# Accessing User Data (Telegram)

This tutorial will walk through how to use Verida API's to access user data, with a focus on accessing Telegram data.

{% embed url="<https://youtu.be/jPzSWLMVN_4>" %}

### Getting started

If you haven't already, register a Verida Account, sign into the [Developer Console](/getting-started/developer-console.md) and obtain an Auth token so you can make API requests.

### Making an API requests

Once you have an auth token, you must include it in your API requests.

Here are some examples of API requests to the AI agent endpoint.

**Command line (via curl):**

```bash
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer <authToken>" "https://api.verida.ai/api/rest/v1/llm/agent" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{}'
```

**Node.js:**

```typescript
const axios = require('axios');

axios({
  method: 'POST',
  url: 'https://api.verida.ai/api/rest/v1/llm/agent',
  data: {},
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': 'Bearer <authToken>'
  }
})
.then(res => {
  console.log(res.data)
})
.catch(err => {
  console.error(err)
})
```

{% hint style="info" %}
**Useful resources:**

1. Make example requests with the [Developer Console Sandbox](https://admin.verida.ai/sandbox/api-requests)
2. [API requests documentation](/getting-started/api-requests.md)
3. [Overview of all API endpoints](/data-apis/overview.md)
4. [API Reference Documentation](https://user-apis.verida.network/)
   {% endhint %}

### Fetching Telegram Data

When a user connects their Telegram account, their groups and messages are syncronized and the data is normalized into common data types. See [Data Types](/data-apis/data-types.md) to learn more.

Telegram populates two data schemas:

* Social Chat Group ([view data schema](https://common.schemas.verida.io/social/chat/group/v0.1.0/schema.json))
* Social Chat Message ([view data schema](https://common.schemas.verida.io/social/chat/message/v0.1.0/schema.json))

We need to query these schemas using the [/pages/yjclAa1iJfDlQFzpNdRY#id-4.-query-a-datastore](https://docs.verida.ai/resources/tutorials/pages/yjclAa1iJfDlQFzpNdRY#id-4.-query-a-datastore "mention") API endpoint.

### List the user's Telegram groups

Let's start with an example to fetch all the Telegram chat groups a user is in. We need to make an API request to the `/ds/query`endpoint (`https://api.verida.ai/api/rest/v1/ds/query/`).

This endpoint takes a schema, in our case we want the social chat group schema (<https://common.schemas.verida.io/social/chat/group/v0.1.0/schema.json>), however we don't send the actual schema URL, we base64 encoded it.

**Node.js example:**

```typescript
const axios = require('axios');

const schemaUrl = 'https://common.schemas.verida.io/social/chat/group/v0.1.0/schema.json';
const schemaUrlEncoded = bvoa(schemaUrl);

axios({
  method: 'POST',
  url: `https://api.verida.ai/api/rest/v1/ds/query/${schemaUrlEncoded}`,
  data: {
  "options": {
    "sort": [
      {
        "_id": "desc"
      }
    ],
    "limit": 20
  }
},
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': 'Bearer <authToken>'
  }
})
.then(res => {
  console.log(res.data)
})
.catch(err => {
  console.error(err)
})
```

[View the example JSON response of a chat group](/data-apis/data-examples.md#chat-group).

### List the user's Telegram messages

Let's now fetch all of a user's Telegram messages. Instead of querying the Chat Group datastore, we need to query the Chat Message datastore.

We also want to fetch only telegram messages, so apply a filter:

```typescript
const axios = require('axios');

const schemaUrl = 'https://common.schemas.verida.io/social/chat/message/v0.1.0/schema.json';
const schemaUrlEncoded = bvoa(schemaUrl);

axios({
  method: 'POST',
  url: `https://api.verida.ai/api/rest/v1/ds/query/${schemaUrlEncoded}`,
  data: {
  "query": {
    "sourceApplication": "https://telegram.com"
  },
  "options": {
    "sort": [
      {
        "_id": "desc"
      }
    ],
    "limit": 20
  }
},
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': 'Bearer <authToken>'
  }
})
.then(res => {
  console.log(res.data)
})
.catch(err => {
  console.error(err)
})
```

[View the example JSON response for a chat message](/data-apis/data-examples.md#chat-message).

We can update the `query`to restrict to only include results from:

* A particular group
* Messages sent by me
* Messages sent after Jan 1st 2025

```json
{
    "sourceApplication": "https://telegram.com",
    "groupId": "telegram-456049390--579961374",
    "type": "send",
    "sentAt": {
        "$gte": "2025-01-01"
    }
}
```

### Counting messages or groups

You may want to make requests such as:

1. How many messages sent by a user?
2. How many groups is a user part of?

It is possible to use the `/query` API endpoint and loop through all the pages of data to count, but that is highly inefficient.

This functionality will be coming very shortly with a new `/count` endpoint.&#x20;

### User information

You may want to learn more about a user's profile on Telegram, for example:

1. Is the account verified?
2. Phone number
3. Username
4. Profile pic

This data is currently syncronized, but not available via the API.

This functionality will be coming very shortly with a new `/profile` endpoint


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.verida.ai/resources/tutorials/accessing-user-data-telegram.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.