TeleCode

Bridge your VS Code with Telegram - control your IDE from anywhere! Work with AI assistants, monitor tasks, and stay connected to your development environment through Telegram.

Features

• Telegram Bot Integration: Connect your VS Code instance to a Telegram bot
• AI Assistant Integration: Works with any VS Code Language Model (Claude, GPT, Gemini, etc.)
• Bidirectional Communication: Send and receive messages between Telegram and VS Code
• Extension API: Other extensions can send notifications via Telegram
• Copilot Chat Mirroring: Can mirror Copilot Chat responses back to Telegram with transcript-based sync
• Secure: Whitelist specific chat IDs for security
• Persistent State: Active chat survives VS Code restarts
• Auto-start: Optional automatic bot startup with VS Code
• Relay Panel: Built-in webview panel for incoming/outgoing Telegram relay

Setup

1. Create Telegram Bot

1. Open Telegram and search for @BotFather
2. Send /newbot and follow the instructions
3. Copy the bot token you receive

2. Configure VS Code Extension

1. Open VS Code Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P or Ctrl+Shift+P)
2. Run TeleCode: Configure Bot Token
3. Paste your bot token

3. Start the Bot

1. Run TeleCode: Start Bot command
2. Open your bot on Telegram
3. Send /start to get your chat ID
4. Run TeleCode: Configure Allowed Telegram Chats
5. Paste your chat ID(s) as comma-separated values (e.g., 123456789)

Usage

Telegram Bot Commands

• /start: Get your chat ID and welcome message
• /clear: Clear conversation history

From Telegram

Simply send any message to your bot! If AI integration is enabled, you'll get automatic responses from your configured Language Model.

From VS Code

• TeleCode: Send Message: Send a message to all configured chat IDs
• TeleCode: Configure Bot Token: Store/update Telegram bot token in SecretStorage
• TeleCode: Configure Allowed Telegram Chats: Set allowed chat IDs in extension state
• TeleCode: Start Bot: Start the Telegram bot
• TeleCode: Stop Bot: Stop the Telegram bot
• TeleCode: Clear Conversation History: Clear all conversation histories
• TeleCode: Open Relay Panel: Open the relay panel UI
• TeleCode: Forward Latest Message to Copilot Chat: Forward the latest incoming Telegram message to Copilot Chat
• TeleCode: Test Send: Test sending a message to active chat
• TeleCode: Send to Active Chat: Programmatically send message (for extensions)

Configuration

All settings are available under telecode in VS Code settings:

• autoStart: Automatically start bot on VS Code startup
• autoOpenRelayPanel: Automatically open relay panel on bot start/message
• enableAutoReply: Enable/disable automatic replies for incoming Telegram messages
• replySource: Reply source (directModel or copilotChatMirror)
• forwardIncomingToChat: Also forward incoming Telegram messages into Copilot Chat
• sendAcknowledgement: Send immediate receipt message on inbound Telegram messages
• enableAIIntegration: Legacy compatibility toggle (available setting)

Mirror behavior tuning settings:

• mirrorPollIntervalMs, mirrorMaxWaitMs, mirrorMaxAttempts
• mirrorMarkerMaxWaitMs, mirrorTranscriptSettleMs
• mirrorEnableTurnCompletionFastPath, mirrorEnableClipboardFallback
• mirrorRequestDispatchTimeoutMs, mirrorRequestDispatchQuickVerifyMs, mirrorNonBlockingDispatchVerification
• mirrorSendProgressUpdates, mirrorSendProgressIntro, mirrorProgressUpdateIntervalMs

mirrorMaxWaitMs supports 0 to wait indefinitely for a mirrored Copilot reply. mirrorEnableClipboardFallback is enabled by default so TeleCode can capture a reply from the live chat UI if transcript flush timing lags behind what Copilot is showing on screen.

Deprecated legacy settings (auto-migrated then cleared):

• botToken
• allowedChatIds

Security-sensitive values are not stored in plain settings:

• Bot token is stored in VS Code SecretStorage via TeleCode: Configure Bot Token
• Allowed chat IDs are stored in extension state via TeleCode: Configure Allowed Telegram Chats

Features in Detail

Conversation Context

The extension stores pending inbound messages and mirrors relay traffic in the panel. It does not maintain a dedicated per-chat 10-exchange memory buffer.

Extension API

Other VS Code extensions can integrate with TeleCode:

// Get TeleCode API
const telecodeExt = vscode.extensions.getExtension('your-publisher.telecode');
const telecode = telecodeExt?.exports;

// Send message to active Telegram chat
if (telecode?.isInTelegramContext()) {
    await telecode.sendToActiveTelegramChat('Hello from my extension!');
}

// Or use command
await vscode.commands.executeCommand('telecode.sendToActiveChat', 'My message');

Message Length Handling

Long AI responses are automatically split into multiple Telegram messages to respect Telegram's 4096 character limit.

Security

• Only whitelisted chat IDs can interact with your bot
• Bot token is stored in VS Code SecretStorage (not in workspace files)
• Allowed chat IDs are stored in extension state (not in workspace files)
• Unauthorized access attempts are logged and rejected

Troubleshooting

Bot not responding

1. Check if the bot is running: TeleCode: Start Bot
2. Verify your bot token is correct
3. Ensure your chat ID is in the allowed list
4. Check Output channel: View → Output → Select "TeleCode"

AI not responding

1. Check that enableAutoReply is enabled in settings
2. Ensure you have a Language Model available in VS Code (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, etc.)
3. If using mirror mode, verify replySource is set to copilotChatMirror and Copilot Chat is available
4. Check the Output channel for error messages

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Compile
npm run compile

# Watch mode
npm run watch

License

MIT