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README.md

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+# telegram-tui
+
+A minimal Telegram terminal client built with `ncurses` and TDLib.
+
+## Features
+
+- interactive login flow inside the TUI
+- chat list in the left pane
+- message view in the right pane
+- send plain text messages
+- scroll chats and message history with the keyboard
+
+## Requirements
+
+- CMake 3.21+
+- a C++17 compiler
+- `ncurses`
+- TDLib build dependencies (`gperf`, `openssl`, `zlib`, `git`)
+
+The project vendors TDLib automatically by default. If you already have TDLib installed with CMake package metadata, configure with `-DTELEGRAM_TUI_USE_SYSTEM_TDLIB=ON`.
+
+## Build
+
+```bash
+cmake -S . -B build
+cmake --build build -j
+```
+
+## Run
+
+Create a Telegram application at <https://my.telegram.org/apps>, then either export credentials:
+
+```bash
+export TELEGRAM_API_ID=123456
+export TELEGRAM_API_HASH=0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef
+./build/telegram-tui
+```
+
+Or start the app without env vars and enter them interactively when prompted.
+When entered in the TUI, the app now stores `api_id` and `api_hash` in
+`~/.local/share/telegram-tui/config.json` and reuses them on later launches.
+
+To use Telegram test servers instead of production:
+
+```bash
+export TELEGRAM_USE_TEST_DC=1
+./build/telegram-tui
+```
+
+The client stores TDLib state in `~/.local/share/telegram-tui/tdlib` for production and `~/.local/share/telegram-tui/test/tdlib` for test mode.
+
+## Keys
+
+- `Up` / `Down`: move selection
+- `Tab`: switch focus between chats and messages
+- `Enter`: open the selected chat
+- `i`: start composing a message
+- `PgUp` / `PgDn`: scroll the current message view
+- `r`: reload chats or history
+- `Esc`: cancel current input
+- `q`: quit