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Interactive Patterns

Beyond slash commands, the template includes the interaction patterns most bots need early.

Reply keyboard demo​

/keyboard sends a reply keyboard and /hidekeyboard removes it.

Use this pattern when:

  • You want persistent shortcuts in the chat input area
  • The choices are small and stable
  • The user is expected to stay inside a narrow flow

Inline keyboard demo​

/menu sends an inline keyboard with buttons that emit callback data:

  • menu:hello
  • menu:session
  • menu:help

The handler matches callback data using the menu: prefix and then switches on the suffix.

This is a good default pattern because it keeps callback parsing predictable and makes room for future prefixes such as settings: or admin:.

Callback query response flow​

When a button is clicked, the bot does two things:

  1. Calls answerCallbackQuery with a short acknowledgement
  2. Sends a regular chat message with the actual response text

That split keeps the Telegram client responsive while still giving the user a visible message in the chat history.

Inline query demo​

Inline mode is enabled through a match function that checks update.InlineQuery != nil.

Current behavior:

  • Empty queries return help, pong, and greeting articles
  • Non-empty queries return an echo article plus help and menu reminders
  • Results are marked personal and use a short cache time

This keeps the demo safe for experimentation without pretending to be a real search system.

Choosing the right interaction pattern​

Use:

  • Slash commands for discoverable, explicit actions
  • Reply keyboards for repeated shortcuts inside a focused chat flow
  • Inline keyboards for context-sensitive actions tied to a message
  • Inline queries when the bot should insert content into another chat