What causes "telegram: token is required" in chenhg5/cc-connect?

Set the token in your config: [platforms.telegram] token = "123456:ABC-DEF..."

telegram: token is required

Error message

telegram: token is required

What it means

telegram.New() validates the required 'token' option at construction time. If opts['token'] is absent or an empty string, it refuses to build the Platform and returns this error instead of failing later at runtime with cryptic Telegram 401 responses.

Source

Thrown at platform/telegram/telegram.go:140

	stopping            bool
	generation          uint64
	unavailableNotified bool
	everConnected       bool
	newBot              botFactory
	newBackoffTimer     func(time.Duration) backoffTimer
	newTypingTicker     func(time.Duration) typingTicker
}

const (
	initialReconnectBackoff = time.Second
	maxReconnectBackoff     = 30 * time.Second
	stableConnectionWindow  = 10 * time.Second
)

func New(opts map[string]any) (core.Platform, error) {
	token, _ := opts["token"].(string)
	if token == "" {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("telegram: token is required")
	}
	allowFrom, _ := opts["allow_from"].(string)
	core.CheckAllowFrom("telegram", allowFrom)

	// Build HTTP client with optional proxy support.
	// Timeout must exceed the server-side long-poll duration (pollTimeout − 1s = 59s)
	// to avoid the HTTP client racing with Telegram's response. 90s gives 30s headroom.
	httpClient := &http.Client{Timeout: 90 * time.Second}
	if proxyURL, _ := opts["proxy"].(string); proxyURL != "" {
		u, err := url.Parse(proxyURL)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("telegram: invalid proxy URL %q: %w", proxyURL, err)
		}
		proxyUser, _ := opts["proxy_username"].(string)
		proxyPass, _ := opts["proxy_password"].(string)
		if proxyUser != "" {
			u.User = url.UserPassword(proxyUser, proxyPass)
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4000b2338a)

Solutions

Set the token in your config: [platforms.telegram] token = "123456:ABC-DEF..."
Verify the bot token env var is exported and non-empty before launching cc-connect
Check for typos in the option key name (must be exactly "token")
Obtain a token from @BotFather if none exists

Example fix

// before
[platforms.telegram]
allow_from = "user1"
# after
[platforms.telegram]
token = "123456:ABC-DEF1234ghIkl-zyx57W2v1u123ew11"
allow_from = "user1"

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

token := os.Getenv("TELEGRAM_TOKEN")
if token == "" { return fmt.Errorf("TELEGRAM_TOKEN not set") }

Try / catch

p, err := telegram.New(opts)
if err != nil {
    slog.Error("telegram init failed", "err", err)
    os.Exit(1)
}

Prevention

Keep the token in config.toml or an env var and assert non-empty at startup
Check the key is exactly "token" and a string type
Run cc-connect doctor to catch missing platform config early

When it happens

Trigger: Calling telegram.New(opts) with a map that lacks the "token" key, or where opts["token"] is set to "" or is a non-string type (the type assertion fails and yields "").

Common situations: Missing token in config.toml ([platforms.telegram] section), env var substitution producing an empty string (TELEGRAM_TOKEN unset), or typo in the config key name.

Understand the failure class

Background: "X is required", "must be set", "cannot be empty": the missing-required-config error family, from Vertex AI project/location to WeChat keys — this error's family across 18 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of chenhg5/cc-connect@4000b2338a (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b8aa8554c99f320a. Report an issue: GitHub.