#+TITLE: Triage Intake — Telegram Source #+AUTHOR: Craig Jennings #+DATE: 2026-06-09 # Source plugin for the triage-intake engine. See triage-intake.org for the # contract and the Phase A-D orchestration. This file declares ONE source. # # General (personal) source: Telegram via the Emacs telega.el package (tdlib # backend). It lives in .ai/workflows/ and is template-synced, sitting with the # other general personal sources (personal-gmail, cmail, personal-calendar, # signal, github-prs) — not the project plugins. Telegram is personal # messaging, not project-specific. # # Unlike signal-cli (a standalone CLI), Telegram has no headless CLI here. The # client is telega.el running inside Craig's long-lived `emacs --daemon`, so the # plugin drives it over `emacsclient -e`. tdlib keeps a persisted session in # ~/.telega (td.binlog), so a started telega reconnects without re-auth. * Source: telegram :PROPERTIES: :ORDER: 24 :ENABLED: command -v emacsclient && emacsclient -e "(or (featurep 'telega) (fboundp 'telega))" | grep -q t :ANCHOR: none :SUBAGENT_OVER: 40 :END: ** Quick reference — full lifecycle Telega does not autostart with the Emacs daemon. "Down" is its normal state unless Craig has Telegram open in Emacs. The scan therefore runs the full lifecycle every time, never skips because the server is down: ⚠ *DOWN / not-loaded is the TRIGGER to launch, never a reason to skip or fail.* This is the exact mistake two projects (work + home, 2026-07-24) made: they probed telega, saw =(telega-server-live-p)= nil or telega not =featurep=, and reported =SCAN FAILED: telegram — not loaded= or a silent SKIP — a *blind* sweep — instead of running Step 1 to start it. A down or unloaded telega is the normal entry state; =(telega t)= both LOADS the package and STARTS the docker server (work confirmed: down → =(telega t)= → Ready, 18 chats). So the plugin MUST run Step 1's launch whenever telega is down/unloaded, wait for Ready, then scan. =SCAN FAILED= is reserved for a launch that was actually ATTEMPTED and did not reach Ready (image missing, server crash on start, daemon unreachable) — never for the pre-launch down state itself. The =:ENABLED:= guard above tests whether telega is INSTALLED (=fboundp=), not whether the server is up; a down server never disables the source. 1. Record prior state: TELEGA_WAS_RUNNING via (telega-server-live-p). 2. Launch (only if not running): emacsclient -e "(progn (setq telega-use-docker t) (telega t) 'started)" The setq is mandatory defense: tdlib crashed in native mode when this was set up (2026-06-09) — a separate matter from the SEGFAULT gotcha, which is about the loadChats argument — and Craig's daemon defaults to nil. Wait ~2s for Ready, then (telega--loadChats '(:@type "chatListMain")) until telega--chats is populated. 3. Check messages: the maphash unread scan in ** Scan Step 2 (filters the messageContactRegistered join-notice noise). 4. Send (needs the server live; /voice personal first — Telegram occasionally carries WORK communication to Kostya and Vrezh, so treat sends with the same care as Slack): emacsclient -e "(telega-chat-send-msg (telega-chat-get ) \"\")" 5. Shutdown (ONLY if step 1 recorded not-running): emacsclient -e "(progn (telega-server-kill) (ignore-errors (telega-kill t)) 'stopped)" Verify: telega-server-live-p → nil, no zevlg/telega-server container in docker ps. If Craig had it running, leave it untouched. If any lifecycle step fails *after the launch was attempted* (docker image missing, server crash on start, daemon unreachable, Ready never reached), the sweep reports it as SCAN FAILED at the top of the summary per the engine's failure rule — never as a silent skip. This does NOT cover the ordinary pre-launch down state: a down server means "run Step 1," not "SCAN FAILED." Craig gets real traffic here, so a blind sweep that skipped the launch is worse than a clean failure — it hides real unread messages behind a false all-clear. ** Scan Telegram direct messages and groups via telega.el in the running Emacs daemon. =ANCHOR: none= because telega reports live unread *state* (each chat's =:unread_count=), not a since-window — the engine substitutes no cutoff. Phase B uses each message's timestamp only to order and label recency. The scan reads the =telega--chats= hash table (chat-id → chat plist), which telega populates as chats sync. *This is robust to the tdlib server crashing mid-session* (see the SEGFAULT gotcha below): the hash retains the last-synced unread counts and =:last_message= even after the server dies, so a scan reading the hash still returns the most recent known state. *** Leave-no-trace lifecycle (start only if needed, shut down only if we started it) telega is a long-lived client inside Craig's daemon. If he already has it running, the scan must leave it running. If it's *not* running, the scan starts it for the read and shuts it down cleanly afterward, restoring the daemon to its prior state. The discipline: *record the prior liveness, branch on it at the end.