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The TBL Language

TeleBotHost bots run on TBL — short for Tele Bot Language. It's JavaScript with extra built-in tools for Telegram bot development. If you know JS, you're already halfway there. If you don't, start with Your First Bot and add Logic when you're ready.

What is TBL?

TBL is JavaScript plus bot-building extras. You write the same language you'd use in a browser or Node app — variables, objects, if, functions, await — inside TeleBotHost commands.

On top of standard JavaScript, you get globals and instances purpose-built for bots:

Built-in extra What it saves you
Bot, Api Telegram send/edit/API calls without HTTP boilerplate
user, chat, params Parsing who sent what and where
db Async storage without setting up a database
modules, Libs Curated utilities without npm install
HTTP, Webhook, Webapp Outbound requests and HTTP endpoints

You don't bootstrap a server, install a Telegram library, or configure webhooks manually. Write commands in the dashboard, launch the bot, TeleBotHost runs your JavaScript.

That's the deal: real JS, sandboxed runtime, built around commands instead of long-running processes.

JavaScript — not a full Node server

You can't paste an Express app or a python-telegram-bot script into TeleBotHost and expect it to run unchanged. TBL runs JavaScript in a bot-focused sandbox — intentionally limited so bots stay stable and debuggable.

You can't You can
npm install arbitrary packages Use curated modules
Keep background processes alive Chain commands and react to new updates
Open raw sockets Call HTTP via built-in fetch patterns

The sandbox limits what code can do — which keeps bots stable and makes it harder to accidentally ship something dangerous. Less freedom, fewer 3 AM "why is my bot eating RAM" incidents.

Command surfaces

One bot project can serve multiple surfaces from the same command list:

Surface How Logic runs?
Telegram chat User sends command text Yes
Callback button Inline keyboard tap Yes
Public web /public/{bot_id}/page.html No — serves source
Webapp /webapp/{bot_id}/api Yes
Webhook Signed HTTP URL Yes

Same bot, different doors. Most beginners start with Telegram chat commands — the rest is there when you need it.

Built-in toolboxes

No package manager required. TBL ships with two drawers:

Toolbox Examples Docs
modules lodash, JWT, md2html, bcrypt, ethers Modules
Libs tgutil, date helpers, referrals, MCL Libs

Rule of thumb: general utility you'd npm install → modules. Telegram-bot-specific glue → Libs.

A line of TBL

Bot.sendMessage("Hi!")

That's real JavaScript calling a built-in extra. One line, no imports, no Telegram library setup. Or skip Logic entirely and put "Hi!" in the Answer field for the same result. Your call — Logic is where the fun starts.

Formatting and web

  • Markdown answers — default parse mode on commands; see Markdown & Formatting
  • Public web — HTML/CSS/JS commands with is_web; see Public Web Commands
  • md2html — convert Markdown to HTML in Logic via modules.md2html

If you already write JavaScript, you're writing TBL — the extras just save you boilerplate. If you're new to JS, the tutorials walk you through one step at a time — no assumptions about what you already know.