babalae/better-genshin-impact · warning · NotifierException

Telegram chat ID is not set

Error message

Telegram chat ID is not set

What it means

TelegramNotifier.SendAsync fails fast when TelegramChatId is null/empty. The chat_id is required for both sendMessage and sendPhoto; without it Telegram returns 400.

Source

Thrown at BetterGenshinImpact/Service/Notifier/TelegramNotifier.cs:115

                    throw new NotifierException($"Invalid Telegram proxy URL format: {proxyUrl}. Details: {ex.Message}");
                }

            _httpClient = new HttpClient(handler) { Timeout = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30) };
            _ownsHttpClient = true;
        }

        TelegramApiBaseUrl = FormatApiBaseUrl(telegramApiBaseUrl);
    }

    public void Dispose()
    {
        if (_ownsHttpClient) _httpClient.Dispose();
    }

    public async Task SendAsync(BaseNotificationData content)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(TelegramBotToken)) throw new NotifierException("Telegram bot token is not set");
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(TelegramChatId)) throw new NotifierException("Telegram chat ID is not set");
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(content.Message)) throw new NotifierException("No message content to send");

        try
        {
            if (content.Screenshot != null)
            {
                await SendImageMessageAsync(content.Screenshot, content.Message.Length < 1024 ? content.Message : null);
                if (content.Message.Length < 1024) return;
            }

            await SendTextMessageAsync(content.Message);
        }
        catch (HttpRequestException ex)
        {
            throw new NotifierException("Network error sending Telegram notification: " + ex.Message);
        }
        catch (TaskCanceledException)
        {

View on GitHub (pinned to a7cb36712d)

Solutions

  1. Obtain the chat id: message the bot, then query getUpdates, or add the bot to a group and read the negative id.
  2. Save the chat id in settings; for groups use the negative numeric id.
  3. Validate the field is non-empty before enabling the channel.

Example fix

// before
var n = new TelegramNotifier(null, token, chatId);

// after
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(chatId))
    throw new InvalidOperationException("Telegram chat id is required (use a positive user id or negative group id).");
var n = new TelegramNotifier(null, token, chatId);
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(chatId))
    throw new InvalidOperationException("Telegram chat id is required.");
if (!long.TryParse(chatId.TrimStart('-'), out _))
    throw new InvalidOperationException("Telegram chat id must be numeric (user id or negative group id).");

Type guard

static bool IsValidTelegramChatId(string chatId)
    => !string.IsNullOrEmpty(chatId) && long.TryParse(chatId, out _);

Try / catch

try { await telegramNotifier.SendAsync(data); }
catch (NotifierException ex) when (ex.Message.Contains("chat ID is not set"))
{ /* prompt user for chat id, no retry */ }

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: TelegramChatId property empty at SendAsync time; line-115 IsNullOrEmpty guard fires.

Common situations: User configured the bot token but not the chat id; for groups, the user forgot to add the bot to the group and read the chat id; negative group id vs positive user id confusion not handled (both are strings here).

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of babalae/better-genshin-impact@a7cb36712d (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/52149ca827066d1d. Report an issue: GitHub.