* *** Step 0 — record prior state #+begin_src bash # t if telega's tdlib server was ALREADY live before this scan, nil otherwise. # Hold this value; Step 3 reads it to decide whether to shut telega down. TELEGA_WAS_RUNNING=$(emacsclient -e "(and (fboundp 'telega-server-live-p) (telega-server-live-p) t)" 2>/dev/null) #+end_src *** Step 1 — start (docker mode) if not already running, wait for Ready #+begin_src bash # `(telega t)` starts without popping the root buffer. Docker mode reconnects the # persisted ~/.telega session in ~2s. Then load the main chat list so # telega--chats populates. # # The `(setq telega-use-docker t)` is mandatory and must come BEFORE `(telega t)`: # tdlib crashed in native mode when this was first set up (2026-06-09), and the # daemon's default is nil unless something (e.g. an Emacs-config :custom) has # already forced it. It was missing here while the Quick Reference required it — # a session that started telega without it on a native-mode daemon would take the # untested path. Match the Quick Reference exactly. # # Note this is a SEPARATE concern from the SEGFAULT gotcha below: that gotcha is # about the `loadChats` argument, and the deaths it explains happened in docker # mode. Docker mode is not a defense against it, and it is not evidence for # docker mode. Keep both. emacsclient -e "(progn (setq telega-use-docker t) (unless (and (fboundp 'telega-server-live-p) (telega-server-live-p)) (telega t)) 'started)" # Poll until Ready with chats synced, or a crash/timeout. Background this with an # until-loop so the wait doesn't block; exit on Ready-with-chats OR an abnormal # server exit. Then force a chat-list load if the hash is thin: # NOTE: the chat-list argument must be a TL object, not the symbol 'main. # `telega--loadChats' puts it straight into the request as :chat_list, and a # bare symbol kills the server outright (see the SEGFAULT gotcha below). # # The liveness check on the tail is the load's only failure signal. `ignore-errors' # catches nothing here, because a bad argument kills the server process rather than # signalling in elisp, so without this the call returns 'loaded either way. # The `fboundp' guard matches Step 0: if the launch failed outright telega is not # loaded, and that should read as 'server-died like any other failure rather than # signalling void-function. emacsclient -e "(progn (ignore-errors (telega--loadChats '(:@type \"chatListMain\"))) (ignore-errors (telega--loadChats '(:@type \"chatListMain\"))) (if (and (fboundp 'telega-server-live-p) (telega-server-live-p)) 'loaded 'server-died))" #+end_src On a persisted session telega reaches status "Ready" within ~2s; the chat list loads over a few more. If =(hash-table-count telega--chats)= is 0 or thin, re-issue =telega--loadChats= and poll until it stabilizes. ⚠ *=server-died= is SCAN FAILED, never a quiet account.* A server that dies during the load leaves a thin =telega--chats= hash, and a thin hash reads exactly like an account with little unread. That is the same false all-clear the down/not-loaded rule exists to prevent, arriving one step later in the lifecycle. It also fits the SCAN FAILED definition above: the launch was attempted and did not hold. So on =server-died=, report SCAN FAILED rather than scanning, and never report a low unread count from that run. This is the independent evidence the SEGFAULT gotcha asks for when it says to treat a short chat list as a real short list. Without the check there is no way to tell the two apart, which is how the =loadChats= crash stayed invisible through two investigations. *** Step 2 — read unread, classified by last-message type The single most important filter: =messageContactRegistered=. Telegram counts a " joined Telegram" service notice as one unread message, so every contact from Craig's old address book who ever joined shows as a 1-unread "DM" *that person never actually sent*. On the 2026-06-09 first scan this was 30 of ~50 unread chats. Drop them entirely (tally only). #+begin_src bash emacsclient -e "(let (real svc other) (when (boundp 'telega--chats) (maphash (lambda (id chat) (let* ((uc (or (plist-get chat :unread_count) 0)) (lm (plist-get chat :last_message)) (ctype (when lm (plist-get (plist-get lm :content) :@type))) (title (or (ignore-errors (substring-no-properties (telega-chat-title chat))) \"?