Welcome, rules and language
The greeting new members get, the rules /rules shows, the three languages, and the bot's per-event skins
The three things every group sets once and then forgets about.
/newwelcome/novobemvindo/nuevabienvenidaSets the greeting new members get. Admin only, and two-step.
The bot posts a prompt — reply to that prompt with the text. Typing it on the same line does nothing.
/rules/reglas/regrasShows the group's rules to whoever asked.
/newrules/novasregras/nuevasreglasSets the text /rules shows. Admin only, and two-step.
Same two-step shape. A non-admin replying to the prompt gets "You are not a group admin!".
/commands/comandosLists the commands this group can use. Works in a private chat too.
/reload/recarregarRe-reads the group's admin list and settings, for when a promotion has just happened.
The welcome message
New members are greeted with whatever /newwelcome set, or with a default
greeting in the group's language if nothing was ever set.
A placeholder in the text becomes the new member's name — their Telegram username if they have one, their first name if they do not. Nine spellings are accepted, because v1 accepted all nine and groups have all nine in the wild:
{user} {username} {mention}
$user $(user) $(username)
<user> <username> <name>$username is the one to avoid. It collides with $user — the shorter
placeholder is substituted first, leaving name stuck to the end of the
member's name. Use {user} or <user> instead. This is a v1 defect kept for
compatibility, not a v2 bug.
Three details worth knowing:
- A bot joining gets a "new companion" note, not the welcome message.
- The bot itself being added is silent — no greeting for its own arrival.
- Several people joining at once (one Telegram update) produce one greeting, for the first of them.
The rules
/rules prints what an admin set with /newrules. A group that never set any
gets told so, by name:
No rules have been set for this group yet. Please contact an admin to set the rules using /newrules command
Both commands answer to their Portuguese and Spanish spellings — /regras,
/reglas, /novasregras, /nuevasreglas — in every group, whatever the
group's language is set to.
Language
The group's language decides what the bot says: greetings, refusals, button labels, the command menu Telegram shows next to the message box. It never decides what the bot listens for.
- A new group takes its language from the Telegram client of whoever added
the bot:
pt-*→ Portuguese,es-*→ Spanish,en-*→ English. A client that sends no language at all leaves the group on the default. - Changing it is the Language button in
/config, answered withpt,engores. - Changing it also relabels the command menu. If Telegram refuses that relabel, the language change still stands.
Skins
One codebase runs several bots: Cookiebot itself, and the event personas — Bombot for Brasil Fur Fest, Pawsy for Pawstral, Tarinbot for SC Furs. A skin is a different name, avatar, wording and command set on the same core, not a different bot with a copied config.
For a group, the visible differences are small but deliberate:
- The flagship bot announces itself with an introduction animation when it is added to a group.
- An event skin joins quietly — a convention bot that shouts on arrival in fifty group chats is a worse experience for everyone.
Each skin can also carry custom commands of its own.