Hermoso is a marketing MCP server: 850+ tools over one OAuth’d endpoint that let an agent research the ads already running in a market, generate finished image and video ads, publish them, and build the paid campaigns behind them. Gemini CLI reaches all of it through one connection. This page is about one slice of that — what Gemini CLI can actually do on Telegram, and what Telegram will not let it do.
Connect Hermoso to Gemini CLI
- Install the extension.
It installs the latest release of Hermoso’s public repository: five skills (research, ad-from-brand, generate, product-photoshoot and marketing) plus agemini extensions install https://github.com/hermoso-ai/hermosoGEMINI.mdcontext file. The skills run thehermosocommand throughnpx, so nothing is added to Gemini CLI’s tool list and nothing costs context until a command runs.gemini extensions listshows them under Agent skills. - Sign in once.
It opens a browser sign-in and stores an owner-only credential innpx -y hermoso auth login~/.hermoso/config.json. Gemini CLI can run it for you the first time it needs Hermoso. No browser on that machine? Create a key under MCP & CLI → Terminal & API keys and runnpx -y hermoso auth login --token hmk_…. - Optional: the MCP server as well.
Gemini CLI finds Hermoso’s authorization server when the first connection answers 401 and registers itself, so no key goes ingemini mcp add --scope user --transport http hermoso https://app.hermoso.ai/mcpsettings.json;/mcp auth hermosoinside a session runs the sign-in. The skills reach every tool without it. - Ask Gemini CLI for something. “Pull my three closest competitors’ longest-running ads and remix the best hook into a 9:16 video,” or “post this render to the channel.” The agent picks the tools; you approve the spend.
We ran the install above on 2026-09-23 against Gemini CLI 0.60.0 in a clean home directory: it pulled the current release of hermoso-ai/hermoso, and gemini extensions list reported the five skills and the context file. The extension carries no MCP server of its own, which is deliberate: a tool list is loaded into every session, and skills cost nothing until they run. Hermoso is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google.
Then connect Telegram itself, once, under Settings → Connectors in Hermoso by pasting a bot token from @BotFather, and add that bot to your channel as an administrator. There is no consent screen: the token is the credential, and the bot is who posts.
The Telegram tools Gemini CLI gets
post_to_telegram— sends a message as your bot to the chat you name: text up to 4,096 characters, or one photo, one video, or an album of 2 to 10 with photos and video mixed.schedule_post— queues it with itschatIdon the same calendar as every other channel.list_telegram_chats— the chats that messaged the bot in the last 24 hours. It helps find an id, and it is not a list of every chat the bot is in.edit_telegram_message / pin_telegram_message— fix a message’s text or caption without losing its views, and pin or unpin the call to action.create_telegram_invite_link— a named invite link per campaign, with an optional expiry, member cap or join approval, so you can see who joined from where.telegram_account— the chat’s subscriber or member count, title, description and invite link.list_telegram_dms— what people sent the bot in the last 24 hours, newest first, to answer withpost_to_telegram.delete_telegram_message— removes a message the bot sent, within Telegram’s 48-hour window, after a confirm step.
Telegram connects with a bot token, not a sign-in screen. Make a bot with @BotFather in Telegram, paste its token under Settings → Connectors, then add the bot to your channel as an administrator with Post Messages, or to a group as a member who can post. Hermoso posts as that bot, never as you. Two limits are Telegram’s and worth planning around: a bot gets no per-post views and no post history, so the subscriber count and named invite links are the numbers you have; and messages sent to the bot are kept for 24 hours, then gone. Publishing costs no credits.
Telegram limits worth knowing before you automate anything
| Text | A Telegram message runs to 4,096 characters, but only 1,024 once a photo or video is attached, because the text becomes a caption. It is enforced when the post is created or queued — refused while you are still there to fix it, rather than silently cut on the way out. |
|---|---|
| Visibility | Sent or not sent, with no draft, unlisted or private form. Who sees it is decided by the chat: “post to a private group or channel and only its members see it.” silent delivers without a notification sound and changes nothing about who can see the message. |
| Carousel | 2 to 10 items as an album, and photos and video may be mixed. Both bounds are Telegram’s own, from the Bot API’s sendMediaGroup (“must include 2-10 items”), and so is the mixing. The album shows one caption, on its first item. Hermoso uploads the files instead of passing links, which raises Telegram’s ceilings to 10MB per photo and 50MB per video. |
| Which account | chatId, required on every post: a public channel’s @username or the numeric id (a supergroup or channel starts with -100). The Bot API has no method that lists the chats a bot is in, so Hermoso cannot know them and never guesses. |
Try it in Gemini CLI
Ask for it in ordinary language — these are sentences, not a DSL:
“Post ./renders/teaser.mp4 to our Telegram channel @ourbrand with a caption under 1,024 characters, and pin it without notifying members.”
