Which admin rights the Telm bot needs

1Why the bot needs admin rights

Telegram only allows administrators to delete other people's messages and to restrict or ban members. This is a platform rule, not a Telm choice: no bot, however capable, can moderate a chat it is only a plain member of. To remove spam and stop raiders, the bot must be an admin with a small, specific set of permissions.

Telm is deliberately built around least privilege — it asks for the minimum set that makes moderation work and nothing more. It does not request ownership, the ability to change group info, pin messages, invite users via link, or manage video chats, because it does not use them.

Keeping the footprint small is a feature in itself: the fewer powers the bot holds, the less could ever go wrong, and the easier it is for you to reason about exactly what it can and cannot do.

2The permissions explained

Here is what each permission is used for, and which are required:

• Delete messages (required) — remove spam, scam links, phishing, forwarded promos and any rule-breaking content. This is the single most important right; without it nothing gets removed.
• Ban users (required) — mute, kick, ban or time-restrict offenders. It also underpins new-member restrictions, captcha verification and the anti-raid shield, all of which work by temporarily restricting members.
• Add new admins (optional) — needed only for the white-label add-on, so your own branded bot can manage the moderator role. The standard bot does not need it.

3How to promote the bot

Promoting the bot is the same as promoting any member. Open the group, go to the members list, tap @telmcom_bot, and choose Promote to admin or Edit admin rights.

Enable Delete messages and Ban users, leave the rest off, and save. On Telegram Desktop the panel is on the right side of the group profile; on mobile it opens as a full-screen editor. The change takes effect within a second or two, and the dashboard reflects it automatically.

• Open the group and go to Members (or Administrators).
• Tap @telmcom_bot, then Promote to admin.
• Turn on Delete messages and Ban users.
• Leave all other toggles off and save.

4What happens if a right is missing

The two required rights fail in different, visible ways. If Delete messages is off, the bot still detects spam and records it in the moderation journal, but the offending message stays in the chat — you see detections with no cleanup. If Ban users is off, the bot can delete a spam message but cannot restrict or ban the sender, so a determined spammer simply posts again.

Missing Ban users also disables everything that relies on restricting members: new-member restrictions, captcha and the anti-raid shield all quietly stop working, because Telegram will not let the bot apply them.

The dashboard continuously checks the bot's rights and shows a clear warning banner when a required permission is missing, with a one-tap path to fix it. Do not ignore that banner — it means part of your protection is inactive.

5Rights to deliberately leave off

It can be tempting to grant a bot every permission just in case, but with Telm that is unnecessary and slightly less safe. The bot uses only Delete messages and Ban users, so every other toggle is dead weight.

In particular there is no reason to grant Change group info, Pin messages, Invite users via link, or Manage video chats. Telm never pins, never edits your group name or photo, never generates invite links, and never touches calls. Leaving these off means that even in the unlikely event of a problem, the bot literally cannot perform those actions.

6The white-label exception

There is exactly one case where an extra right helps: the white-label add-on, which lets you run moderation under your own branded bot instead of @telmcom_bot. Because your custom bot manages the moderator team on your behalf, granting it Add new admins lets it assign and manage the moderator role cleanly.

This applies only to the custom bot you connect through the add-on, and only when you want it to manage moderators. The add-on is available on the Pro plan and above. For everything else, the standard two rights are enough. Learn more in White-label bot.

7Related topics

These guides pair naturally with getting the bot rights right:

• How to add the bot to your group — the full setup flow.
• The group onboarding wizard — it confirms rights as part of setup.
• Bot not removing spam — first thing to check is rights.
• White-label bot — running moderation under your own bot.
• Is Telm safe to use — the security model behind these permissions.