

Advanced configuration:

import os

# You can write anything you want here, file will be executed at start time
# You can keep you sensitive information in password managers or gpg
# encrypted files for example
def get_pass(key):
    # retrieves key from password store
    return os.popen("pass show {} | head -n 1".format(key)).read().strip()


PHONE = get_pass("i/telegram-phone")
# encrypt you local tdlib database with the key
ENC_KEY = get_pass("i/telegram-enc-key")

# log level for debugging, info by default
LOG_LEVEL = "DEBUG"
# path where logs will be stored (all.log and error.log)
LOG_PATH = "~/.local/share/tg/"

# If you have problems with tdlib shipped with the client, you can install and
# use your own, for example:
TDLIB_PATH = "/usr/local/Cellar/tdlib/1.6.0/lib/libtdjson.dylib"

# you can use any other notification cmd, it is simple python file which
# can format title, msg, subtitle and icon_path paramters
# In these exapmle, kitty terminal is used and when notification is pressed
# it will focus on the tab of running tg
NOTIFY_CMD = '/usr/local/bin/terminal-notifier -title "{title}" -subtitle "{subtitle}" -message "{msg}" -appIcon "{icon_path}" -sound default -execute \'/Applications/kitty.app/Contents/MacOS/kitty @ --to unix:/tmp/kitty focus-tab --no-response -m title:tg\''

# You can use your own voice recording cmd but it's better to use default one.
# The voice note must be encoded with the Opus codec, and stored inside an OGG
# container. Voice notes can have only a single audio channel.
VOICE_RECORD_CMD = "ffmpeg -f avfoundation -i ':0' -c:a libopus -b:a 32k '{file_path}'"

# You can customize chat and msg flags however you want.
# By default words will be used for readability, but you can make
# it as simple as one letter flags like in mutt or add emojies
CHAT_FLAGS = {
    "online": "●",
    "pinned": "P",
    "muted": "M",
    "unread": "U",
}
MSG_FLAGS = {
    "selected": "*",
    "forwarded": "F",
    "new": "N",
    "unseen": "U",
    "edited": "E",
    "pending": "...",
    "failed": "💩",
}

Mailcap file

Mailcap file is used for deciding how to open telegram files (docs, pics, voice notes, etc.).

Example: ~/.mailcap

# media
video/*; mpv "%s"
audio/ogg; mpv --speed 1.33 "%s"
audio/mpeg; mpv --no-video "%s"
image/*; qView "%s"

# text
text/html; w3m "%s"
text/html; open -a Firefox "%s"
text/plain; less "%s"

# fallback to vim
text/*; vim "%s"

Keybindings

vi like keybindings are used in the project. Can be used commands like 4j - 4 lines down.

For navigation arrow keys also can be used.

Chats:

j,k: move up/down
J,K: move 10 chats up/down
l: open msgs of the chat
m: mute/unmute current chat
p: pin/unpin current chat
u: mark read/unread
r: read current chat
?: show help

Msgs:

j,k: move up/down
J,K: move 10 msgs up/down
G: move to the last msg (at the bottom)
l: if video, pics or audio then open app specified in mailcap file, for example:
```
# Images
image/png; qView "%s"
audio/*; mpv "%s"
```
if text, open in less (to view multiline msgs)
e: edit current msg
<space>: space can be used to select multiple msgs for deletion or forwarding
y: yank (copy) selected msgs with to internal buffer (for forwarding) and copy current msg text or path to file to clipboard
p: forward (paste) yanked (copied) msgs to current chat
dd: delete msg for everybody (multiple messages will be deleted if selected)
i or a: insert mode, type new message
I or A: open vim to write long msg and send
v: record and send voice message
r,R: reply to a current msg
sv: send video
sa: send audio
sp: send picture
sd: send document
]: next chat
[: prev chat
?: show help

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tg