Telegram chatbot with a welcome and an image command

Telegram chatbot with a welcome and an image command

An n8n workflow that runs a small Telegram chatbot with three behaviours. It chats in the user's language, welcomes new users and draws a picture when a message starts with an image command.

What is inside

• workflow.json: the workflow as n8n exports it, sixteen nodes. Twelve do the work and four are sticky notes that label the routes. It holds no credential.
• README.md: these notes.

What we changed from the original copy

• The chat, the welcome and the picture steps used n8n's older OpenAI node, which n8n hides in its node list. Mindket's copy uses the current OpenAI node for all three.
• The chat step used gpt-4, which OpenAI's deprecations page, read on 12 November 2026, lists as shut down on 23 October 2026. The welcome step had no model, so the old node used its default, gpt-3.5-turbo, shut down on the same date. Both now use gpt-5.6-terra.
• The old picture step drew with its default model, DALL-E 2, at 512x512. The same page lists DALL-E 2 as shut down on 12 May 2026. The picture step now uses gpt-image-2.6-flare, a model OpenAI's page lists for image generation.
• A gpt-image model returns the picture as a file, not as a link. Send image used to send a link. It now sends the file that Create an image produces.
• The temperature of 0.8 and the limit of 500 tokens were dropped, together with the two values in Settings that held them. The model page lists no temperature setting, and reasoning tokens count against a token limit.
• Several nodes were linked to credentials in the author's n8n. The links are gone, so select your own.
• Nothing else. The system command, the router and the help text are the file's own.

Before you start

• An n8n instance with a public HTTPS address, on n8n Cloud or your own server. Telegram sends every message to that address.
• A Telegram bot made with BotFather, and its token.
• An OpenAI API key.

Set it up

1. In n8n, create a workflow, open its menu and choose Import from File. Pick workflow.json.
2. Add a Telegram credential with your bot token. Select it in Telegram Trigger, Send Typing action, Text reply, Send image and Send error message.
3. Add an OpenAI credential and select it in Chat_mode, Greeting and Create an image.
4. Check the models. The chat and the welcome use gpt-5.6-terra, and the pictures use gpt-image-2.6-flare.
5. Open Settings and read the system command. It sets the bot's tone and asks for a reply in the user's language.
6. Activate the workflow. Then send your bot /start, a plain sentence and /image a red kite.

How a run goes

1. Telegram Trigger starts the run for each update. PreProcessing makes sure message.text exists, and Settings adds the system command and the typing sign.
2. Send Typing action shows typing, or upload_photo for an image command. Merge waits for it and the settings before the message goes on.
3. CheckCommand routes by the start of the text. Text with no slash goes to Chat_mode. The text /start goes to Greeting. A text that starts with /image and a space goes to Create an image. Everything else goes to Send error message.
4. Chat_mode and Greeting ask gpt-5.6-terra for a reply, and Text reply sends it in Telegram's Markdown mode.
5. Create an image draws a picture from the words after the command, and Send image posts it as a photo.

Change the result

• Tone and language rules: system_command in Settings.
• Chat and welcome model: modelId in Chat_mode and Greeting.
• Picture model: modelId in Create an image.
• Help text: the text in Send error message.
• Commands: the rules in CheckCommand.

Good to know

• Mindket did not run this workflow. Telegram and OpenAI were not called, and nobody asked the bot for a real reply or picture. The models, fields and limits come from OpenAI's and Telegram's docs and from n8n's source, read on 12 November 2026.
• With the current OpenAI node, the simplified reply of the chat step holds the text in message.content, which is where Text reply reads it.
• Each message is answered on its own. The bot keeps no earlier messages.
• A photo or a sticker has no text. PreProcessing turns it into an empty text, and the first rule of CheckCommand sends it to the chat step as an empty message.
• Telegram's Markdown mode rejects text with an unpaired _ or *, and a message holds at most 4096 characters (Telegram's Bot API page).
• Telegram accepts photos up to 10 MB (Telegram's Bot API page).
• Your messages and picture requests go to OpenAI.
• The file holds no credential and no key.