That walks render_ad → post_to_telegram → pin_telegram_message → create_telegram_invite_link. Gemini CLI asks before it runs a shell command, and the skills act through the hermoso command, so a publish shows up as a line you can read before you say yes. For MCP tools it offers once, always for that tool, or always for the server.
Gemini CLI on Telegram: the part that bites
Check the file size before the call. Telegram caps an uploaded video at 50MB even with Hermoso sending the bytes rather than a link (a link would be capped at 20MB), and a longer render may need a lighter encode. The bot must already be an admin with Post Messages in the channel, plus pin rights to pin, and Telegram’s refusal names whichever is missing.
Two Gemini CLI details decide how safe this is. gemini mcp add writes to the project’s .gemini/settings.json unless you pass --scope user, which is useful when one repo should always run against one brand. And never add Hermoso with --trust: it skips every confirmation for the server, including the ones in front of a publish. MCP tools arrive named mcp_hermoso_ plus the tool name, and --exclude-tools keeps any of them out entirely.
Research Telegram before you post
There is no Telegram ad library and no channel search in Hermoso, so it claims no competitor research on Telegram. Research the creative where it is public (the Meta, Google and LinkedIn ad libraries plus organic TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit and Threads) and post the finished ad here.
The paid half
There are no Telegram ads in Hermoso, and we do not imply any. Telegram here is a channel you own and run through your bot: post, pin, edit, count subscribers and track invites. The paid tools cover Meta, Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Reddit Ads, LinkedIn, Pinterest, X Ads, TikTok Ads, Snapchat Ads, ChatGPT Ads and Apple Search Ads.
What Gemini CLI cannot do on its own
An agent with a budget is only useful if the blast radius is bounded, so the fence is in the server rather than in a prompt. Every ad campaign, ad set, ad group and ad is created paused, and the status switches that arm real money refuse to run without an explicit confirmation flag. Every render is quoted first — hermoso_capabilities publishes each model’s exact credit cost before anything spends — and credits are reserved before the first provider call and settled at the exact cost afterwards, so a failed dispatch refunds rather than leaving you billed for nothing. Deletes are confirm-gated too, and every campaign tree is read back from the ad platform before your agent tells you what it built.
One step is deliberately yours: creating the bot with @BotFather and adding it to your channel. Everything after that is a tool call.
The rest of the matrix
From Gemini CLI, post to: Facebook · Instagram · Threads · TikTok · YouTube · X · LinkedIn · Pinterest · Bluesky — or see everything Gemini CLI can publish to.
Post to Telegram from: Claude · ChatGPT · Claude Code · Cursor · Codex · Cline · OpenClaw · Grok Bot · Hermes · Perplexity · Le Chat
Frequently asked questions
Can Gemini CLI post to Telegram?
Yes, with Hermoso's Gemini CLI extension. Run gemini extensions install https://github.com/hermoso-ai/hermoso, which adds five Hermoso skills that drive the hermoso command, then sign in once with npx -y hermoso auth login. The sign-in opens a browser and stores the credential itself, so there is no key to create and none to paste. If you also want Hermoso's tools in Gemini CLI's own list, gemini mcp add --scope user --transport http hermoso https://app.hermoso.ai/mcp adds the hosted server, which signs in with OAuth. Gemini CLI then has 850+ tools, including the ones that publish to Telegram — and the ones that research the ads already running in your market and render the creative in the first place.
How do I connect Telegram to Gemini CLI?
Two steps, once each. Run gemini extensions install https://github.com/hermoso-ai/hermoso, which adds five Hermoso skills that drive the hermoso command, then sign in once with npx -y hermoso auth login. The sign-in opens a browser and stores the credential itself, so there is no key to create and none to paste. If you also want Hermoso's tools in Gemini CLI's own list, gemini mcp add --scope user --transport http hermoso https://app.hermoso.ai/mcp adds the hosted server, which signs in with OAuth. Then make a bot with @BotFather in Telegram, paste its token under Settings → Connectors in Hermoso, and add the bot to your channel as an administrator with Post Messages. After that Gemini CLI publishes to Telegram as an ordinary tool call, naming the chat each time.
Can Gemini CLI post privately or as a draft to Telegram?
There is no draft or private message in the Bot API. Privacy on Telegram belongs to the chat: post to a private group or channel and only its members see it. Hermoso refuses a visibility Telegram cannot honour at the moment you ask for it, rather than quietly publishing something weaker.
Can Gemini CLI research Telegram before it posts?
No. Hermoso has no Telegram ad library or channel search. It researches the creative on the public ad libraries and organic platforms, and Telegram is where you post the result.
Start free — 30 credits at signup and 250+ more to earn, and every feature on every plan. Credits are spent only on AI models and Ad Spy research; posting, scheduling, ads management and analytics are free.
Start free → See pricing