Pocket Lint
Welcome to the Pocket Lint Telegram Bot documentation. Though most bot functions are self-explanatory, certain background behaviours are documented here for your convenience.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why use Pocket Lint Telegram Bot?
Pocket has a web site and an mobile apps so another way to interact with Pocket seems redundant at first. I have been using Pocket for many years, but mostly to save thinks that I rarely come back to, if at all. I built this bot because I wanted to have a single link served to me by the bot and if I haven’t tagged or archived the item, I wanted the opportunity to do this after actually reading the item. Since I already use Telegram, its built-in ability to perform link previews is also rather handy from a usability perspective; nothing new is needed to interact with my Pocket. If this presentation method works for you, then you should try this bot.
What information does the bot store about me?
At a minimum, the bot needs to store an authentication token that allows it to interact with your Pocket items. This token is generated as part of the /start command workflow and stored in a local database with the bot and is encrypted at rest using a key that is never persisted with the bot. Pick positions are stored and associated with your Telegram user ID. If tags are included, only cryptographic digests of the tags are stored with your pick positions meaning that there is no way to map the digest back to the actual tag. For more details about the implementation, see the project documentation. Application logs do not contain any user-content such as item links or any metadata fetched from Pocket, in the default logging mode. Logs include Telegram user ID and the action taken so that general activity is visible.
Can Pocket Lint serve me a random item from my Pocket?
The Application Programming Interface (API) provided by Pocket for item retrieval is constrained in that it will only allow retrieval for a limited number of items and an offset is needed to select which ones (if not the newest/oldest). There is no way to determine how many items there are in total without a brute-force method of fetching them all and then request rate limits become a factor at scale. So, the simplest design choice is to fetch a single item and store a “pick position” relative to the type of search (like unread, favourites, etc.). This pick position can be reset at any time with the /settings command.
Can the bot show me all my tags?
Unfortunately Pocket does not make this API available to 3rd party developer applications even though it is used internally by the Pocket web site.
Can the bot delete my items for me?
By design, no code exists in the bot to delete user content, even though modify-actions can be taken like archiving items. To delete your items, use the official Pocket app or web site.
Why do my commands fail with a permissions problem?
Either the bot is not yet registered with your account, or a problem in the bot means that a new authentication token is needed. It is always safe to use the /start command to generate a fresh authentication token.
How to I remove the bot’s access to my Pocket?
1) Navigate to getpocket.com/account
2) Scroll to the Third Party Applications section.
3) Look for Pocket Lint Telegram
4) Click on the Revoke Access button.
The bot will now no longer have permissions to access your pocket. You can use the /start command to re-register the bot with your account.
Can the bot speak my language?
While Telegram allows the bot to know the user’s language, the project currently supports only English feedback.
