Telegram file transfer, media archiving and multi-storage file management for individuals and small teams. Manage files in the web UI and archive content you are entitled to save from Telegram private chats, channels and groups to your own storage.

Quick start · Bot commands · Deployment guide · 简体中文

Features

File uploads, folder organization, search and media previews.
Telegram Bot transfers, channel/group batch downloads by date or tag, and channel subscription sync.
Web and Bot task management: progress, destinations, failure details, pause, resume, cancel and retry.
Local disk, OneDrive, Google Drive, Aliyun OSS, S3 and WebDAV storage, with source and directory rules for archiving.
Administrator password, Bot user allowlist and PIN, and TOTP two-factor authentication.

TG Vault does not bypass Telegram permissions or download restrictions. Channel downloads and subscriptions require a Telegram user account with access to the source; sending files directly to the Bot does not require a personal account. Bot downloads in this project use MTProto, not the HTTP Bot API's getFile: its size limit cannot simply be applied here, and arbitrary files are not guaranteed to download. Direct Bot messages without a readable original source still use Bot downloads; adding a personal account does not automatically remove that path's restrictions. See configuration.

Quick start

Prepare a Linux server, Docker Compose, and two HTTPS addresses under the same parent domain, such as cloud.example.com and api.example.com. The host or your management panel provides certificates and the reverse proxy.

git clone https://github.com/hicocos/tg-vault.git
cd tg-vault
./deploy/install.sh

Do not copy .env.example before a fresh installer run. Enter your Web/API addresses and a new dedicated storage directory. The installer generates the database password and application keys, builds the application, and starts PostgreSQL, the backend and the frontend. The default file directory is <installation>/data; existing deployments retain their original mount, with no automatic file migration.

Configure HTTPS reverse proxies for Web → 127.0.0.1:47832 and API → 127.0.0.1:51947 as described in the deployment guide.
Restrict both endpoints to your own access until initialization is complete. The first person to finish setup chooses the administrator password; there is no default password. Set a strong password of at least eight characters over HTTPS before opening access.
Under Settings → Telegram, enter the Bot Token, API ID and API Hash, set a Bot PIN, and configure an allowlist of numeric user IDs. For channel downloads or subscriptions, also log in with a personal Telegram account on that page.
Add other storage accounts under Settings → Storage and back up the configuration, database and complete /data directory.

See the full deployment guide for installer options, --compat mode for older Compose environments and troubleshooting. Detailed guides are currently in Chinese.

Telegram Bot commands

After connecting, send /start to authenticate and /help for the full command list and arguments. Browse and search files in the web UI.

Command	Purpose
`/tasks`	View tasks, progress and controls
`/storage`	View storage status
`/path_rules`	Configure save locations and directory rules
`/target`	Set the storage target for the current chat
`/tg_download`	Open the channel/group date or tag download wizard
`/tg_sub`, `/tg_subs`	Manage and list subscriptions
`/tg_retry`	Retry failed tasks
`/setup_2fa`	Configure TOTP two-factor authentication

Channel processing progress includes successful, failed and skipped items; 100% does not mean all files succeeded. Scan totals may be unknown. Queued tasks and Telegram cooldowns do not indicate active transfer. Pausing stops subsequent reads, but in-flight requests or storage writes may still finish.

Backup and updates

Create a coordinated backup from the project root before updating with the installer:

BACKUP_DIR=/path/to/secure-backups ./deploy/backup.sh
./deploy/restore-verify.sh /path/to/secure-backups/<timestamp>
./deploy/install.sh

The backup script stops the backend while archiving, then restores its previous running state. Back up .env and reverse-proxy configuration separately. The script includes the database, complete /data and a checksum manifest, not files held by remote storage providers. Archive verification is not a restore drill. Upgrades automatically apply database migrations; rollback must preserve database/file consistency rather than simply running an older image. Do not troubleshoot with docker compose down -v. See backup and recovery.

Local builds and contributions

Container builds use Node.js 24; Node.js 24 and npm are also recommended for local builds. Install and build each subproject independently:

npm --prefix backend ci
npm --prefix frontend ci
npm --prefix backend run build
npm --prefix frontend run build

Running the backend locally also requires PostgreSQL and DATABASE_URL; thumbnails/transcoding require ffmpeg. See local development for startup and environment details. Describe the purpose, reproduction steps and checks actually performed in contributions. Keep lockfiles and Chinese/English documentation in sync. Database changes should update the schema, migrations and init.sql; do not rewrite released migrations.

GitHub Actions quality checks need no production credentials; public forks can contribute without Docker Hub configuration. To publish images, configure repository secrets DOCKER_USERNAME and DOCKER_PASSWORD, and optionally the VITE_API_URL repository variable. Publishing is skipped without credentials. The API address is embedded in frontend assets: never put secrets in VITE_* variables.

Before publishing commits or sharing issue logs, exclude .env, tokens, API hashes, passwords, cookies, Telegram sessions, databases/backups, user files and private server details. Do not commit node_modules, dist, coverage, temporary debug/smoke scripts or local execution reports. Ignore rules do not remove secrets already committed to Git history; revoke/rotate leaked credentials and clean the history.

Documentation

Deployment guide: installation, HTTPS, backups, recovery and updates.
Configuration and usage: environment variables, Telegram, storage and permissions.
Local storage locations: mounts, path verification and data protection.
Releases.

License

MIT License · hicocos/tg-vault