tg-channel-to-rss

AWS Lambda function for converting a public Telegram channel into an RSS feed.

How it works

1. The Lambda receives requests via API Gateway: GET /feed/{channel_name}?key={api_key}
2. It fetches the public static view of the channel at https://t.me/s/{channel_name}.
3. Using BeautifulSoup, it parses each Telegram message bubble, extracts:
   • Post text (with links preserved),
   • Photo previews and link-preview images,
   • Publication time and post URL.
4. The extracted data is converted into an RSS feed with rfeed, returning valid XML to the caller.

⚠ Limitations

• Telegram does not guarantee that all public channels expose their posts on t.me/s/….
• Channels flagged as sensitive, geo-restricted, or with content protection enabled may show a blank page or limited content even though they are public in the Telegram app.
• There is no workaround other than viewing those channels within Telegram or using the official Bot API.

Requirements

• Python 3.13 or higher
• AWS SAM (Serverless Application Model)

Build and deploy

1. Set your API key: edit samconfig.yaml or pass --parameter-overrides ApiKey=YOUR_KEY.
2. Build and deploy:

sam build
sam deploy --guided

Usage

Call the endpoint with the channel name and your API key:

curl 'https://<api-gateway-url>/feed/cool_telegram_channel?key=test'

This returns an RSS XML feed of the channel’s recent posts, including text and photo previews, ready to import into your RSS reader.