Feature Request: Telegram Business Connection support

Summary

Add support for Telegram Business Connection — the API that lets a bot act on a user's personal Telegram account, reading and optionally replying to DMs on their behalf.

Background

Telegram Bot API 7.2 (April 2024) introduced Business Connection. Bot API 9.0 (April 2025) added full BusinessBotRights with granular permission scoping. Bot API 10.0 (May 2026) removed the Telegram Premium requirement — the feature is now available to all accounts.

The python-telegram-bot library (already used by Hermes' Telegram adapter) has supported Business Connection since v21.0 via Update.business_message and the business_connection_id parameter on send_message.

Use case

A Hermes user connects their bot to their personal Telegram account via: Settings → Telegram Business → Chatbots

The bot then receives all incoming DMs to the user's personal account and can:

• Draft a reply for the user to approve (one-tap send) before sending as the user
• Auto-reply when the user sets an away mode
• Summarise overnight DMs into a digest
• Triage/categorise/tag messages
• Answer questions about chat history ("when did Alice and I last discuss X?")

This is fundamentally different from today's setup where users DM the bot directly. With Business Connection, the bot becomes an assistant on the user's account, not a separate identity.

What needs to change in Hermes

1. Telegram adapter: handle update.business_message in addition to update.message. Extract business_connection_id from business messages and attach it to replies sent via send_message.

2. Config: expose a business_connection section in config.yaml / .env:

   platforms:
     telegram:
       business_connection:
         enabled: true
         mode: draft   # draft | auto_reply | read_only
         draft_channel: 123456789   # chat_id to send approval requests to

3. Draft-approval flow (optional but high-value): instead of immediately replying as the user, post the draft to a private channel with [✅ Send] [🚫 Skip] inline buttons. On approval, send via business_connection_id.

4. Rights documentation: note which BusinessBotRights Hermes requests/requires so users can scope permissions appropriately in Telegram settings.

Minimal footprint

At minimum, just routing update.business_message through the existing message pipeline (same handlers, same tools, same memory) with business_connection_id threaded through to outgoing replies would already unlock the core use case. The draft-approval UX can come later.

References

• Telegram Bot API — BusinessConnection
• python-telegram-bot BusinessConnection support
• Bot API 10.0 changelog