Add user authorization layer to your Telegram bot with admin alerts

🛡️ BotGuard - Telegram Bot Authorization Layer

What This Workflow Does

Ever noticed how most Telegram bot tutorials assume everyone can just... use your bot? No questions asked, no protection, nothing. That's fine for a simple "Hello World" bot, but the moment you connect AI APIs, paid services, or sensitive operations - you're in trouble. Anyone who discovers your bot can drain your API credits, overload your systems, or access things they shouldn't.

BotGuard fixes this in the simplest way possible: a whitelist. Only User IDs you explicitly allow can interact with your bot. Everyone else gets a polite "access denied" message. Plus, you get instant notifications when someone unauthorized tries to use your bot - complete with their User ID, so you can add them if they're legit.

Think of it as a bouncer for your bot. No fancy authentication flows, no databases, no complexity. Just a clean authorization check that sits between the Telegram trigger and your actual workflow. Your expensive AI calls, paid API requests, and sensitive operations stay protected.

🚀 Getting Started in 2 Minutes

Step 1: Import and Configure Import this workflow into n8n and connect your Telegram bot credentials. You'll see a clean workflow with sticky notes explaining everything.

Step 2: Add Your User ID Don't know your Telegram User ID? No problem. Just message your bot - you'll get denied, but the message will show: Your User ID: 123456789. Copy that number.