Duty Teller (Telegram Bot)

A minimal Telegram bot boilerplate using python-telegram-bot v22 with the Application API.

Get a bot token

1. Open Telegram and search for @BotFather.
2. Send /newbot and follow the prompts to create a bot.
3. Copy the token BotFather gives you.

Setup

1. Clone and enter the project

   cd duty-teller
   

2. Create a virtual environment (recommended)

   python -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate   # Linux/macOS
   # or: venv\Scripts\activate  # Windows
   

3. Install dependencies

   pip install -r requirements.txt
   

4. Configure the bot

   cp .env.example .env
   

   Edit .env and set BOT_TOKEN to the token from BotFather.

5. Miniapp access (calendar)
   To allow access to the calendar miniapp, set ALLOWED_USERNAMES to a comma-separated list of Telegram usernames (without @). Users in ADMIN_USERNAMES also have access; the admin role is reserved for future bot commands and API features. If both are empty, no one can open the calendar.

6. Optional env

   • DATABASE_URL – DB connection (default: sqlite:///data/duty_teller.db).
   • MINI_APP_BASE_URL – Base URL of the miniapp (for documentation / CORS).
   • MINI_APP_SKIP_AUTH – Set to 1 to allow /api/duties without Telegram initData (dev only; insecure).
   • INIT_DATA_MAX_AGE_SECONDS – Reject Telegram initData older than this (e.g. 86400 = 24h). 0 = disabled (default).
   • CORS_ORIGINS – Comma-separated allowed origins for CORS, or leave unset for *.

Run

python main.py

The bot runs in polling mode. Send /start or /help to your bot in Telegram to test.

Run with Docker

Ensure .env exists (e.g. cp .env.example .env) and contains BOT_TOKEN.

• Dev (volume mount; code changes apply without rebuild):

  docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up --build
  

  Stop with Ctrl+C or docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml down.

• Prod (no volume; runs the built image; restarts on failure):

  docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d --build
  

  For production deployments you may use Docker secrets or your orchestrator’s env instead of a .env file.

Production behind a reverse proxy: When the app is behind nginx/Caddy etc., request.client.host is usually the proxy (e.g. 127.0.0.1). The "private IP" bypass (allowing requests without initData from localhost) then applies to the proxy, not the real client. Either ensure the Mini App always sends initData, or forward the real client IP (e.g. X-Forwarded-For) and use it for that check. See api/app.py _is_private_client for details.

Project layout

• main.py – Builds the Application, registers handlers, runs polling and FastAPI in a thread.
• config.py – Loads BOT_TOKEN, DATABASE_URL, ALLOWED_USERNAMES, ADMIN_USERNAMES, CORS_ORIGINS, etc. from env; exits if BOT_TOKEN is missing.
• api/ – FastAPI app (/api/duties), Telegram initData validation, static webapp mount.
• db/ – SQLAlchemy models, session, repository, schemas.
• alembic/ – Migrations (use config.DATABASE_URL).
• handlers/ – Command and error handlers; add new handlers here.
• webapp/ – Miniapp UI (calendar, duty list); served at /app.
• requirements.txt – Pinned dependencies (PTB, FastAPI, SQLAlchemy, Alembic, etc.).

To add commands, define async handlers in handlers/commands.py (or a new module) and register them in handlers/__init__.py.

Tests

Install dev dependencies and run pytest:

pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
pytest

Tests cover api/telegram_auth (validate_init_data, auth_date expiry), config (is_admin, can_access_miniapp), and the API (date validation, 403/200 with mocked auth, plus an E2E auth test without auth mocks).