---
title: "Sources"
id: "1815"
type: "page"
slug: "sources"
published_at: "2026-09-20T22:08:59+00:00"
modified_at: "2026-09-21T01:36:28+00:00"
url: "https://xedant.com/agents/telegram/docs/sources"
markdown_url: "https://xedant.com/agents/telegram/docs/sources.md"
excerpt: "Sources are the watch channels the application collects messages from. These are other people’s channels…"
---

# Sources

[https://xedant.com/agents/telegram/docs/sources.md](https://xedant.com/agents/telegram/docs/sources.md)

Sources are the watch channels the application collects messages from. These are other people’s channels and chats, RSS feeds and the subscription lists of your account: everything worth tracking, in one place. The collected material goes into the message feed, where it turns into ideas, tags and comments.

## Kinds of sources

- **RSS/Atom feed** — only the feed address is needed;
- **Telegram channel through a bot** — the channel’s @name;
- **Telegram chat (group) through a bot** — the chat’s numeric identifier;
- **Comment thread through a bot** — a numeric identifier;
- **Channel through a personal account** — the chat’s numeric identifier; this way messages from the channel arrive in real time;
- **Folder** — combines several sources: a folder gathers everything its child sources collect.

## Adding manually

Pick the kind, a name and an address: for RSS — the feed address, for a channel — the @name, for a chat or a comment thread — the numeric identifier. The fetch interval ranges from 1 to 1440 minutes, 15 by default; categories are colored labels, optional. The source appears in the list immediately; the first messages arrive at the next fetch.

## Bulk adding from the account’s subscriptions

The “Find in my account” button shows the channels your personal account is subscribed to: title, @name, subscriber count, “owner/admin” labels and search. Check the ones you want — the application creates a source per channel and shows the initial history loading progress; channels that are already sources do not repeat in the list.

## The initial history load

The first 50 messages of a source load right away; older ones page in with the “load older” button until Telegram answers that there is nothing newer. Already-known messages are skipped — there will be no duplicates.

## Fetching

A background loop checks once a minute whose interval has arrived and pulls the new material — no more than three sources at a time, so Telegram is not overloaded. An unchanged RSS feed is not even re-read: the feed’s answer is checked by its headers. For sources through a personal account, new messages arrive in real time without waiting for the interval, and gaps are patched automatically after a server restart.

## No duplicates, protected from failures

Every message is stored once: the reading position is kept at the source and survives restarts. If a fetch fails, the error is recorded and everything already collected, plus the cursor, stays untouched — the next loop continues from the same place.

## Categories

Categories are colored labels shared by sources and messages. A message receives its source’s categories automatically; categories can filter the feed and feed into routing.

## The sources list

Every source in the list shows: the name, the message and author counts, the interval, the last fetch time with a “fetch now” button, and category chips. When new messages arrive, the counters update in place, without a reload.

## The source page

- **Overview** — the totals: all messages, categories, the interval, the state; for a folder — its child sources;
- **Messages** — the feed of this source only;
- **Authors** — who wrote in the source, with message counts and the time of the last post;
- **Settings** — the name, the interval, a filter expression.

Deleting a source removes everything it collected too — the messages, their tags and links — so the application asks for a confirmation.

## What is next

Sorting the collected material is in the [Message Feed](/agents/telegram/docs/messages)
 and [Authors](/agents/telegram/docs/authors)
 sections, automatic triage in [Routing](/agents/telegram/docs/routing)
, and a polite presence in discussions in [AI Comments](/agents/telegram/docs/comments)
.

[← Back to the documentation index](/agents/telegram/docs)