Built for our own business.
Server-side control panel via Telegram
An admin-only bot that runs routine server tasks step by step, with a confirmation before anything changes.
The problem
Routine tasks on our server (adding, replacing, pausing and checking customer settings) were done over SSH with a command-line script. From a phone, that is slow and easy to get wrong.
What we built
A separate, admin-only Telegram bot that runs the same script step by step.
- It offers eleven actions, and every action that changes something asks for confirmation first.
- The bot holds no business logic of its own: it calls the script and shows its answer word for word, so the rules live in one place.
- Anyone who is not an admin gets no reply at all.
Technology
The bot is written in Python and runs on our own server around the clock, under its own restricted account that can reach only what the script needs. It never shows passwords or keys in its replies. Before every update it runs through 25 automated checks against a test copy of the script, without Telegram, so the real server is never touched.
For technical readers: Python, aiogram 3, pydantic-settings, systemd.
What was hard
- A separate bot or the customer bot? The customer bot runs locked down. Giving a public bot the power to switch off customer services would have meant removing that isolation. A second bot costs a second process and token; sharing one would have cost the isolation.
- Typos from a phone. The script validates input before writing anything, so a bad value is simply not saved.
Result
In use since September 2026 for day-to-day server tasks.
Need a tool like this?
Tell us which tasks you repeat. We reply in writing with a fixed quote.