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Why your volume stays at \~0 GB

Two common gotchas with Telegram’s Local Bot API:

1. Your bot is still calling https://api.telegram.org (the default), not your local server → no files touch your volume. You must point your bot library to the local base URL (e.g. http://localhost:8081).

2. The Bot API only saves files after you ask for them (e.g. via getFile or by downloading the returned path). Just receiving updates with file_id does not write to disk.

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Fix (do all 4):

1. Verify you’re talking to local API

bash:

curl -s "http://localhost:8081/bot$BOT_TOKEN/getMe"

If this fails or your app still hits api.telegram.org, you’re not using local mode.

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2. Point your library at the local base URL

• Telegraf:

js

const bot = new Telegraf(token, { telegram: { apiRoot: process.env.TELEGRAM_BOT_API_URL || 'http://localhost:8081' } });

• grammY:

ts

const bot = new Bot(token, { client: { apiRoot: process.env.TELEGRAM_BOT_API_URL || 'http://localhost:8081' } });

• node-telegram-bot-api:

js

const bot = new TelegramBot(token, { polling: true, baseApiUrl: process.env.TELEGRAM_BOT_API_URL || 'http://localhost:8081' });

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3. Actually download the file (this triggers disk writes)

js

// example (generic)

const f = await bot.api.getFile(fileId); // or library equivalent

const url = new URL(`/file/bot${token}/${f.file_path}`, process.env.TELEGRAM_BOT_API_URL || 'http://localhost:8081');

// stream url -> ${process.env.RAILWAY_VOLUME_MOUNT_PATH}/${path.basename(f.file_path)}

(Local server downloads to its --dir only when you call getFile/download.)

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4. Write to the mounted volume path

• Use Railway’s injected env: RAILWAY_VOLUME_MOUNT_PATH (don’t hardcode).

• Quick check at startup:

bash

echo "VOL=$RAILWAY_VOLUME_MOUNT_PATH"; touch "$RAILWAY_VOLUME_MOUNT_PATH/probe"

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Run flags recap (for your Bot API process)

Start it with --local --dir "$RAILWAY_VOLUME_MOUNT_PATH" --temp-dir /app/temp and then point your bot to http://localhost:8081 as above.

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Sanity checks

• ls -lah "$RAILWAY_VOLUME_MOUNT_PATH" while sending a test file.

• Watch Railway’s Volume graph; it should now show writes. (Env exposes the mount path; verify with echo.)

Once the bot uses the local base URL and you call getFile/download, files land under your volume and the usage graph will climb.