How to Deploy a Telegram Bot on RepublicNodes

Ordered a Telegram Bot Hosting plan? Here's exactly how to get your bot's code running on it.

What You're Working With

Our Telegram plans run on a generic Python application environment. That means: upload your code, tell it which file to run, and it handles installing your dependencies automatically.

Two Ways to Get Your Code Onto the Server

Option 1: Upload directly (simplest for most people)

1. Zip your bot's project folder on your own computer.
2. Open the File Manager tab and upload the zip.
3. Extract it so your files sit directly in the root directory (not nested inside an extra folder).

Option 2: Pull from a Git repository (better if you're actively developing and pushing updates)

1. On the Startup tab, set Git Repo Address to your repository's clone URL.
2. Set Git Branch if you're not using the default branch.
3. If it's a private repo, fill in Git Username and Git Access Token (a personal access token, not your actual password).
4. Turn on Auto Update if you want it to git pull the latest code automatically on every restart.

Telling It What to Run

On the Startup tab, set the App py file variable to your bot's entry point filename — defaults to app.py, change it if your main file is named something else (e.g. main.py, bot.py).

Installing Your Dependencies

Put your dependencies in a requirements.txt file in your project root (standard Python convention) — the Requirements file variable defaults to exactly that filename. On every startup, the server automatically runs pip install against it, so you never need to SSH in and install packages by hand. Need something quick without a full requirements file? The Additional Python packages variable lets you specify extra packages directly.

Your Bot Token

Never hard-code your Telegram bot token directly in a file you might commit to a public repo. Use an environment variable or a separate config file excluded from git — see our bot token safety guide for the full reasoning.

Starting It Up

1. Save your Startup tab changes.
2. Go to the Console tab and hit Start.
3. Watch the console — you'll see the dependency install happen first, then your bot's own startup output. Any Python traceback shows up right here.

Common First-Run Issues

• ModuleNotFoundError: a package is missing from requirements.txt — add it and restart.
• Nothing happens / bot doesn't respond in Telegram: check the console for a successful "polling started" or webhook-bound message from your bot library; if that's missing, your bot process likely crashed silently — scroll up in the console for the actual error.
• Wrong file executed: double check App py file matches your actual entry point's exact filename.

Once it's running cleanly, your bot stays online continuously — see our guide on keeping a bot running 24/7 for making it resilient to crashes and restarts too.