What is Telegram Archive MCP?
telegram-archive-mcp, from the GitHub user GeiserX, connects an MCP client to an instance of Telegram Archive, the same author's self-hosted backup tool that copies one or more Telegram accounts into SQLite or PostgreSQL and serves them through a web viewer. The MCP server talks only to that viewer, signing in through its /api/login endpoint with a viewer username and password; it never connects to Telegram.
It offers 12 tools and 4 resources: list chats and folders, search one chat or every chat, read a chat page by page or one calendar day at a time, fetch the messages around a single message, list forum topics and pinned messages, get per-chat statistics and return an attached photo as an image the model can see. Every tool reads, except refresh_stats, which asks the viewer to recalculate archive statistics and disappears with READ_ONLY=1. It is written in Go, licensed GPL-3.0-or-later and ships through npm, Docker and prebuilt binaries; version 0.4.2 came out on 11 November 2026.
How to install Telegram Archive MCP
npx -y telegram-archive-mcpIs Telegram Archive MCP worth it?
The design choice that matters is that this server never touches Telegram. It reads from Telegram Archive's viewer, which already holds a copy of your messages on your own disk, so an agent cannot send a message, leave a group or trip Telegram's anti-spam systems. The worst a misbehaving model can do is read too much, plus one write: refresh_stats, which only makes the viewer recount its statistics.
The tools are shaped for how people actually look things up in chat history. Searching every chat at once, reading one calendar day in your own timezone and pulling the messages either side of a hit answer questions such as what was agreed in the project group on a given Tuesday. Forum topics and folders are supported, and photos come back scaled down to 1,568 pixels so a vision model can read a screenshot someone posted.
The network defaults are better than most community servers. Over stdio nothing listens at all. The Streamable HTTP mode binds to loopback, checks the Origin header, caps request bodies and refuses to start on any other address without MCP_AUTH_TOKEN. Release 0.4.2 rebuilt the server on Go 1.27.4 specifically so an oversized request body could not crash it.
The catch: it is only as useful as the archive behind it, and that is a commitment. Telegram Archive needs Docker Compose, a Telegram API ID and hash, and a login on your account; it keeps edits and deleted messages, including other people's. Pointing an MCP client at it sends those messages, deleted ones included, to whichever model provider the client uses. The project is also small: 13 stars on the MCP server, 252 on Telegram Archive and about 2,100 npm downloads in the past month, with every human commit from one maintainer.
Our take: if you have already decided to keep your Telegram history on a home server, this is a careful way to make it searchable by an assistant. Create a viewer account limited to the chats you want searchable rather than handing over the admin login.
Where it earns its place
A freelance developer who agrees scope with clients in Telegram groups
Find what a client actually approved three months ago
Ask the assistant to search the client's group for the feature name, then read the surrounding messages and that day's thread. It takes seconds instead of scrolling; the cost is the server running the archive.
A moderator of a 5,000-member Telegram forum group
Summarise a busy topic for members who missed a week
List the group's forum topics, read the chosen topic page by page and have the model draft a summary. Use a viewer account restricted to that group so the agent cannot read private chats.
A researcher archiving public Telegram channels
Trace when a claim first appeared across several channels
Search every archived chat for the phrase, then read each hit in context and compare dates. Edits and deletions kept by the archive show whether posts changed after publication.
Before you commit
- Setup
- Run Telegram Archive first (Docker Compose, a Telegram api_id and api_hash, then a one-off login). Then add npx -y telegram-archive-mcp with TELEGRAM_ARCHIVE_URL, TELEGRAM_ARCHIVE_USER and TELEGRAM_ARCHIVE_PASS; documented configs cover Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code and Codex.
- Integrations
- 12 tools and 4 resources over stdio or Streamable HTTP, supporting MCP revisions from 2024-11-05 to 2026-07-28. Ships as an npm package that downloads a checksummed binary, a Docker image and Go binaries for several platforms.
- Data and privacy
- The archive stays on your disk, but every message, photo and statistic a tool returns passes to your model provider. The viewer username and password live in the client's environment. HTTP mode binds to loopback, checks Origin and requires MCP_AUTH_TOKEN on any other address.
- Cost at scale
- Free. Costs are the archive host and its storage, which grows with media you choose to keep; Telegram Archive can skip files over a size you set.
- Limits
- Read access only; it cannot send, edit or delete anything on Telegram. Search quality depends on Telegram Archive's own search. Only the latest release receives security fixes.
What’s good
- Never connects to Telegram; reads a local archive
- Read-only apart from one stats tool, which READ_ONLY=1 hides
- Day-by-day reading and cross-chat search
- HTTP mode refuses non-loopback addresses without a token
What’s not
- Needs a running Telegram Archive instance
- Archived and deleted messages reach your model provider
- One maintainer and a small user base
- Viewer password sits in the client config
Best for
People who already self-host Telegram Archive and want an assistant to search and summarise their saved chats.
Telegram Archive MCP alternatives
Telegram Archive MCP: common questions
- Is Telegram Archive MCP worth it?
- A tidy, almost entirely read-only window onto your own Telegram history, worth having only if you already run Telegram Archive and accept that your chats will reach a model provider. We rate it 3.8 out of 5.
- How much does Telegram Archive MCP cost?
- Free and open source (GPL-3.0-or-later), as is Telegram Archive itself. You pay only for the machine that hosts the archive.
- What are the downsides of Telegram Archive MCP?
- Needs a running Telegram Archive instance; archived and deleted messages reach your model provider; one maintainer and a small user base; viewer password sits in the client config.
- Who is Telegram Archive MCP best for?
- People who already self-host Telegram Archive and want an assistant to search and summarise their saved chats.
- How much does Telegram Archive MCP cost for a team or in production?
- Free. Costs are the archive host and its storage, which grows with media you choose to keep; Telegram Archive can skip files over a size you set.
- Is Telegram Archive MCP safe for company data?
- The archive stays on your disk, but every message, photo and statistic a tool returns passes to your model provider. The viewer username and password live in the client's environment. HTTP mode binds to loopback, checks Origin and requires MCP_AUTH_TOKEN on any other address.
- What are the best Telegram Archive MCP alternatives?
- The closest alternatives we have reviewed are Slack MCP Server and Paperless-NGX MCP Server.
Answers checked Nov 13, 2026.