M mctl-telegram
ChatGPT App · MCP Server · tg.mctl.ai

Your authorized Telegram account,
inside your AI assistant

Install from the ChatGPT App Directory or connect via Settings → Apps. Summarise chats, search messages, and draft replies from ChatGPT, Claude, or any MCP client — after OAuth sign-in to the Telegram account you own and control.

Install in ChatGPT Add to Claude See the docs

Privacy policy · Security model · [email protected] · Want the session on your own machine? Local Bridge

What you can do

Summarise unread chats

Ask your assistant what you missed while you were away. Get a digest of any chat, group, or channel without opening Telegram.

Draft and review messages

Let your assistant write or check a reply before you send. Review tone, catch errors, or translate — then send when ready.

Search across conversations

Find anything you said or received, instantly. Search by topic, person, or date across your full history.

Triage your inbox

List every chat and surface what still needs a reply, so you can clear a backlog of unread conversations in one pass.

Translate on the fly

Read foreign-language chats in your own language, or draft a reply in theirs — without leaving the conversation.

Pin what matters

Ask your assistant to pin a key message in a chat (requires admin rights in groups) so the important thing stays at the top where everyone sees it.

How it works

Your AI client Claude, ChatGPT…
mctl-telegram MCP server
Telegram MTProto API
  1. You authorise with Telegram sign-in. mctl-telegram stores an encrypted MTProto session on your behalf.
  2. When you prompt your assistant, it calls the MCP tools on this server over an OAuth-authenticated connection.
  3. mctl-telegram makes MTProto calls to Telegram, formats the result, and returns it to your assistant.

Install in ChatGPT

  1. Open ChatGPT → Settings → Apps and select your draft app (or install from the App Directory once published).
  2. Set the MCP server URL to https://tg-preview.mctl.ai/mcp.
  3. Authentication: OAuth. ChatGPT discovers this server via https://tg-preview.mctl.ai/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource and https://tg-preview.mctl.ai/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server.
  4. Complete the Telegram sign-in flow in your browser when prompted.
  5. Test with a read-only tool (list_dialogs or get_unread_messages) before enabling real sends. On tg.mctl.ai, real sends stay blocked until all opt-in gates are enabled (see send-gate).
  6. Review our privacy policy and security model before connecting your account.

Other MCP clients

  1. Any client: copy the MCP URL https://tg-preview.mctl.ai/mcp and add it as a custom connector. Authentication is OAuth — you sign in with Telegram once during setup.
  2. Claude: open Connectors settings, choose Add custom connector, and paste the MCP URL.
  3. ChatGPT (outside the App Directory flow above): open Settings → Connectors, add a custom connector, and paste the MCP URL. Requires a plan with custom connectors enabled — see OpenAI's Developer Mode & MCP apps guide.
  4. Cursor, Windsurf, and others: paste the MCP URL into your client's remote MCP connector settings. See /docs for OAuth discovery URLs and a smoke-test command.

Data at a glance

  • Stored on this server: an AES-256-GCM encrypted Telegram session blob per account and audit metadata without message text. When Communication Agent is enabled, relevant incoming message/event content and proposed action payloads are also stored encrypted at rest.
  • Not stored in logs or audit history: message bodies, phone numbers, 2FA passwords, or OAuth tokens.
  • Through ChatGPT: your prompts, tool arguments, and tool results pass through the ChatGPT client to reach this server; ChatGPT's own data practices apply to that traffic.
  • Your controls: disconnect or delete your account at any time via MCP tools or the HTTP API. Full inventory in our privacy policy.

Our trust model

mctl-telegram holds a server-side Telegram session on your behalf. Here is exactly what that means:

  • Sessions are AES-256-GCM encrypted at rest with per-user keys derived via HKDF-SHA256.
  • Message text is never written to logs or audit history. Communication Agent message and action content is encrypted at rest and retained according to the policy in /privacy.
  • You can disconnect (soft revoke) or delete (hard delete) your session at any time using the MCP tools or the API.

MCP endpoint: https://tg-preview.mctl.ai/mcp
OAuth protected resource document: https://tg-preview.mctl.ai/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource

Full security model Data retention Developer reference

Keep the session on your machine

Local Bridge (beta) is the self-service path where the Telegram session stays on a machine you control and tg.mctl.ai acts only as a relay. It is not the ChatGPT App install path. You need a machine that stays on. Activation is self-service.

  1. init, then login --phone +…
  2. activate --server https://tg.mctl.ai and approve the device in a browser. After login, --telegram-id is optional.
  3. daemon — first credential is read-only. Turn sending on yourself with set_send_consent or the manage page.
Quick start Overview Owner controls Support and recovery

Common questions

Which AI assistants does this work with?
Any client that supports remote MCP connectors — Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Windsurf, and others. It is a standard OAuth-authenticated MCP server, so it is not tied to a single vendor.
Is this an official Telegram app?
No. mctl-telegram is an independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Telegram or OpenAI. It operates only on the Telegram account you explicitly connect, and you remain responsible for following Telegram's terms.
Can it send messages on my behalf?
Only if you explicitly opt in. On tg.mctl.ai the effective default is dry-run: ALLOW_SEND=false blocks real sends, so send_message returns a preview (sent=false) instead. Real sends additionally require your account send_enabled flag (you turn this on with set_send_consent or the manage page) and the telegram:messages:send scope — there is no mode argument to bypass the gate.
What data does ChatGPT see?
Your conversation prompts, the tool arguments ChatGPT sends (e.g. peer, message text for drafts), and the tool results this server returns. That traffic is handled by ChatGPT under OpenAI's policies. For ordinary MCP calls, this server stores an encrypted session blob and audit metadata. Listener-enabled Communication Agent accounts additionally store encrypted message and action content as described in /privacy.
What data does mctl-telegram store?
An encrypted session blob and metadata are stored per account. When Communication Agent is enabled, relevant incoming messages/events and proposed action payloads are stored encrypted at rest; logs and audit history still exclude message bodies. See /privacy for retention details.
How do I revoke access?
Call the disconnect_telegram_account MCP tool (soft revoke, keeps row) or delete_telegram_account (hard delete, removes all your data). You can also revoke from Telegram's side: Settings → Devices.
Is this open source?
Yes. The full source is at github.com/mctlhq/mctl-telegram. You can audit the code, run your own deployment, or contribute.
What is the Local Bridge?
An optional self-hosted mode (beta) where the Telegram session stays on your own machine and tg.mctl.ai acts only as a relay. It is not part of the standard ChatGPT App install path, and it needs a machine that stays on, but turning it on is self-service: init, login, activate, daemon. Migrating an existing hosted account into this mode still uses set_account_mode (an operator step, not onboarding). Start at the quick start.

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