> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://wiki.nushackers.org/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://wiki.nushackers.org/orbital/telegram-bot/creating-a-telebot.md).

# Creating a TeleBot

### Getting Started

1. Open up the IDE of your choice (PyCharm, VS Code, Google Colab, etc.)
2. Locate the terminal - usually found in a panel at the bottom or side of your IDE
3. Install the telebot package by typing `pip install python-telegram-bot`\
   *Note: Colab uses ! as a prefix to shell commands*
4. Run the command

Link to the Library: <https://github.com/python-telegram-bot/python-telegram-bot>

### Creating a Bot

* Launch Telegram&#x20;
* Search for the user @BotFather

<figure><img src="/files/mED4hpXcQxPbzLVffnbw" alt="" width="375"><figcaption><p>BotFather on Telegram</p></figcaption></figure>

* Create a new bot by using the command '**/start '**
* Follow the prompts and set the bot's name and username\
  Username must end with "bot"  ->  e.g. 'untitled\_bot'
* Receive your bot token: BotFather will provide you with a unique token that will be used to authenticate your bot

<figure><img src="/files/NRFuj689fjd6OFmEbq3e" alt="" width="563"><figcaption><p>Your Bot's Token</p></figcaption></figure>

Keep your token secure and do not share it publicly

* Input token into your environment

{% code overflow="wrap" %}

```python
# Replace "YOUR_API_TOKEN" with token received from BotFather

token = "YOUR_API_TOKEN"
```

{% endcode %}

* (Optional) Add a description, profile picture, etc.&#x20;

### Import Packages

We will be creating the telebot in the context of Google Colab!

So, *let's get started!* Paste the following code blocks into your file:

1. Allow for asynchronous programming capabilities

<pre class="language-python" data-overflow="wrap"><code class="lang-python"># Workaround for nested event loops in Jupyter (Google Colab)
# Jupyter notebooks already have a running loop via Tornado and the asyncio lib does not allow a nested loop, we need to use a separate package called nest_asyncio
<strong>
</strong>import asyncio
import nest_asyncio

nest_asyncio.apply() 

# for non-Jupyter notebook IDE's

import asyncio
</code></pre>

2. Enable logging

```python
import logging

logging.basicConfig(
    format='%(asctime)s - %(name)s - %(levelname)s - %(message)s', 
    level=logging.INFO
)

logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
```

This is setting up `logging` module, so you know when (and why) things don't work as expected.

Click [here](https://github.com/python-telegram-bot/python-telegram-bot/wiki/Exceptions%2C-Warnings-and-Logging) for more info.

3. Import from telegram package&#x20;

{% code overflow="wrap" %}

```python
from telegram import Update
from telegram.constants import ParseMode
from telegram import InlineQueryResultArticle, InputTextMessageContent
from telegram.ext import filters, MessageHandler, ApplicationBuilder, CommandHandler, ContextTypes, InlineQueryHandler
```

{% endcode %}

4. (Optional) Other useful packages

```python
import math
from random import random
import datetime
```