Glossary

access hash

Account-bound integer tied to a specific resource. Users, channels, photos and documents are all resources with an access hash. The access hash doesn’t change, but every account will see a different value for the same resource.

Bot API

HTTP Bot API

Telegram’s simplified HTTP API to control bot accounts only.

See also

The HTTP Bot API vs MTProto concept.

layer

When Telegram releases new features, it does so by releasing a new “layer”. The different layers let Telegram know what a client is capable of and how it should respond to requests.

login

Used to refer to the login process as a whole, as opposed to the action to sign in. The “login code” or “login token” get their name because they belong to the login process.

MTProto

Mobile Transport Protocol used to interact with Telegram’s API.

See also

The HTTP Bot API vs MTProto concept.

peer

A User, Group or Channel.

See also

The Peers, users and chats concept.

Raw API

Functions and types under telethon._tl that enable access to all of Telegram’s API.

See also

The The Full API concept.

RPC

Remote Procedure Call. Invoked when calling a Client with a function from telethon._tl.functions.

RPC Error

Error type returned by Telegram. RpcError contains an integer code similar to HTTP status codes and a name.

See also

The RPC Errors concept.

session

Data used to securely connect to Telegram and other state related to the logged-in account.

See also

The Sessions concept.

sign in

Used to refer to the action to sign into either a user or bot account, as opposed to the login process. Likewise, “sign out” is used to signify that the authorization should stop being valid.

TL

Type Language

File format used by Telegram to define all the types and requests available in a layer. Telegram’s site has an Overview of the TL language.

See also

Type Language brief.

yourself

The logged-in account, whether that represents a bot or a user with a phone number.