\"))) (when (> uc 0) (cond ((equal ctype \"messageContactRegistered\") (push title svc)) ((member ctype '(\"messageText\" \"messagePhoto\" \"messageVideo\" \"messageDocument\" \"messageVoiceNote\" \"messageSticker\" \"messageAnimation\")) (push (list title uc ctype) real)) (t (push (list title uc (or ctype \"nil\")) other)))))) telega--chats)) (list (cons 'real (nreverse real)) (cons 'joined-telegram-count (length svc)) (cons 'other (nreverse other))))" #+end_src For a chat that survives as Action-worthy, pull the last message's text to classify and summarize: #+begin_src bash # from the maphash key (the scan can also return ids alongside titles) emacsclient -e "(let ((c (gethash telega--chats))) (substring-no-properties (or (telega--tl-get c :last_message :content :text :text) \"\")))" #+end_src *** Step 3 — restore prior state (shut down only if we started it) #+begin_src bash # If telega was NOT running before this scan, shut it down cleanly to leave the # daemon as we found it. If Craig already had it running, leave it alone. if [ "$TELEGA_WAS_RUNNING" != "t" ]; then emacsclient -e "(progn (ignore-errors (telega-server-kill)) (ignore-errors (telega-kill t)) 'killed)" fi #+end_src ⚠ *In docker mode, =telega-kill= alone is not enough.* =telega-kill= buries the telega buffers but leaves the dockerized tdlib server running (=telega-server-live-p= stays non-nil). =telega-server-kill= is what actually stops the server. Call *both* — server-kill then kill — for a clean teardown. Verified clean afterward: =telega-server-live-p= → nil, root buffer gone, no =zevlg/telega-server= container left in =docker ps=. Skipping this whole branch when =TELEGA_WAS_RUNNING= is t is the point of Step 0: never tear down a session Craig is actively using. ⚠ *SEGFAULT GOTCHA — this was our bug, not tdlib's. Root-caused 2026-07-28.* =telega-server= dies with =Unexpected char 'm' in plist value= followed by =Assertion failed: false (telega-dat.c: tdat_plist_value: 500)=. The cause was this workflow: Step 1 called =(telega--loadChats 'main)=. The chain. =telega--loadChats= is a raw TL wrapper — it drops its argument into the request as =:chat_list= with no conversion. =telega-server--send= then =prin1='s the whole plist, and =telega--tl-pack= passes atoms through untouched, so the symbol goes out on the wire bare as =main=. The C parser (=server/telega-dat.c=, =tdat_plist_value=) accepts only =(=, =[=, ="=, =-=, a digit, =t=, =:=, or =n= to start a value. It hits =m=, prints that line, and calls =assert(false)=, which aborts the process. The =m= in the error is literally the first character of =main=. The symbol shorthand is real but belongs to a different layer: =telega-filter.el= and =telega-folders.el= convert =(eq cl-fspec 'main)= into ='(:@type "chatListMain")=. The raw TL layer never does. telega's own callers always pass the object (=telega.el:290=, =telega-tdlib-events.el:516=). Proved by experiment, not inference (2026-07-28): from a live Ready server, =(telega--loadChats 'main)= killed it within seconds and added one coredump, with that exact assertion; a restart plus =(telega--loadChats '(:@type "chatListMain"))= survived three consecutive calls with no new coredump and no assertion. *The previous entry here was wrong and cost real time.* It recorded the deaths as spontaneous musl memory corruption and declared "the verbs are sound", which sent later investigations at the docker image and tdlib versions instead of at this file. The corrupted stack in the backtraces is what an =assert= abort looks like, not independent evidence of a memory bug. If crashes are ever seen again with *no* triage verb running, that is a genuinely separate cause and needs its own investigation — do not reuse the old spontaneous-crash story to explain it. *This crash kills a scan; it does not silently shorten one.* An earlier draft of this section claimed the reported "19 chats of ~50" was truncation caused by the bad call. That was wrong, and work disproved it at the wire level on 2026-07-28: with the corrected call their count is 19 before the first load and 19 after five (four on =chatListMain=, one on =chatListArchive=). Nineteen is the real size of that account. The same reading here — 19 stable across three corrected loads — was already sitting in the evidence and should have retired the claim before it was written down. Treat a short chat list as a real short list unless something independently shows the server died mid-sync. =ignore-errors= around the call never helped — the failure is the server process dying, not an elisp signal, so there is nothing for it to catch. That is why the death is easy to miss from inside elisp, and why a caller should check =(process-live-p (telega-server--proc))= after a load rather than trusting a returned value. Operationally: docker mode stays mandatory (=telega-use-docker= = t; the setq before =(telega t)= is still the right defense), and *every action batch checks the server first* — =(process-live-p (telega-server--proc))= — restarting via =(telega t)= when dead and re-checking Ready before firing verbs. Any argument handed