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opentele-ng

PyPI package name: opentele-ng. The GitHub repository is called opentele, the package it publishes is opentele-ng, and the import path stays opentele. Same project.

Modern fork of thedemons/opentele. Python 3.10–3.14 • pure-Python runtime, no Qt dependency • reads tdata from current Telegram Desktop, no version gate • drop-in import opentele compatibility.

PyPI version Python CI License: MIT

Install

pip install opentele-ng

30-second tour

Inspect a tdata folder:

opentele-ng info /path/to/Telegram/tdata

Convert it to a Telethon session:

opentele-ng convert /path/to/Telegram/tdata --output ./me.session

For programmatic use:

import asyncio
from opentele.api import API, CreateNewSession
from opentele.td import TDesktop

async def main():
    td = TDesktop("/path/to/Telegram/tdata")
    client = await td.ToTelethon(
        session="me.session",
        flag=CreateNewSession,
        api=API.TelegramDesktop.Generate(),
    )
    me = await client.get_me()
    print(me.id, me.username)

asyncio.run(main())

Why this fork

Upstream thedemons/opentele last shipped to PyPI in January 2022 and last committed in July 2024; it started silently breaking on tdata from current Telegram Desktop because Telegram added several lskType keys that desync the stream on read. opentele-ng ships the missing wire-format fixes plus a pure-Python QDataStream so you don't need to install Qt — see the README for the full breakdown.

Which Telegram Desktop versions can it read?

Verified against Telegram Desktop 7.0.9 (2026-08-06), and nothing in the reader turns a folder away for being newer than that.

Storage.ReadFile checks the TDF$ magic and the MD5 trailer, then treats the version field in the header as information — it becomes TDesktop.AppVersion — not as something to accept or reject. There is no floor and no ceiling. Compatibility is decided by the contents instead:

  • The lskType enum in td/configs.py matches TDesktop's own in storage_account.cpp entry for entry, 0x00 – 0x1E. One name lags: 0x11 is still lskTrustedBots here, renamed lskTrustedPeers upstream. Same ID, so it reads fine.
  • The account-map reader dispatches lskDraft (0x01) through lskPrefs (0x1E). lskUserMap (0x00) names the map file itself and is not written as a block by either side.
  • An unrecognised key fails closed with a clear exception instead of desyncing the stream (behaviour introduced in 1.3.0). You get an error naming the key and its offset, not silently truncated data.
  • In the MTProto path the one hard equality is MTP.Config.kVersion == 1. DcOptions reads whatever positive version it finds and only writes kVersion = 2.

So a later Telegram Desktop could still require work here — if it adds a block type, changes the layout of an existing one, or bumps MTP.Config — but a version bump on its own does not.

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