Keep just what you need

Every fetch command emits JSONL: one JSON object per line. jq accepts this stream directly, so you can filter it as it arrives. No conversion or intermediate file is needed.

For interactive browsing and fuzzy selection, start with fx and fzf. jq is useful when you already know the condition or fields you want.

Find matching messages

After signing in, replace the example channel with your own:


indexit -q telegram fetch messages \
  --dialog @example_channel --limit 200 \
  | jq --unbuffered -c 'select(.text | test("travel"; "i"))'

This prints records containing “travel”, ignoring case. test() accepts a regular expression; use contains("travel") for a literal, case-sensitive substring. jq has no built-in interactive fuzzy finder — use fzf for that.

Read the text


indexit -q telegram fetch messages \
  --dialog https://t.me/example_channel --limit 100 \
  | jq --unbuffered -r 'select(.text != "") | .text'

-r prints strings without JSON quotes. --unbuffered forwards results promptly. For one row per message, use @tsv to keep embedded line breaks escaped:


indexit -q telegram fetch messages \
  --dialog @example_channel --limit 100 \
  | jq --unbuffered -r '[.id, .date, .text] | @tsv'

Understand the records

`_kind`	Identifying fields	Useful information
`dialog`	`uid`, `peer_type`, `peer_id`	Title, username, forum status, unread count, available flags
`topic`	`dialog_uid`, `topic_id`	Title, creation date, top message, counters and flags
`message`	`dialog_uid`, `id`	Date, text, optional sender, topic, media description, replies and forwards
`media`	`dialog_uid`, `message_id`, `path`	File type, date, size, optional album, skip status, or download error

Optional fields can be absent, including false flags and zero counters. Dates are RFC3339 in UTC. Text is plain text; formatting entities are not exported. Reactions are a total, not a breakdown by emoji.

fetch messages describes attachments. Use fetch media for bytes, paths, and album IDs. A photo descriptor can contain only type; the download result carries its size.

IDs can require 64-bit integer precision, particularly grouped_id. Use a JSON reader that preserves exact integers when IDs matter. Keep importers tolerant of optional and additional fields; v0.1.0 has no schema version.

Check only failed downloads


indexit -q telegram fetch media \
  --dialog @example_channel --media photo --limit 20 --dir ./photos \
  | jq --unbuffered -c 'select(.error)'

Files go directly into photos/; only failed-file records are printed. A successful command exit does not guarantee every download succeeded. See CLI & configuration for output flags and exit codes.