tg-pane — Telegram in a Claude Code pane

Standalone terminal (Pi, Codex, native Herdr, or any terminal)

The Python backend also has an independent frontend: python terminal.py (use the Python environment where Playwright is installed). It uses the same TG_PANE_DATA configuration and Telegram session. No Claude process or AI model is required. The original Claude plugin remains unchanged.

Folders → chats → history: arrow keys/Enter or mouse, Esc goes back, / filters chat names, r refreshes, wheel/PgUp/PgDown scroll history, i writes, Enter on a message replies. Sending requires a second explicit y confirmation; Esc cancels. Private history is never marked read merely by viewing it. L opens the existing QR/password login flow. q exits.

This is a basic frontend, not full plugin parity: message reactions/edit/delete/forward, media viewing, digests and message-text search remain available only in the original plugin. Requests refresh at most once a minute while open, FLOOD_WAIT pauses for ten minutes, and an unresponsive CDP browser is restarted at most once every five minutes. No failed send is automatically retried. Offline UI tests: python -m unittest discover -s tests -p 'test_*.py'.

Read your Telegram chats and channels beside the conversation, and ask Claude to retell the unread posts by topic. No API key, no bot — it works through your own logged-in Telegram Web.

Quick start (details in Install):

/plugin install tg-pane --marketplace 34823/tg-pane

Then /tg-pane, scan the QR code with your phone — done.

Features

• Private — chats with people, unread first; read a chat without sending «read», reply from the input field. The other person sees «read» only when you reply.
• Categories — All chats, then your Telegram folders, with unread counts and a preview. Open one to see its chats, open a chat to read it (in a group, with who wrote what), scroll back with the mouse wheel (or ▲ / ▼); a picture has an ▣ open row — it is downloaded only then and drawn over the chat inside the pane (✕ closes). Theme in the header flips the colour. Summary ▾ on a folder or a channel/group offers unread (marks them read), or day / week / month (marks nothing read): Claude reads the posts and retells them by topic, right in the conversation. Mark all read clears a folder.
• Search — the field above the chat list finds chats by name at once and, on Enter, messages in all chats (Telegram's own search); ⌕ in a chat's top row searches inside that chat, and a hit opens a window around the message.
• Messages — one press picks a message (it is lit, its actions replace the top row): reply, edit and delete (only my own; delete asks first), react, forward (choose a chat, then confirm). Two presses in a row make it the target of a reply: the field says «↪», the message stays lit. Replies, forwards, reactions and «edited» show under/next to the message.
• Voice messages and video notes — «♪ voice · transcribe» asks Telegram (needs Telegram Premium) for the text and keeps it under the message.
• Times on the right, in your time zone: the system's, or — on a server set to UTC — asked once in the pane.
• The pane opens where you left it, after /clear and after a restart.
• Login by QR code drawn in the pane; works in a narrow pane too (list, then chat).

 [Private 3] [Categories 41] [Refresh]  cache 15:48
 [← Folders] Interesting 34 [Summary] [Mark all read]

  Markets News (7)   09:00   Club chat  [Mark read (2)] [Summary]
  Club chat (2)  08:12   ▲ older
  Markets          Wed   — 8.10 —
  …                      Pete: who's coming to training?    08:12

How it works

There is no Telegram API key and no bot: the mod drives Telegram Web (web.telegram.org/k) logged in to your account, in a headless Chromium on your machine, and reads it through Telegram Web's own internal API — the same calls its interface makes. Nothing leaves your machine except what Telegram Web itself sends. The browser is touched only while the pane is open and in use (counters once a minute, the open chat once a minute, a pause after 10 idle minutes and whenever Telegram answers FLOOD_WAIT). The mod writes to Telegram only when you press a button for it: a message or a reply you type, an edit or a delete of your own message, a reaction, a forward.

