13 KiB
🚀 OwpenGram Server
Your own private messaging server — self-hosted, protocol-compatible, fully yours.
OwpenGram Server is an open-source, Telegram-compatible MTProto backend written in Go. Run it on your own network for a private, closed setup, or on a VPS to be reachable anywhere in the world. Your data, your keys, your rules — no cloud, no lock-in, no censorship.
🔗 Implements MTProto API layer 227.
gramsrv is independent and unofficial. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by,
or sponsored by Telegram or the official Telegram team.
✨ Why OwpenGram?
- 🔒 Private & self-hosted — messages live on infrastructure you control.
- 🧩 Telegram-compatible — works with the OwpenGram Android and Desktop clients.
- 🌍 Reachable anywhere — host it globally, or keep it on your own network.
- 🛡️ Censorship-resistant — no central authority can shut you down.
- ⚙️ Single binary — one Go program prepares keys, runs migrations, serves MTProto, and dispatches updates and background workers.
- 🆓 Free & open source — Apache-2.0, audit and extend it freely.
🎯 What works today
- 💬 Private chats, groups, supergroups & channels
- 📞 Voice & group calls, live streams, SFU/TURN building blocks
- 🖼️ Media & files — photos, videos, documents, stickers, reactions
- 🤖 Bots and mini apps, with a minimal Bot API gateway
- 🌐 Message translation and AI-assisted compose
- 📇 Contacts, dialogs sync, chat folders, public link landing pages
- 🖥️ Admin API and web UI for operations
📋 Full feature checklist (click to expand)
| Status | Feature | What works today |
|---|---|---|
| ✅ | MTProto server edge | TCP transport, RSA key exchange, auth keys, encrypted sessions, salts, ack/resend, bad messages, RPC dispatch, and layer compatibility helpers. |
| ✅ | Login and accounts | Development login code, sign-in, sign-up, log-out, authorizations, account settings, SRP/password state, email/passkey-oriented paths. |
| ✅ | Users and contacts | User profiles, usernames, profile photos, contact import/search, blocked/privacy state, presence, and last-seen style status. |
| ✅ | Dialogs and sync | Dialog list, pinned dialogs, manual unread, folders/filters, drafts, read boundaries, durable updates, online fan-out, and offline difference recovery. |
| ✅ | Chatlists and public links | Chat folder sharing, exported chatlist invite links, join/import flows, revoked invite handling, public username landing pages, and shared public link landing pages. |
| ✅ | Private chats | Send, history, read receipts, edit, delete, forward, reply, rich entities, grouped/media messages, reactions, scheduled/TTL-oriented paths. |
| ✅ | Rich messages | Telegram Desktop rich text messages, rich content conversion, send/edit/scheduled flows, dialog/history projections, and memory/PostgreSQL persistence. |
| ✅ | AI compose and ChatBot | Input-box rewrite/polish, default and custom tones, addstyle previews, local and external provider chains, streamed @ChatBot draft replies, and Business AI reply hooks. |
| ✅ | Message translation | Telegram messages.translateText, provider-backed batch translation, peer language settings, per-account rate limits, and privacy-conscious logging defaults. |
| ✅ | Supergroups and channels | Create, join, leave, invite links, participants, admins, forum topics, linked discussion guests, history, send/edit/delete/read, reactions, public search, and previews. |
| ✅ | Media and files | Upload, download, local blob storage, photos, documents, thumbnails, canonical GIFv conversion, external media fetch, web page previews, map tile cache hooks, profile/channel photos. |
| ✅ | Stickers and reactions | Sticker/reaction catalog, seed support, saved GIFs, recent reactions, top reactions, default reactions, and moderation-oriented reaction paths. |
| ✅ | Gifts and stars | Star gifts and local stars ledger foundations for compatibility and future feature work. |
| ✅ | Bots and mini apps | Bot service foundations, callbacks, inline helpers, webview/mini-app paths, a minimal Bot API gateway for libraries such as python-telegram-bot, persistent getUpdates delivery, and demo tools. |
| ✅ | Calls and live streams | Private call signaling foundations, group call state, RTMP live streaming, scheduled video chats, channel join_as, SFU/TURN building blocks, liveness, and expiry workers. |
| ✅ | Admin and operations | Admin API/UI backend, PostgreSQL migrations, Redis volatile state, retention workers, pprof/debug hooks, and load-test helpers. |
| ✅ | Desktop, Android, iOS, and Web focus | Telegram Desktop is the primary target, with Android, iOS, and Web compatibility paths actively covered by the same server. |
Some items are compatibility-first or experimental, but they are real open server code, not hidden product-only features.
