Writing a 0-dependency Telegram SDK with auto-generated types

#typescript #node #telegram #opensource

Why I built a zero-dependency Telegram SDK from scratch

Let's be honest: most Telegram Bot SDKs are either too heavy or have inconsistent type definitions. I wanted something lean, fast, and 100% type-safe.

That's why I created Surfgram.

The "Zero" Philosophy

The main goal was to have 0 dependencies. No axios, no node-fetch, just native Node.js https.

Lightweight: Tiny bundle size and fast installation.
Secure: Fewer dependencies means a smaller attack surface.

Auto-generated Types

Instead of manually maintaining interfaces (which is a nightmare), I built a generator that scrapes the official Telegram Bot API documentation.

Always up-to-date: If the API changes, I just rerun the generator.
Strict Safety: I focused on eliminating undefined errors by using strict null checks and proper type guards for API responses.

How it looks

import { Bot, Message } from 'surfgram';

const bot = new Bot('TOKEN');

bot.onMessage('/start', (message: Message) => {
  message.sendMessage({ text: 'hi there' });
});

bot.startPolling();