Laniakea

A lightweight, easy-to-use, and performant Telegram Bot API wrapper for Go. It simplifies bot development with a clean plugin system, middleware support, automatic command generation, and built-in rate limiting.

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✨ Features

• Simple & Intuitive API: Designed for ease of use, based on practical examples.
• Plugin System: Organize your bot's functionality into independent, reusable plugins.
• Command Handling: Easily register commands and extract arguments.
• Middleware Support: Run code before or after commands (e.g., logging, access control).
• Automatic Command Generation: Generate help and command lists automatically.
• Built-in Rate Limiting: Protect your bot from hitting Telegram API limits (supports retry_after handling).
• Context-Aware: Pass custom database or state contexts to your handlers.
• Fluent Interface: Chain methods for clean configuration (e.g., bot.ErrorTemplate(...).AddPlugins(...)).

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📦 Installation

go get git.nix13.pw/scuroneko/laniakea

or

go get github.com/scuroneko/laniakea

🚀 Quick Start (with step-by-step explanation)

Here is a minimal echo/ping bot example with detailed comments.

package main

import (
	"log"

	"git.nix13.pw/scuroneko/laniakea" // Import the Laniakea library
)

// echo is a command handler function.
// It receives two parameters:
//   - ctx: the message context (contains info about the message, sender, chat, etc.)
//   - db: your custom database context (here we use NoDB, a placeholder for no database)
func echo(ctx *laniakea.MsgContext, db laniakea.NoDB) error {
	// Answer the user with the text they sent, without any command prefix.
	// ctx.Text contains the user's message with the command part stripped off.
	ctx.Answer(ctx.Text) // User input WITHOUT command
	return nil
}

func main() {
	// 1. Create bot options. Replace "TOKEN" with your actual bot token from @BotFather.
	opts := &laniakea.BotOpts{Token: "TOKEN"}

	// 2. Initialize a new bot instance.
	//    We use laniakea.NoDB as the database context type (no database needed for this example).
	bot, err := laniakea.NewBot[laniakea.NoDB](opts)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	// Ensure bot resources are cleaned up on exit.
	defer bot.Close()

	// 3. Create a new plugin named "ping".
	//    Plugins help group related commands and middlewares.
	p := laniakea.NewPlugin[laniakea.NoDB]("ping")

	// 4. Add a command to the plugin.
	//    p.NewCommand(echo, "echo") creates a command that triggers the 'echo' function on the "/echo" command.
	p.AddCommand(p.NewCommand(echo, "echo"))

	// 5. Add another command using an anonymous function (closure).
	//    This command simply replies "Pong" when the user sends "/ping".
	p.AddCommand(p.NewCommand(func(ctx *laniakea.MsgContext, db laniakea.NoDB) error {
		ctx.Answer("Pong")
		return nil
	}, "ping"))

	// 6. Configure the bot with a custom error template and add the plugin.
	//    ErrorTemplate sets a format string for errors (where %s will be replaced by the actual error).
	//    AddPlugins(p) registers our "ping" plugin with the bot.
	bot = bot.ErrorTemplate("Error\n\n%s").AddPlugins(p)

	// 7. Automatically generate commands like /start, /help, and a list of all registered commands.
	//    This is optional but very useful for most bots.
	if err := bot.AutoGenerateCommands(); err != nil {
		log.Println(err)
	}

	// 8. Start the bot, listening for updates (long polling).
	if err := bot.Run(); err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
}

How It Works

1. BotOpts: Holds configuration like the API token.
2. NewBot[T]: Creates a bot instance. The type parameter T allows you to pass a custom database context (e.g., *sql.DB) that will be available in all handlers. Use laniakea.NoDB if you don't need it.
3. NewPlugin: Creates a logical group for commands and middlewares.
4. AddCommand: Registers a command. The first argument is the handler function (func(*MsgContext, T) error), the second is the command name (without the slash).
5. Handler Functions: Receive *MsgContext (message details, methods like Answer) and your custom database context T, and return an error for centralized error handling.
6. ErrorTemplate: Sets a template for error messages. The %s placeholder is replaced by the actual error.
7. AutoGenerateCommands: Registers plugin-defined commands with Telegram across the supported scopes.
8. Run(): Starts the bot's update polling loop and returns an error if startup or polling fails.
9. A Bot instance is single-use. After Run() or RunWithContext() returns, create a new bot instance for the next session.