to a =telega--*= TL wrapper must be a TL object or a plain string/number/list, never a bare symbol. Defense in depth: even if the server does die, the scan still works because it reads the cached =telega--chats= hash, not a live query. A dead server is *scan-only* — you can still report unread state, but cannot read new bodies, mark read, or reply until it restarts. Treat that as "scan-only, no actions this run" and say so. ** Classify Bias: Craig's personal Telegram is *spam-dominated* with a thin layer of real signal. The opposite of Signal (high signal/low volume) — here the volume is high and almost all noise. Filter aggressively; surface only the few real threads. Kostya and Vrezh occasionally reach Craig here, so a real DM from a work contact is Action, full stop. - *Noise-trash (tally only, never itemized):* - =messageContactRegistered= "joined Telegram" notices — always noise, no matter whose name is on them. The real contacts Craig knows live here; a join notice is not a message from them. - Romance/crypto spam DMs — the signature is an emoji-laden handle or a two-word "RealName + FantasyWord" suffix (=Gayle ⚾🤎RoyalVineyard=, =Cherie🌷🏰 InfiniteRhapsody=, =Jane 🍒🔥=, =Luna Skye=). One unread, unsolicited, no prior thread. - =Deleted Account-NNNN= threads, blank-title chats, bot channels (=Z-Library Official=), Telegram's own =✔️Telegram= service notices. - *Noise-keep (never reported):* unread in dev-community groups Craig follows — =GNU Emacs=, =zed=, =Kitty=, and similar. Skipped in sweep reports entirely — not even a name + count line — unless Craig specifically asks about them (Craig's ruling, 2026-06-11, via the work project's handoff). Leave them unread; they're reading material, not signal. - *Action:* a real text/voice/media message from a *known personal contact* in an existing one-to-one thread — an explicit ask, a question, a reply owed. On a spam-heavy account these are rare; when one appears, surface it prominently with the sender + gist, because it's the needle in the haystack. The 2026-06-09 calibration run: 30 join-notices + ~10 spam/deleted/bot + 3 dev groups + 0 real personal DMs. Expect most sweeps to look like this — a clean "nothing real" is the common, correct result. ** Render #+begin_example **Telegram — N unread chats (M real after filtering).** - Action: - Noise: K joined-Telegram notices, J spam/bot/deleted (tally only) #+end_example Dev-community group traffic never appears here — no FYI line, no name + count — unless Craig asks for it in that sweep (2026-06-11 ruling). Real DMs from known contacts still surface as Action. Omit the block entirely when there's nothing but group traffic, join-notices, and spam — under the engine's deltas-only rule that's a no-change source. Render the block only when there's an Action item or a Noise tally worth a state-change suggestion (e.g. a trash batch). ** Actions Actions need the tdlib server *live* (see the SEGFAULT gotcha — a dead server is scan-only). All run through telega in the daemon: - reply :: =emacsclient -e "(telega-chat-send-msg (telega-chat-get ) \"\")"= — public-facing (goes out under Craig's name), so run =/voice personal= before sending. Prefer a body file for multi-line. - mark-read :: verified 2026-06-11 (the previously documented =telega-chat--mark-read= never existed in telega). The idempotent per-chat verb: #+begin_example emacsclient -e "(let ((chat (telega-chat-get ))) (telega--viewMessages chat (list (plist-get chat :last_message)) :source '(:@type \"messageSourceChatList\") :force t) (telega--readAllChatMentions chat) (telega--readAllChatReactions chat))" #+end_example =telega-chat-toggle-read= also works but *toggles*: on a chat with zero unread it marks the chat UNREAD, so scripting must guard on =(> (plist-get chat :unread_count) 0)=. Never mark the whole account read blindly; a real DM is handled deliberately, not swept. - delete-join-notice :: standing policy (Craig, 2026-06-11): a chat whose *newest* message is a =messageContactRegistered= "joined Telegram" notice is a chat Craig never responded to and doesn't want to keep — *delete it* rather than mark it read. The bulk sweep (returns the count deleted): #+begin_example emacsclient -e "(let ((n 0)) (maphash (lambda (_id chat) (when (equal (plist-get (plist-get (plist-get chat :last_message) :content) :@type) \"messageContactRegistered\") (telega--deleteChatHistory chat t nil) (setq n (1+ n)))) telega--chats) n)" #+end_example =telega--deleteChatHistory chat t nil= removes the chat from the list on Craig's side only (no revoke). First run 2026-06-11 deleted 41 such chats and cut the unread-chat count from 48 to 16. - open :: =emacsclient -e "(telega-chat-with (telega-chat-get ))"= — pop the chat buffer for Craig to read/handle by hand (useful when a real DM needs a considered reply).