Tired of opening every single link sent by your friends? We too.

From now on, you don't need that. tg-load sets a Telegram bot for downloading and sending content from links. Just add the bot to your group, enable it and get all the supported content directly to your chat!

Currently supported: Instagram, YouTube Music, YouTube (audio and YouTube Shorts).

Required components

• Python (version 3.13 recommended)
• python-telegram-bot module
• environs module
• instaloader module with the following PRs merged:
  • #2577
  • #2583
• browser-cookie3 module with the following PRs merged:
  • (optionally) #225
  • (optionally) #226
• python-youtube-music module with YouTubeMusicDL support and the following PRs merged:
  • #30
  • #32
• yt-dlp module with ffmpeg and ffprobe custom builds

Recommended installation and setup

1. Install the latest version of Python from the official website with PIP included.
2. Install Git.
3. In the system command prompt, run the following as an administrator:
   

   pip install git+https://github.com/denyshon/tg-load
   

4. Install https://github.com/denyshon/python-youtube-music/tree/tg-load with YouTubeMusicDL support as described in its README.
5. Download an ffmpeg custom build for yt-dlp, that corresponds to your yt-dlp version.
6. In the project root folder, create a .env file with the following structure:

   TOKEN=''
   FFMPEG_LOCATION=''
   

7. Specify your bot's token and the ffmpeg custom build location in the .env file. The path may be absolute or relative, and must lead to the bin folder. Also, make sure to escape \. For example, if you placed ffmpeg in your working directory, the location will be ffmpeg/bin (or ffmpeg\\bin for Windows). Warning: for the console application, it is recommended to use an absolute path only.
8. Optionally, add

   TEST_LOGIN=False
   

   This has effect only if browser is not set in config.toml, and means that exactly one test login will be performed after loading the session. Default is true.
9. In src/tg_load/settings/, create config.toml. Values specified there will override values from src/tg_load/settings/config.default.toml. You must specify:
   • admin_ids
   • Either browser or username, csrftoken, sessionid, ds_user_id, mid and ig_did. It is also recommended to specify logging_chat_ids.
10. In src/tg_load/settings/config.toml, you can also specify the texts of the messages sent by the bot. Make sure to follow the structure of src/tg_load/settings/config.default.toml and read the comments there.
11. You can pass YouTube cookies to login via src/tg_load/settings/youtube_cookies.txt. See https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Extractors#exporting-youtube-cookies
12. You may also want to set a command list for your bot. You can specify it in src/tg_load/settings/commands.txt (or stick to src/tg_load/settings/commands.default.txt) and then set the commands by running src/tg_load/set_commands.py.
    • If src/tg_load/settings/commands.txt doesn't exist, src/tg_load/settings/commands.default.txt will be used. Otherwise, src/tg_load/settings/commands.default.txt will be ignored!
    • Each of the commands must be in a separate line, followed by another line with the description.
    • If you installed tg-load using a package manager, you can also execute

      tg-load-set-commands
      

Starting

To run the bot:

• If you installed tg-load via pip, simply execute

  tg-load
  

• If you haven't installed tg-load, in the project directory execute

  set PYTHONPATH=src
  

  on Windows, or

  PYTHONPATH=src
  

  on Unix, and then

  python -m tg_load
  

Usage

Commands

• /start
  Get started
• /help
  Find out more about the bot
• /enable [admin only]
  Enable the bot in the chat
• /disable [admin only]
  Disable the bot in the chat
• /uncompressed
  Get uncompressed media from Instagram (handles links in your message and in the message you're replying to)
• /audio
  Get audio from YouTube and YouTube Music (handles links in your message and in the message you're replying to)
• /enable_captions
  Enable Instagram caption downloading in the chat
• /disable_captions
  Disable Instagram caption downloading in the chat
• /enable_notifications
  Enable notifications (e.g., when a feature is enabled/disabled) in the chat
• /disable_notifications
  Disable notifications (e.g., when a feature is enabled/disabled) in the chat
• /admin_commands [admin only]
  Get a list of available admin commands

Admin commands

It is not recommended to include these commands in the bot's command list, but they are still recognized:

