- Push updatesBot type
- Schedule or ruleTriggers
- Live +
historyData - None (read-only)Execution
Telegram is the simplest place to get a market in your pocket. This bot pushes price and spread updates to a chat, either on a schedule, like a morning summary, or when a rule trips, like a spread blow-out, all from read-only order-book data.
Telegram bots are appealing because the surface is tiny: a chat, some commands, and messages. Point that at clean market data and you have a useful tool in an afternoon. As with any bot here, it reports, it does not trade.
Two modes that cover most needs
Scheduled summaries
A recurring digest, current odds, spread, and how they have moved, for the markets you track. Great as a daily open.
- Cron-style timing
- Per-market or watchlist
- Concise message format
On-demand commands
Reply to a slash command with a live snapshot of any market, resolved from a friendly slug like btc-updown-1h.
- Slug lookup
- Live orderbook reply
- Anyone in the chat can ask
What goes in a message
- Implied odds for UP and DOWN, straight from the live order book.
- Current spread, and whether it has widened or tightened versus the recent window.
- A short trend read from the last several snapshots, rising, falling, or flat.
- For crypto markets, the spot reference price stamped on the snapshot, for context.
Updates in, no orders out
The bot fetches and formats data, that is the whole job. It cannot place a Polymarket order, because the platform does not expose one. That makes it safe to drop into a group chat without worrying it will do anything beyond talk.
Wiring a slash command
The on-demand path is the most-used feature in practice, and it is a short chain. A user types a command with a market slug; the bot resolves the slug to its conditionId, fetches the current book, formats the odds and spread, and replies. Because slugs are human-friendly, btc-updown-1h, eth-updown-5m, chat members can ask for a market without knowing any ids.
- 1Parse the command and the market slug from the message.
- 2Resolve the slug to a conditionId, the same lookup the dashboard uses.
- 3Fetch the live orderbook for that market, both UP and DOWN sides.
- 4Pull a short snapshot window if you want a trend read from the last several snapshots.
- 5Format a compact reply, odds, spread, trend, spot reference, and send it back to the chat.
Where the data comes from
Live orderbook
The current book for active markets, best bid/ask, mid, spread, and depth, fetched on demand for each reply.
- Active markets
- UP and DOWN sides
- Fresh on every call
Snapshot history
The deeper dataset, Resolved Markets is, at its core, a historical order-book archive, so a window of recent snapshots gives the trend read behind a one-line summary, and closed markets stay queryable too.
- Recent window
- Trend direction
- Closed markets too
Spot reference
Crypto snapshots carry a spot price, so a BTC market reply can show the odds next to where BTC actually is.
- crypto_price field
- Context for odds
- No extra source needed
A digest people actually read
For scheduled summaries, keep the message tight: a handful of watchlist markets, current odds, the spread, and how each moved overnight. Run it on a timer, send once, and let the on-demand command cover everything else. A short, predictable digest beats a wall of numbers.
The whole appeal of a Telegram bot is restraint, a market in your pocket, summarised, with nothing it can do but tell you what it sees.
Wire up the feed
The docs cover the live orderbook and slug-lookup endpoints the bot calls for each message.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Telegram bot trade on Polymarket?
No. It only reads and formats market data. Resolved Markets is read-only, there is no order-placement endpoint, so the bot pushes updates and answers queries, nothing more.
Can people in the chat request a market on demand?
Yes. A common pattern is a slash command that takes a market slug (like btc-updown-1h), resolves it to the market, fetches the live order book, and replies with the current odds and spread.
How do I send scheduled summaries?
Run the bot on a timer and have it pull the live orderbook (and a short snapshot window for the trend) for each market on your watchlist, then format and send. A morning digest is a popular setup.
Which markets can the bot report on?
Any market the platform covers, all crypto coins on every tier, and the wider categories (sports, weather, economics, social, equities) on Scale and above. The live orderbook serves active markets; for a closed market the bot reads from the snapshot archive instead.