Forum topics

A feed, phrase or follow entry can route its own messages into a specific forum topic of its group, instead of the group's General.

The three kinds

Topic kinds

A kind left unset, or one explicitly saved as 0, routes to the group's General.

Passive name-learning

The bot learns a topic's name from ordinary group traffic, at zero extra cost. Every update is checked for a forum-topic-created service message, a forum-topic-edited service message, or an ordinary topic post whose reply target is the topic's own creation message — whichever it finds names that topic for that group.

Limit

Retention: the 40 most recently active groups, up to 200 topics each.

This is passive only.

Verification on demand — the silent probe

When the dashboard needs to confirm a typed topic id, or show the group's live topic list, it asks the bot directly.

A known id — one the bot has already learned by name — answers at once.

An id the bot has not seen gets one probe: the bot sends a single message into that topic and deletes it immediately afterward. The probe's own reply-target names the topic if it exists; if Telegram refuses the send outright, that is how the bot detects a topic id that does not exist in the group. Topic id 1 with no learned name resolves to "General".

The owner reaches this only through the dashboard's Topics popup: a live pill list of every topic the bot has already seen for that group ("tap one to use it"), or by typing a topic id and letting the popup's own check confirm it.

The popup also reports live whether the group has topics turned on at all, read fresh every time it opens: "Topics are on in this group", or "Topics are off in this group — Telegram refuses topic routing until they're enabled".

When a topic is missing

No fallback to General

A configured topic id that no longer exists — the topic was deleted, or the id was never valid — does not fall back to General. The bot's send carries that same topic id on every attempt: the rich message, the photo, and the plain-text fallback all target it. If Telegram refuses the topic, all three attempts fail and nothing reaches the group.

The failure is silent to the group and to the owner: the item is still recorded as sent. For a feed or phrase post, the watermark still advances to that post — it is never retried. For a follow, the followed account was already marked seen before the send was attempted. Only the bot's own log shows the delivery as failed.

Re-pointing the entry at a valid topic (or clearing it back to General) in the Topics popup is what restores delivery. The bot does not detect or repair a bad topic id on its own.

Setting a topic

The Topics button — a speech-bubble icon, next to Edit — on each automation's card opens the popup for that one entry. It shows the group's live title and photo, a live note on whether topics are on, a dropdown of the kinds that entry offers, the current kind→topic assignment for each kind with a clear control, and the pill list of topics already seen.

Set a topic for one entry

1. Open the automation's card and click the Topics button.
2. Wait for the popup to read the group live.
3. Pick a kind from the dropdown — the kinds offered depend on the entry's type.
4. Tap a topic from "Topics the bot has seen", or type its id directly.
5. Repeat for any other kind this entry offers.
6. Save. Every kind is written, including the ones left unset (stored as 0 = General).

Set topics for every follow tracker in one group at once

1. Click the gear icon ("Group topic settings") next to the automations list.
2. Pick Follow Tracker — the only type this flow covers.
3. Pick the group, from the list of forum groups that already contain at least one follow tracker.
4. The same Topics popup opens for every follow tracker sharing that group; assign kinds as above, or click "Clear topic settings" to zero them all at once.
5. Save.