Quoted Reply Context

When a user replies to or quotes an earlier message on Telegram, the referenced text is folded into the agent turn as a compact quoted block so the agent honours the referent. Tapping Reply on the bot’s own message now carries the referenced text — so a bare “do the second one” resolves correctly:

Bot:  Here are three options: 1) migrate now  2) stage it  3) roll back
User: (taps Reply on the bot's message) do the second one

# What the agent sees (rendered by BotMessage.prompt_text)
[In reply to: "Here are three options: 1) migrate now  2) stage it  3) roll back"]
do the second one

# Agent replies with the right referent — "Staging it — here's the plan…"

Quick Start

Start the bot — context is always on

from praisonaiagents import Agent
from praisonai.bots import TelegramBot

agent = Agent(name="Planner", instructions="Be concise.")
bot = TelegramBot(token="...", agent=agent)

import asyncio
asyncio.run(bot.start())
# Reply/quote context is always on — no flag to enable.

Inspect the resolved quote programmatically

from praisonaiagents.bots import BotMessage, QuotedRef

msg = BotMessage(
    content="do the second one",
    quoted=QuotedRef(
        text="Here are three options: 1) migrate now  2) stage it  3) roll back",
        author="bot",
    ),
)
print(msg.prompt_text)
# [In reply to: "Here are three options: 1) migrate now  2) stage it  3) roll back"]
# do the second one

How It Works

The adapter resolves the referenced text inbound, then prompt_text renders it above the new text before the message reaches the agent. prompt_text whitespace-collapses the referenced text and truncates anything over 500 characters with an ellipsis. With no quote it is identical to the plain text.

Situation	What the agent sees
No reply / no quote	Original text unchanged
Reply to a bot message	`[In reply to: "<bot's earlier text>"]\n<new text>`
Reply to a peer message	`[In reply to: "<peer's earlier text>"]\n<new text>`
Explicit quote span (partial highlight)	`[In reply to: "<selected span only>"]\n<new text>`
Referenced message has caption only	Caption used as the quoted text
New text empty (reply with just a sticker/reaction)	Only the `[In reply to: "…"]` block
Quoted text > 500 chars	Truncated with `…`

Behavioural rules:

Always-on. No YAML or Python flag — the feature is default behaviour on Telegram.
Best-effort. Any missing field or error falls back to today’s behaviour — the turn is never dropped just because resolution failed.
Context, never control. Quoted content is injected as context only, never as a control frame — consistent with allow_control on BotMessage.
Runs behind the gate. MESSAGE_RECEIVED sees content = prompt_text (the rendered turn including the quoted block). Redacting content in the hook is authoritative — the separately-resolved quote is cleared so unredacted quoted text can’t leak past.
Works in the standalone bot and the gateway. Both praisonai bot and praisonai gateway render prompt_text before dispatch.

Platform Support

Quoted reply resolution is wired on Telegram in this release.

Platform	Quoted reply resolved?
Telegram	✅
Discord	❌ (not yet)
Slack	❌ (not yet)
WhatsApp	❌ (not yet)

Common Patterns

Do nothing — it just works. Start the bot and reply/quote context is folded in automatically.

from praisonaiagents import Agent
from praisonai.bots import TelegramBot

agent = Agent(name="Planner", instructions="Be concise.")
bot = TelegramBot(token="...", agent=agent)

import asyncio
asyncio.run(bot.start())

Redact quoted secrets before the agent sees them. The MESSAGE_RECEIVED hook receives the rendered turn, so scrubbing event_data.content covers a secret that appeared in the quoted message, not just the new text.

import re
from praisonaiagents.hooks import HookRegistry, HookEvent, HookResult

SECRET = re.compile(r"hunter\d+")
registry = HookRegistry()

@registry.on(HookEvent.MESSAGE_RECEIVED)
def redact(event_data):
    cleaned = SECRET.sub("[REDACTED]", event_data.content)
    if cleaned != event_data.content:
        return HookResult(decision="allow", modified_input={"content": cleaned})
    return HookResult.allow()

Inspect msg.quoted in a custom hook or plugin. The resolved reference exposes the referenced text and its author.

from praisonaiagents.bots import BotMessage, QuotedRef

msg = BotMessage(
    content="do the second one",
    quoted=QuotedRef(
        text="Here are three options: 1) migrate now  2) stage it  3) roll back",
        author="bot",
    ),
)
print(msg.quoted.author)   # "bot"
print(msg.prompt_text)     # rendered turn with the quoted block

Best Practices

Don't add prompt guidance for quotes

The [In reply to: "…"] block is unambiguous — the agent honours the referent without extra system-prompt scaffolding.

Use the inbound gate to filter quoted content

MESSAGE_RECEIVED sees the rendered turn — redact or deny there, not by peeking at msg.quoted in the agent tools.

Treat quoted content as untrusted

It comes from whoever sent the referenced message. It is context, never a control frame.

Expect graceful degradation across Telegram clients

If a client doesn’t send the quote span, the adapter falls back to reply_to_message.text / caption; if neither is present, the turn goes through unchanged.

Implicit Mentions

The same reply gesture that admits the message under mention_only

Inbound Message Gate

The hook sees the rendered turn, including the quoted block

Bot Gateway

Gateway agents render prompt_text before dispatch too

Control Trust

Why quoted content is context, not control

​Quick Start

​How It Works

​Platform Support

​Common Patterns

​Best Practices

​Related