⚡ Quick Start
Requirements:
- Go 1.25+
- Docker (or Docker Desktop), for PostgreSQL and Redis
- OpenSSL, if you want to build a matching Telegram Desktop-based client
1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/owpengram/owpengram-server.git
cd owpengram-server
2. Start the infrastructure (PostgreSQL + Redis)
docker compose -f deploy/docker-compose.yml up -d
3. Build and run the server
Windows (PowerShell):
go build -o bin/gramsrv.exe ./cmd/telesrv
.\bin\gramsrv.exe
Linux / macOS:
go build -o bin/gramsrv ./cmd/telesrv
./bin/gramsrv
On first start, the server creates data/server_rsa.pem, applies database
migrations, seeds bundled language packs, prepares optional media resources,
starts MTProto on 0.0.0.0:2398, and brings up the update/media/background
workers in the same process.
Default local login code:
12345— change it before any real use!
⚙️ Configuration
See the complete English configuration reference or
the Chinese configuration reference.
.env.example is a copyable development template, not an exhaustive parameter
dictionary. Most commonly used variables:
| Variable | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
TELESRV_LISTEN |
0.0.0.0:2398 |
MTProto listen address |
TELESRV_ADVERTISE_IP |
127.0.0.1 |
client-reachable fallback IP for media and calls |
TELESRV_DC |
2 |
self-hosted DC id |
TELESRV_DEV_AUTH_CODE |
12345 |
fixed login code for local development |
TELESRV_AUTH_CODE_MAX_ATTEMPTS |
5 |
wrong-code attempts before the code hash is deleted |
TELESRV_POSTGRES_DSN |
local Compose DSN | PostgreSQL connection string |
TELESRV_REDIS_ADDR |
127.0.0.1:6399 |
Redis address |
TELESRV_BLOB_DIR |
data/blobs |
local media blob directory |
TELESRV_PUBLIC_LINK_WEB_ADDR |
empty | optional public link landing listener, for example 127.0.0.1:2401 |
TELESRV_BOT_API_ADDR |
empty | optional HTTP Bot API gateway listen address, for example 127.0.0.1:8081 |
TELESRV_AI_ENABLED |
true |
enable AI compose entry points |
TELESRV_TRANSLATION_ENABLED |
true |
enable Telegram message translation RPCs |
Optional OpenAI-compatible, Kimi/Moonshot, Gemini, and Anthropic AI provider
variables, login email/SMTP settings, and Business AI settings are documented
in .env.example and the configuration reference.
🔌 Ports to open
When deploying on a public server, open the following according to the features you enable.
Minimal (chat only)
| Port | Protocol | Purpose | Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2398 | TCP | MTProto main port; also handles WebSocket when TELESRV_WEBSOCKET_ENABLE=true |
Yes |
With admin backend
| Port | Protocol | Purpose | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2399 | TCP | Admin REST API | Restrict to trusted IPs or put behind VPN |
| 2600 | TCP | Admin Web UI | Use Nginx/reverse proxy + HTTPS in production |
Optional features
| Port | Protocol | Purpose | When needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2400 | TCP | RTMP live stream ingest | Live streaming |
| 12399 | UDP | SFU/WebRTC conferencing | Voice/video group calls |
| 12400 | UDP | TURN/STUN server | P2P/call relay |
| 12500-12999 | UDP | TURN relay port range | TURN relay |
| configurable | TCP | Bot API | When TELESRV_BOT_API_ADDR is set |
| 2401 example | TCP | Public username/sticker/chatlist landing pages | When TELESRV_PUBLIC_LINK_WEB_ADDR=127.0.0.1:2401 is set |
Internal/debug (do not expose publicly)
| Port | Default bind | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 6060 | 127.0.0.1:6060 |
pprof debugging endpoint |
| 5432 | 127.0.0.1:5432 |
PostgreSQL |
| 6399 | 127.0.0.1:6399 |
Redis |
Make sure TELESRV_LISTEN=0.0.0.0:2398 is set, and TELESRV_ADVERTISE_IP
points to your public IP so clients can connect.
