Adding a Keyboard to Your Bot¶

Typing commands is fine for developers. Everyone else? They'd rather tap a button. Reply keyboards put buttons below the chat input — tap one, and Telegram sends that label as a normal message.

Let's upgrade your /start command from Your First Bot into a tiny menu bot.

What we're building¶

We'll update /start to:

Send a welcome message
Show Help and About buttons
Respond when users tap those buttons

No Logic required yet — just Answer fields and a keyboard layout string.

What is a keyboard?¶

A reply keyboard is a set of buttons shown below the message input field.

When a user taps a button:

Telegram sends the button text as a message (e.g. Help)
TBL treats it like any other text input
A matching command responds

No typing. Fewer typos. Happier users.

Not inline buttons

Buttons inside the message bubble are inline keyboards — different feature, built in Logic. See Handling Callbacks. This page is about reply keyboards only.

Step 1 — Open the command¶

Dashboard → your bot → Commands
Find your existing /start command
Click edit (pencil icon)

Step 2 — Add the keyboard¶

Update the fields:

Command: /start

Answer:

Hello 👋
Choose one of the options below to continue.

Keyboard: Help, About

That creates two buttons in one row.

Warning

A keyboard always requires an Answer. Buttons can't be sent without a message — Telegram's rule, not ours.

Field reference: Command Fields.

Keyboard layout basics¶

Keyboards are plain text with simple rules:

Same row: separate buttons with commas → Help, About
New row: line break → Help\nAbout
Mix freely: Yes, No\nCancel

Keyboard value	Result
`Yes,No`	One row, two buttons
`Yes\nNo`	Two rows, one button each
`Yes,No\nBoth`	Row 1: Yes, No — Row 2: Both

Design menus like you'd sketch them on a napkin.

Step 3 — Create the Help command¶

Tapping Help sends the text Help. TBL needs a command named Help to respond.

Command: Help

Answer:

Here's what I can help you with:
- Use the buttons to navigate
- Tap About to learn more about me
- Send /start anytime to restart

No Logic needed. Case matters — Help is not help.

Step 4 — Create the About command¶

Command: About

Answer:

I'm a simple Telegram bot built on TeleBotHost.
I use commands and keyboards to guide users easily.

Why keyboards are useful¶

Great for:

Menus and navigation
Guided flows ("Yes / No / Maybe")
Reducing "what do I type?" confusion

Tip

Use keyboards for common actions instead of making users memorize commands. Save /commands for power users.

If button text doesn't match your command name exactly, add an alias.

Test it¶

Open your bot in Telegram
Send /start — buttons should appear
Tap Help and About — each should reply

If a button does nothing, check the command name matches the button label (including capitalization).

Menu complete 🎉

What's next¶

Add a Back button (point it at /start via alias or command)
Combine keyboards with Need Reply for forms
Add Logic when static answers aren't enough — Bot sends dynamic replies

Your bot is officially interactive.