Telegram setup guide

Arcalotl sells access to a private Telegram group, supergroup, or channel. Members pay through the Arcalotl checkout, the bot hands them a single-use invite link, and it removes them when the subscription lapses. Payment recovery, cancellation saves, and annual offers arrive as messages from the same bot.

The bot is @ArcalotlBot. Every step below runs through it.

Before you start

You need:

• A Telegram group, supergroup, or channel where you are an administrator
• Permission to add a bot and promote it to administrator
• A Stripe account, or permission to create one during setup

Telegram bots cannot add people to a chat. Access is granted through invite links the bot creates for one member at a time, so the bot needs two admin rights: Invite users via link and Ban users.

Set up a new community

1. Open @ArcalotlBot in Telegram and press Start.
2. Add the bot to your group or channel, then promote it to administrator with Invite users via link (or Add users/subscribers) and Ban users enabled where those controls are shown. For a channel, also enable Post messages if you want the bot to publish plan links or announcements. Labels vary between Telegram clients.
3. The bot greets you in its private chat. Send /setup there and pick the chat. If someone else added the bot, send /setup in that chat instead and tap the button: any administrator can connect it, not only the person who added the bot.
4. The bot replies with a Connect payments button and a dashboard claim code. Finish the Stripe connection in the browser.
5. Sign in to the Arcalotl dashboard, open Connect a platform, and enter the claim code to attach your dashboard account as the owner. If the code expires during Stripe setup, send /setup again for a fresh one.

The same three steps appear in the dashboard's platform picker with a link to the bot. Members already in the chat are left alone: the bot only ever removes someone whose Arcalotl subscription lapses.

Connect Telegram to an existing community

If you already run Arcalotl on Discord or another platform:

1. In the dashboard, open Settings, then Connected Platforms, then Connect platform, choose Telegram, and generate a setup code.
2. Add the bot to the chat as an administrator with both rights.
3. Send /setup <code> to the bot in its private chat and pick the chat.

Members who link their Telegram and Discord identities with /link hold one subscription that grants access on both.

Create a plan

Create plans in the dashboard as usual. In the entitlement picker, Telegram offers one grant: Membership of the connected chat. Attach it to the plan's entitlement and the bot handles the rest.

Member checkout

The private chat with the bot is the store. In the group, /subscribe@YourBot replies with a button that opens the bot; the bot never sells inside the group. In the private chat, /subscribe lists plans as buttons. Tapping one opens the secure browser checkout. The moment payment confirms, the bot sends an invite link that works once and expires after 48 hours.

The dashboard's subscribe message for the connected chat lists every plan as a link into the bot, so a channel where members cannot type still has a one-tap path to checkout. In Settings, under Connected Platforms, configure the connected chat's Subscribe channel and save to publish it. You can also share deep links yourself:

• https://t.me/YourBot?start=<community id> opens the plan list.
• https://t.me/YourBot?start=plan_<plan id> opens checkout for one plan.
• https://t.me/YourBot?start=tier_<tier id> lists one tier's billing options.

/start also tells a paying member where they stand: inside the chat it confirms membership, outside it re-sends the invite link.

Donations

If the community has a donation path, /donate in the private chat shows a short ladder of amounts inside the configured range, and /donate 15 (or 7.50, $15) goes straight to checkout for that amount. The plan list ends with a Donate button, and the subscribe message's Donate entry opens the same picker. Donations are one-time payments; they grant whatever the donation path's entitlement grants.

What happens on renewal and lapse

• Failed renewal: the bot messages the member with a payment update link. Access stays active during the grace period.
• Cancellation: /cancel asks for a reason, then offers a save (discount, pause, or downgrade) before confirming.
• Lapse: the bot removes the member from the chat with a ban, which blocks re-entry through any other invite link. A renewed or new subscription lifts the ban and sends a fresh link. Removed members appear under the chat's "Removed users" in Telegram.
• Administrators: the bot cannot remove other administrators or the chat creator. Their access is left in place and logged.

Commands

Check your setup

Before sharing the subscribe link:

1. Confirm the bot is an administrator and the dashboard shows the correct connected chat. Keep Telegram privacy mode enabled; explicit commands such as /subscribe@ArcalotlBot work in groups.
2. Confirm payments are connected and the plan grants membership of the intended chat. Use a separate test member, not the chat owner or an admin, when testing removal.
3. Open the plan link as that member, complete checkout, and verify the bot sends an invite. Join the chat, open /manage, and confirm the member portal shows the same subscription.
4. End that test subscription with Refund and cancel from the subscriber's detail pane in the dashboard. Confirm the bot removes the test member from the chat. Subscribing again sends a fresh invite link.

If the bot cannot find your chat, confirm you promoted the bot and that the dashboard shows the connected chat. Run /setup@ArcalotlBot from the group and follow its private setup button. For a channel, start a private chat with the bot before adding it, then send /setup there.

Limits and caveats

• The bot can only message members who pressed Start. Every subscriber does so before checkout, so lifecycle messages reach them. If a member blocks the bot, their invite link is kept and shown the next time they open the bot.
• Telegram Stars subscriptions are not used. Payments run through Stripe on your connected account, like every other Arcalotl platform.
• Invite links are single-use and expire after 48 hours. A member who does not join in time sends /start to the bot and gets a new link.
• The only channel the bot can post to is the connected chat itself, and everything posted there reaches every member. Leave the operator notification channel unset for Telegram (admins are messaged directly) unless you want members to see those notifications.
• When a group is converted to a supergroup the bot follows the new chat id, including plan benefits and the subscribe message, which is re-posted.