• /enable_chats [chat_id] [chat_id] … [chat_id] [admin only]
  Enable the bot in the chats with the given IDs
• /disable_chats [chat_id] [chat_id] … [chat_id] [admin only]
  Disable the bot in the chats with the given IDs
• /ban_users [user_id] [user_id] … [user_id] [admin only]
  Prevent the users with the given IDs from using the bot
• /unban_users [user_id] [user_id] … [user_id] [admin only]
  Allow the users with the given IDs to use the bot
• /enable_features [feature_shortname] [feature_shortname] … [feature_shortname] [admin only]
  Enable features with shortnames from the args (inst | yt_shorts | ytm | yt)
• /disable_features [feature_shortname] [feature_shortname] … [feature_shortname] [admin only]
  Disable features with shortnames from the args (inst | yt_shorts | ytm | yt)
• /send_notification [Notification content] [admin only]
  Send a notification to the chats with notifications enabled
• /send_forced_notification [Notification content] [admin only]
  Send a notification to all the active chats

Mentions

You can mention the bot to force handling of the message you are replying to. Please make sure to reply to the message containing link(s), not the one with downloaded content. Links in your message with the mention will also be handled as usual.

Limitations

• Make sure to limit Instagram requests according to Instagram's limitations for a single account.
• Limit the number of videos/audios being downloaded simultaneously. Remember that for each of them a new process is created, so too high a number may lead to the bot's temporary unavailability and even a crash. The timeouts (remember to adjust them if needed) help deal with that, but do not solve the problem.

Supported link types

• Instagram:
  • p: links to Instagram posts, e.g., https://www.instagram.com/instagram/p/DN8-GjPkgjS/
  • reel: links to Instagram reels from profiles, e.g., https://www.instagram.com/instagram/reel/DN8JgNMgFE8/
  • reels: links to Instagram reels from the general tab, e.g., https://www.instagram.com/reels/DLVVFcppzdR/
  • stories: links to Instagram profile stories, e.g., https://www.instagram.com/stories/instagram/, or links to certain Instagram stories, e.g., https://www.instagram.com/stories/instagram/3711483840431921893/
• YouTube Music:
  • watch: links to YouTube Music songs, e.g., https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=lYBUbBu4W08
  • playlist: links to YouTube Music albums and singles, e.g., https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kRPA8ySVXwGMFk2DcJjEzCTE4yjJqiOrY
    Note: user playlists are not supported, see #4
  • browse: browse links to YouTube Music albums and singles (redirected to playlist links), e.g., https://music.youtube.com/browse/MPREb_WrO8DjG6YIZ
• YouTube:
  • watch: links to YouTube videos, e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYBUbBu4W08
  • youtu.be: shortened links to YouTube videos (redirected to watch links), e.g., https://youtu.be/xvFZjo5PgG0
  • playlist: links to YouTube albums and singles, e.g., https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kRPA8ySVXwGMFk2DcJjEzCTE4yjJqiOrY Note: user playlists are not supported, see #4
  • shorts: links to YouTube shorts, e.g., https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ei_2rfHyqCU

Google Cloud Run deployment

Install gcloud. On Windows:

winget install --id Google.CloudSDK

Create a project, and then login:

gcloud auth login
gcloud auth application-default login
gcloud config set project ${PROJECT_ID}

gcloud services enable run.googleapis.com cloudbuild.googleapis.com artifactregistry.googleapis.com storage.googleapis.com

Create a bucket (or use your project's one) and give ${PROJECT_ID}-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com the Storage Object User role. In the project directory, deploy from source:

gcloud run deploy tg-load --source . --region ${REGION} --allow-unauthenticated --clear-base-image --set-env-vars TOKEN=${TOKEN} --set-env-vars STATE_BUCKET=${BUCKET} --min-instances 1

Set webhook updates:

curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TOKEN}/setWebhook" \
  -d "url=${SERVICE_URL}/webhook" \
  -d "secret_token=${SECRET}" \
  -d "drop_pending_updates=true"

Plans for future releases

• Track a request count for each user
• Add more download options for the users
• Provide YouTube video downloading (limited per user)
• Add Instagram highlights / profile downloading (with warnings and limited per user)
• Provide support for LinkedIn links
• Provide support for TikTok links
• Provide support for SoundCloud links
• Provide support for X links