Full-featured Telegram client for the terminal, built with Python + Telethon + Textual.

pip install git+https://github.com/eveiljuice/tg-cli.git

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eveiljuice/tg-cli/master/install.sh | bash

pipx install git+https://github.com/eveiljuice/tg-cli.git

git clone https://github.com/eveiljuice/tg-cli.git
cd tg-cli
pip install .

Before using tg-cli, you need api_id and api_hash from Telegram:

1. Go to my.telegram.org
2. Log in with your phone number
3. Click API development tools
4. Fill in the form (app title: tg-cli, platform: Desktop)
5. Click Create application
6. Copy your api_id and api_hash

Set credentials via environment variables:

export API_ID=12345678
export API_HASH=abcdef1234567890

Or create a .env file:

API_ID=12345678
API_HASH=abcdef1234567890

Or just run tg-cli — it will prompt on first launch and save to ~/.tg-cli/config.toml.

tg-cli

• Python 3.11+

MIT