📖 Core Concepts

Plugins

Plugins are the main way to organize code. A plugin can have multiple commands and middlewares.

plugin := laniakea.NewPlugin[*MyDB]("admin")
plugin.AddCommand(plugin.NewCommand(banUser, "ban"))
bot.AddPlugins(plugin)

Commands

A command is a function that handles a specific bot command (e.g., /start).

func myHandler(ctx *laniakea.MsgContext, db *MyDB) error {
    // Access command arguments via ctx.Args ([]string)
    // Reply to the user: ctx.Answer("some text")
    return nil
}

MsgContext

Provides access to the incoming message and useful reply methods:

• Answer(text string) *AnswerMessage: Sends a message with parse_mode none.
• AnswerLong(text string) []*AnswerMessage: Splits long plain text into multiple messages.
• AnswerMarkdown(text string) *AnswerMessage: Sends a message formatted with MarkdownV2 (you handle escaping).
• Keyboard(text string, keyboard *InlineKeyboard) *AnswerMessage: Sends a message with parse_mode none and inline keyboard.
• KeyboardLong(text string, keyboard *InlineKeyboard) []*AnswerMessage: Splits long plain text into multiple messages and attaches the keyboard to the final chunk.
• KeyboardMarkdown(text string, keyboard *InlineKeyboard) *AnswerMessage: Sends a message formatted with MarkdownV2 (you handle escaping) and inline keyboard.
• AnswerPhoto(photoId, text string) *AnswerMessage: Sends a message with photo with parse_mode none.
• AnswerPhotoMarkdown(photoId, text string) *AnswerMessage: Sends a photo with MarkdownV2 caption (you handle escaping).
• EditCallback(text string): Edits message with parse_mode none after clicking inline button.
• EditCallbackMarkdown(text string): Edits a message formatted with MarkdownV2 (you handle escaping) after clicking inline button.
• SendAction(action tgapi.ChatActionType): Sends a “typing”, “uploading photo”, etc., action.
• Fields: Text, Args, From, FromID, Msg, InlineMsgId, CallbackQueryId, etc.
• And more methods and fields!

tgapi: API and Uploader

tgapi provides two clients:

• API for JSON requests (e.g., SendMessage, EditMessageText, methods using file_id/URL).
• Uploader for multipart uploads (e.g., SendPhoto, SendDocument, SendVideo with binary files).

This split keeps method intent explicit: JSON-only calls go through API, file uploads go through Uploader.

For advanced cases, tgapi.NewRequest(...) and tgapi.NewUploaderRequest(...) remain public as low-level escape hatches. They are intentionally less safe than method-specific helpers: callers must supply the correct Telegram method name and compatible request/response types themselves.

Database Context

The T in NewBot[T] is a powerful feature. You can pass any type, but shared dependencies such as database pools should usually use a pointer type.

type MyDB struct { /* ... */ }
db := &MyDB{...}
bot, err := laniakea.NewBot[*MyDB](opts)
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
}
bot.DatabaseContext(db)

🧩 Middleware

Middleware are functions that run before a command handler. They are perfect for cross-cutting concerns like logging, access control, rate limiting, or modifying the context.

Signature

A middleware function has the same signature as a command handler, but it must return a bool:

func(ctx *MsgContext, db T) bool

• If it returns true, the next middleware (or the command) will be executed.
• If it returns false, the execution chain stops immediately (the command will not run).

Adding Middleware

Use AddMiddleware on a plugin to add one or more shared middleware functions. They are executed in the order they are added.

plugin := laniakea.NewPlugin[*MyDB]("admin")
plugin.AddMiddleware(laniakea.NewMiddleware("logging", loggingMiddleware))
plugin.AddMiddleware(laniakea.NewMiddleware("admin-only", adminOnlyMiddleware))
plugin.AddCommand(plugin.NewCommand(banUser, "ban"))

Example Middlewares

1. Logging Middleware – logs every command execution.

func loggingMiddleware(ctx *laniakea.MsgContext, db *MyDB) bool {
    log.Printf("User %d executed command: %s", ctx.FromID, ctx.Msg.Text)
    return true // continue to next middleware/command
}

2. Admin-Only Middleware – restricts access to users with a specific role.

func adminOnlyMiddleware(ctx *laniakea.MsgContext, db *MyDB) bool {
    if !db.IsAdmin(ctx.FromID) { // assume db has IsAdmin method
        ctx.Answer("⛔ Access denied. Admins only.")
        return false // stop execution
    }
    return true
}

Important Notes

• Middleware can modify the MsgContext (e.g., add custom fields) before the command runs.

⚙️ Advanced Configuration

• Inline Keyboards: Build keyboards using laniakea.NewInlineKeyboardJson, laniakea.NewInlineKeyboardBase64, or laniakea.NewInlineKeyboard. Bot.SetPayloadType(...) defines the default payload format, and InlineKeyboard.SetPayloadType(...) overrides it for one keyboard.
• Rate Limiting: Pass a configured utils.RateLimiter via BotOpts to handle Telegram's rate limits gracefully.
• Localization: L10n is safe for concurrent use once attached to the bot.
• Custom Update Handlers: Use plugin.AddUpdateHandler(...) for Telegram update types that are not part of the command/payload flow.
• Lifecycle: RunWithContext(...) does not call Close() for you. Shut the bot down explicitly, and create a fresh Bot for the next run.

Telegram Update Handling

• Commands and payloads are handled through plugins.
• Non-command updates can be routed with plugin.AddUpdateHandler(updateType, handler).
• message, channel_post, and callback_query stay on the command/payload flow.
• tgapi.Update exposes a derived Type field after JSON unmarshalling so handlers can inspect the effective update kind directly.

📝 License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 — see the LICENSE file for details.

📚 Learn More

GoDoc

Wiki

Telegram Bot API

✅ Built with ❤️ by scuroneko