How to set up your Telegram bot on VibeNest

Your project is built and deployed — now let's get your bot live in Telegram. It takes about 3 minutes, and you do every step yourself: you never have to share your token in chat.

1. Create the bot in Telegram

1. Open @BotFather in Telegram.
2. Send /newbot.
3. Choose a display name (e.g. My Shop Assistant) and a username that ends in bot (e.g. my_shop_assistant_bot).
4. BotFather replies with a token that looks like 123456789:AAExxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

This token controls your bot — treat it like a password. Don't paste it into the chat — add it yourself in the next step.

2. Add the token yourself (Credentials page)

You add the token to your project yourself, through a secure page. Squad never asks for it in chat.

1. In the Squad mini app, open your project → Credentials (the secure keys page — it shows an "encrypted" badge).
2. Add a new entry:
   • Variable name: the environment variable your bot reads its token from — commonly BOT_TOKEN or TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN. Not sure which one your project uses? Ask in the Squad chat: "what env variable does my bot read the token from?" (asking is fine — that's not the secret itself).
   • Value: the token from BotFather.
3. Save. It's stored encrypted and delivered to your deployment automatically on the next build.

Add any other secrets the same way (database URL, payment or third-party API keys) — one entry each, all on the Credentials page. Never post a secret in the chat.

3. (Mini Apps only) Connect the Web App

Skip this step if you're building a plain chat bot.

If your project is a Telegram Mini App (TMA), you also need to point Telegram at your app's URL:

1. After the production deploy finishes, copy your production URL (open the VibeNest dashboard with the 🚀 Open VibeNest button in the chat — your project is already linked to your account).
2. In @BotFather: /mybots → pick your bot → Bot Settings → Menu Button → Configure menu button → paste the production URL and give the button a label.
3. (Optional) /newapp on the same bot to register a full Mini App with an icon and short name.

The URL must be HTTPS and exactly your production URL — Telegram refuses anything else.

4. Open the VibeNest dashboard

Tap 🚀 Open VibeNest in the chat after a production deploy. The link logs you in automatically (it's one-time and expires in ~15 minutes) and your project is already attached to your account.

From the dashboard you can see deploy status and logs, manage the hardware tier, and add a custom domain.

5. Check that it works

• Chat bot: open your bot in Telegram and send /start. It should respond.
• Mini App: tap the menu button (bottom-left of the chat) — your app should open inside Telegram.

Troubleshooting

The bot doesn't respond to /start.
Usually the token is missing, wrong, or saved under the wrong variable name. Open your project's Credentials page (Step 2), check the value and the variable name, fix it, and redeploy. If it still doesn't answer, the app may be crash-looping — see below.

"App is crash-looping" / the bot starts then dies.
Most often a required secret is missing. Add the missing value on the Credentials page (Step 2). You can also open the VibeNest dashboard (Step 4) and check the logs for the exact error.

The build failed.
In the Squad chat you'll see a 🔧 Send for fixing button on the failure message. Tap it — Squad pulls the build logs and tries to repair the code automatically, then redeploys.

The Mini App opens blank or won't load.
The Web App URL in @BotFather must be HTTPS and must match your current production URL exactly (not a test/preview URL). Re-check Step 3 after a production deploy.

Out of hardware / "no active tier".
Your VibeNest free slot may be taken by an older deployment. Open the dashboard (Step 4) and free a slot — delete an old production deployment — or pick a paid tier, then redeploy.

Custom domain & going live

Once everything works on the VibeNest URL, you can attach your own domain from the VibeNest dashboard. The bot keeps running while you do this.

Need help? Just ask in the Squad chat — describe what's wrong (never paste secrets) and we'll take it from there.