From 7def9b26b669d11a1039faaceacdf16ca7c5bc3c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Vishnuvardhan Reddy <vvr3ddy@proton.me>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2026 14:23:16 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] feat(telegram): add support for sending messages to
 @usernames

- Modified parseChatID to return telego.ChatID and handle usernames (strings starting with @)
- Updated Send method to use telego.ChatID directly in tu.Message() and tu.EditMessageText()
- Skip placeholder/edit logic for username targets since there's no previous message to edit

Closes: #feature/telegram-username-support
---
 pkg/channels/telegram.go | 48 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------------
 1 file changed, 32 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-)

diff --git a/pkg/channels/telegram.go b/pkg/channels/telegram.go
index 6592d9bc0..5d0754e4f 100644
--- a/pkg/channels/telegram.go
+++ b/pkg/channels/telegram.go
@@ -169,29 +169,36 @@ func (c *TelegramChannel) Send(ctx context.Context, msg bus.OutboundMessage) err
 		return fmt.Errorf("invalid chat ID: %w", err)
 	}
 
-	// Stop thinking animation
-	if stop, ok := c.stopThinking.Load(msg.ChatID); ok {
-		if cf, ok := stop.(*thinkingCancel); ok && cf != nil {
-			cf.Cancel()
+	// Check if this is a username target (for new conversations)
+	isUsername := strings.HasPrefix(msg.ChatID, "@")
+
+	// Stop thinking animation (only for numeric chat IDs)
+	if !isUsername {
+		if stop, ok := c.stopThinking.Load(msg.ChatID); ok {
+			if cf, ok := stop.(*thinkingCancel); ok && cf != nil {
+				cf.Cancel()
+			}
+			c.stopThinking.Delete(msg.ChatID)
 		}
-		c.stopThinking.Delete(msg.ChatID)
 	}
 
 	htmlContent := markdownToTelegramHTML(msg.Content)
 
-	// Try to edit placeholder
-	if pID, ok := c.placeholders.Load(msg.ChatID); ok {
-		c.placeholders.Delete(msg.ChatID)
-		editMsg := tu.EditMessageText(tu.ID(chatID), pID.(int), htmlContent)
-		editMsg.ParseMode = telego.ModeHTML
+	// Try to edit placeholder (skip for username targets - no previous message)
+	if !isUsername {
+		if pID, ok := c.placeholders.Load(msg.ChatID); ok {
+			c.placeholders.Delete(msg.ChatID)
+			editMsg := tu.EditMessageText(chatID, pID.(int), htmlContent)
+			editMsg.ParseMode = telego.ModeHTML
 
-		if _, err = c.bot.EditMessageText(ctx, editMsg); err == nil {
-			return nil
+			if _, err = c.bot.EditMessageText(ctx, editMsg); err == nil {
+				return nil
+			}
+			// Fallback to new message if edit fails
 		}
-		// Fallback to new message if edit fails
 	}
 
-	tgMsg := tu.Message(tu.ID(chatID), htmlContent)
+	tgMsg := tu.Message(chatID, htmlContent)
 	tgMsg.ParseMode = telego.ModeHTML
 
 	if _, err = c.bot.SendMessage(ctx, tgMsg); err != nil {
@@ -427,10 +434,19 @@ func (c *TelegramChannel) downloadFile(ctx context.Context, fileID, ext string)
 	return c.downloadFileWithInfo(file, ext)
 }
 
-func parseChatID(chatIDStr string) (int64, error) {
+func parseChatID(chatIDStr string) (telego.ChatID, error) {
+	// Check if it's a username (starts with @)
+	if strings.HasPrefix(chatIDStr, "@") {
+		return tu.Username(chatIDStr), nil
+	}
+
+	// Otherwise, parse as numeric ID
 	var id int64
 	_, err := fmt.Sscanf(chatIDStr, "%d", &id)
-	return id, err
+	if err != nil {
+		return telego.ChatID{}, err
+	}
+	return tu.ID(id), nil
 }
 
 func markdownToTelegramHTML(text string) string {