# 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`.
If you have a prebuilt TDLib bundle with `include/` and `lib/`, configure with
`-DTELEGRAM_TUI_TDLIB_ROOT=/path/to/tdlib`.

## Build

```bash
cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build -j
```

During configure, CMake also checks the app config at
`$XDG_DATA_HOME/telegram-tui/config.json` or `~/.local/share/telegram-tui/config.json`.
If that file contains `api_id` and `api_hash`, they are embedded into the build.

## Run

Create a Telegram application at <https://my.telegram.org/apps>, then either rely on the
embedded credentials from the app config above, or 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