This is a bot for the Telegram messaging app using their bot platform. The code is open-source and consequently anybody could set up an own instance of the bot. To learn how to do so, see this section. The official hosted version is available as @ExpenseBot. To learn more about this bot, please refer to this blog article or just send the bot a message with the /help command.
This bot’s purpose is to help people manage their daily expenses and keep track of their financial situation. Users can add expenses from wherever they are using a few simple commands from within the chat and have an eye on how much they have spent in a month or a day. This obviates the need for confusing Excel spreadsheets or paper notes.
When you first start using the bot, please send it your current location as a message, so the bot is aware of your time zone and can handle dates properly for you.
In order to host this bot on your own, you need a few things.
- Server to run the bot on (since the bot uses the long polling method to get updates instead of the web-hook one, you don't need HTTPS certificates or ports to be exposed)
- Node.js >= 20
- A MongoDB database (you can use mlab.com to get a free, hosted MongoDB)
- A bot token, which you get from registering a new bot to the @BotFather
To configure your bot, clone this repository, copy config.example.json to config.json and edit it.
| Property | Default | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
BOT_TOKEN |
- |
Yes | Your bot's token (received from BotFather). |
PUBLIC_URL |
- |
Webhook only | URL at which your bot is publicly available (for Telegram to send updates). Required in webhook mode. Ex.: https://bot.example.org. |
DB_URL |
- |
Yes | MongoDB database connection string (starting with mongodb://) |
DB_COLLECTION |
expenses |
No | MongoDB collection for storing expenses |
BIND_IPV4 |
127.0.0.1 |
Webhook only | Address where to listen for HTTP requests |
PORT |
3010 |
Webhook only | Port where to listen for HTTP requests |
BOT_NAME |
`` | Yes | The bot's name |
BOT_TELEGRAM_USERNAME |
`` | Yes | The bot's actual unique Telegram username |
ADMIN |
[] |
Yes | List of Telegram user IDs to grant admin access |
RATE_LIMIT |
250 |
No | Maximum number of messages per hour per user |
$ yarn$ yarn start:productionWhen using webhook mode, Prometheus metrics are exposed at /metrics.
db.expenses.createIndex({ "user": 1 }, { name: "idx_user" });
db.expenses.createIndex({ "user": 1, "isTemplate": 1, "timestamp": 1, "category": 1 }, { name: "idx_full_query" });
db.expenses.createIndex({ "isTemplate": 1, "user": 1 }, { name: "idx_template_user" });
db.expenses.createIndex({ "isTemplate": 1, "user": 1, "timestamp": 1 }, { name: "idx_template_user_time" });
db.expenses.createIndex({ "ref": 1 }, { name: "idx_ref" });MIT @ Ferdinand Mütsch