🌐 Public link landing pages
The server can serve public landing pages for /<username>, profile avatars,
/addstickers/<shortName>, /addemoji/<shortName>, and /addlist/<slug>.
TELESRV_PUBLIC_LINK_WEB_ADDR=127.0.0.1:2401
TELESRV_PUBLIC_BASE_URL=https://your-domain.example
TELESRV_PUBLIC_APP_SCHEME=yourapp
TELESRV_PUBLIC_WEB_BASE_URL=https://web.your-domain.example
TELESRV_PUBLIC_APP_NAME=YourApp
In production, keep TELESRV_PUBLIC_LINK_WEB_ADDR on loopback and reverse-proxy
the public routes to it with HTTPS.
📱 Connect a client
Use the OwpenGram clients, which have a built-in Add Server option on the server-selection screen at login — no source patching or custom build needed:
A stock Telegram client will not connect, since it only trusts Telegram's own DC list and RSA keys.
1. Export your server's public key
After the server generates data/server_rsa.pem, export the matching public
key as PEM:
openssl rsa -in data/server_rsa.pem -RSAPublicKey_out -out data/server_rsa.pub
2. Add the server in the client
On the login screen, open server selection → Add Server, and fill in:
- Host — your server's address (e.g.
192.168.1.50orchat.example.com) - Port —
2398by default - Main data center — the DC id from
TELESRV_DC(2by default) - RSA Public Key — paste the full contents of
data/server_rsa.pub(the-----BEGIN RSA PUBLIC KEY-----...PEM block) into the key field
Current baseline: TL layer 227.
🧪 Development: multi-device smoke test
Use separate client working directories so sessions do not share local tdata:
$tdesktop = "C:\path\to\tdesktop\out\Debug\Telegram.exe"
Start-Process $tdesktop -ArgumentList @("-workdir", "$PWD\.tdata-alice")
Start-Process $tdesktop -ArgumentList @("-workdir", "$PWD\.tdata-bob")
Log in with different phone numbers — the local login code is 12345 unless
you changed TELESRV_DEV_AUTH_CODE. Recommended checks:
- Send private messages, stickers, media, replies, forwards, edits, deletes, and read receipts between two users.
- Keep one device online and restart another device to verify offline
updates.getDifferencerecovery. - Open the same account from multiple sessions and confirm current-session echoes are not duplicated while other online sessions receive updates.
- Check server logs for no new
NOT_IMPLEMENTED,Unhandled RPC,bad_msg, panic, or internal errors.
📂 Repository layout
cmd/telesrv/ server entrypoint
cmd/telesrv-admin/ admin backend and web UI
deploy/ docker-compose, migrations, deploy helpers
data/ bundled language packs and optional seed data
internal/mtprotoedge/ MTProto transport, auth key, session, ack/resend
internal/rpc/ TL router and client compatibility handlers
internal/app/ domain services
internal/domain/ protocol-independent domain models
internal/store/ memory/postgres/redis storage backends
internal/seed/ bundled seed catalog loaders
internal/sfu/ real-time SFU experiments
internal/turnsrv/ TURN/STUN building blocks
🤝 Contributing
This server gets better fastest with real usage and focused fixes:
- Telegram Desktop and Android compatibility reports with reproducible steps.
- RPC traces for startup, sync, chat, media, calls, bots, or edge cases.
- Focused fixes for implemented paths instead of broad rewrites.
- Tests for online/offline updates, multi-device sessions, read state, media, and channel behavior.
- Performance work on hot paths such as fan-out, pagination, storage queries, media upload/download, and connection handling.
If a change affects visible client behavior, please include the client
version/commit, the RPC path you tested, and whether server logs stayed free
of new NOT_IMPLEMENTED, Unhandled RPC, bad_msg, panic, or internal errors.
💬 Community
- 📢 Channel: @owpengram
- 💬 Chat: Join the discussion
OwpenGram Server builds on the open-source gramsrv project.
📄 License
⭐ If OwpenGram is useful to you, a star on GitHub helps the project grow.