The backend is a few Python scripts in backend/ (Playwright). They also work on their own:

Script	What it does
tgbrowser.py start|stop|status|login	the headless Chromium; login prints the QR code in the terminal and asks for the cloud password
tgcache.py [folder…]	unread counters and previews of your folders into the cache
tgchat.py <peer> [N] [--read] [--before|--around|--after <mid>] [--query <words>]	a chat's history as JSON; --query searches inside the chat
tgmsg.py --peer <peer> [--reply <mid>] "<text>"	send one message (as an answer, if asked), check it went out
tgsearch.py "<words>" [N]	search the text of messages in all chats, JSON
tgact.py react|edit|delete|forward|transcribe <peer> <mid> [value]	one action on one message, checked by reading it again
tgmedia.py <peer> <mid>	downloads one message's picture (photo, image, video preview) to the data folder as PNG, only when you press «open»
tgunread.py "<folder>" | --peer <id> | --private [--mark-only] [--since day|week|month]	unread posts as text for a model; channels and groups are marked read, private chats (and --private) never; --since — everything posted in the period, nothing marked read

What it runs, reads and sends

The plugin is a pane (hooks/register.tsx) plus the Python scripts in backend/ (Playwright).

• Runs: the Python from the Python option (default python3) with one of the scripts in backend/ (tgbrowser.py, tgcache.py, tgchat.py, tgmsg.py, tgunread.py, tgsearch.py, tgact.py, tgmedia.py, tgview.py) and its arguments; the command is <python> <plugin folder>/backend/<script> <args>, no shell. tgbrowser.py starts a headless Chromium (Playwright's, with a debugging port on 127.0.0.1:9444 only) with its own profile in the data folder. Nothing else is started.
• Reads: Telegram Web (web.telegram.org/k) in that browser, logged in to your account: folders, unread counters, chat history, and the browser profile — which is your Telegram session. The pane also reads HOME (only to find the default data folder) and keeps its cache, lock and config.json in the data folder. It does not read your project files.
• Sends to the network: only what Telegram Web itself sends to Telegram: reading (and «read» when you open a channel with that option on, or reply), and, each only on its button, a message or reply you type, an edit or delete of your own message, a reaction, a forward (the chat is chosen and confirmed), and a request for the text of a voice message. There is no other server and no analytics.
• Sends to the conversation (and so to the model): when you press Summary, the pane submits a prompt ($.prompt.submit) that tells Claude to run tgunread.py and retell the result (the unread choice for a channel or a group also marks it read; day / week / month never marks anything; private chats have no summary). The unread posts of that folder or chat then become part of the Claude Code conversation and go to the model like any other text there. Press nothing, and nothing is passed on.
• Hooks: session.start registers the /tg-pane command and starts timers that run only while the pane is open; command.run for tg-pane opens the pane; session.end / classic.SessionStart / ui.close reopen or close it after /clear; ui.render draws it. No hook changes a prompt, a tool call, a setting or another plugin's behaviour.

Install

1. In Claude Code (a terminal session):

   /plugin install tg-pane --marketplace 34823/tg-pane
   

   Answer y to add the marketplace, pick a scope, set the options (all have defaults).

2. Python with Playwright and its Chromium (once):

   python3 -m pip install playwright
   python3 -m playwright install chromium
   

   Another Python (a venv) — put its path into the Python option (/config).

3. /tg-pane. The first time it starts the browser and shows a QR code: Telegram on your phone → Settings → Devices → Link Desktop Device, and scan it. If the account has a cloud password, the pane shows the command to run in a terminal (the password is typed there, never into the pane).

Options (/config)

Option	Default
Python	python3	the Python that has Playwright
Data folder	~/.local/share/tg-pane	browser profile (your Telegram session — keep it private), cache, lock; config.json there may set port (9444) and tz for the scripts run by hand
Private chats folder	empty	a Telegram folder for the Private tab; empty — every chat with a person or a bot
Language	en	en or ru, the pane and summaries
Mark channels read on open	on	as Telegram does; private chats and groups are never marked read by just looking
Time zone	system	IANA name for message times; empty and the system is on UTC — the pane asks once

Caveats

• Unofficial: Telegram Web's internal API can change with its updates; then a script fails and the pane shows the error.
• The browser profile in the data folder is a logged-in session of your account. Do not copy or share it. To log out: Telegram → Settings → Devices → end the «Telegram Web» session, or delete the folder.
• Linux and macOS. On a server run as root, Chromium starts with --no-sandbox.

Develop

claude plugin validate .
claude plugin test .
claude --plugin-dir .

Feedback

If it is useful, a ⭐ on the repo helps others find it (contributing, security). Ideas and questions — Discussions; bugs — Issues (a 👍 on an issue shows what matters most).

MIT license.

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