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Code word in the Telegram, MAX and VK bot: material on the keyword

September 14, 2026 · updated September 28, 2026 · Command CHBT · Flows, Lead magnet

“Write the word GUIDE and the bot will send the file” - a mechanic familiar from social networks, where code words in personal messages have become standard. In Telegram, MAX and VKontakte it works the same way and can be set up in ten minutes: trigger “Keyword”, message with material, tag for contact. Below is how it works in CHBT at the block level, how the “exact”, “contains” and regex modes differ, why the bot won’t send the file to the messenger and what to do about it, what words break other people’s scripts and where to place the word so that it is actually written.

How it works: trigger, issue, tag

The code word is the entry into the script. A person writes the agreed word to the bot in private messages, the bot recognizes it and starts a pre-assembled chain. In CHBT these are the three items in the Scripts section:

Trigger "Keyword". List of words (several possible) and comparison mode - exactly, contains or regular expression. The trigger is at the beginning of the script and determines where it starts.
"Message" block. The actual output: text and a link to the material, and, if desired, buttons for the next step.
Block “Action” → “Add tag”. Contact flag: he received this material. Without a tag, in a month you won’t be able to distinguish those who came for the guide from the rest of the base.

It works in all channels connected to the bot: in the Telegram bot’s personal message, in MAX, in personal messages of the VKontakte community and even in a widget on the website - there is one flow, the channel is not important. Available on a free plan. An important limitation from the world of instant messengers: the bot reads only private messages. He will not see a word written in the comments under a channel post or on a community wall - the person must open a conversation with the bot and write there. How to still collect leads from the comments of a Telegram channel - separate topic.

The diagram below is for Telegram, MAX and VKontakte: these are all channels where CHBT has a bot. The code word is convenient for issuing not only a guide, but also a selection of products: if the catalog is connected, the branch after the word can immediately show items with price and availability.

Setup in six steps

The fastest way is from a template “Issuing a lead magnet”: there is already an offer, a contact collection and a message with a link; All that remains is to replace the trigger and texts. From scratch the order is:

In Scripts, create a script and in its trigger, select Keyword. Enter the word - for example, guide - and its probable options: guide, guide, I want a guide. The mode “contains” for now.
The first block is “Message”: “Catch: [link]. Inside there are 12 pages about...” Add a link to the text; in Telegram it can be placed on the URL button under the message.
The next block is “Action” → “Add tag” magnet: guide. If you have several materials, each has its own tag.
If you need to give material in exchange for a contact, put “Data collection” (E-mail or Phone with format checking) between the trigger and delivery. The promise in the text: “Write an email and I’ll send a link here and there.”
The button after issuing is not a dead end: “Have a question” → “Operator” block, “What’s next?” → next step of the funnel.
Click Test Script - Test Chat in the editor. Write a word with a capital letter, with a period, with a typo - see what worked and what didn’t. Then check from your phone in each connected channel.

Done: a person writes “Guide” - receives a link and a tag in one second, a card with a channel and a tag appears in “Contacts”.

Three comparison modes: when which

The mode determines what the bot considers a match. In all three, case is not important: “GUIDE”, “Guide” and “guide” are equal. Next are the differences.

Mode	Fires if	Plus	Trap
Exactly	The entire message is equal to a word	No false positives	"Hyde.", "Hyde!" or “I want a guide” will no longer work - an extra character breaks the match
Contains	The word appears anywhere within the message	Tolerates “I want a guide, please” and punctuation marks	A short word is found inside another: “yes” in “today”, “start” in “startup”
Regex	The message matches the regular expression	Typos, variations, strict word boundaries - all in one line	You need to be able to write expressions; syntax error - trigger is silent

Practical recommendations:

For a word from a post or advertisement that people will write from their phone - "contains", but the word itself should be long and rare: guide2026, checklist, parsing. Not “yes”, “price”, “start”.
For service commands that you or managers write: "exactly".
When you need to catch typos and boundaries at the same time - regex: ^(want)?(guide|guide|guide)[!.]?$ will accept “Guide”, “I want a guide!”, “guide” and will not accept “guideline”.

What to give out: a link, not a file

The main discrepancy with expectations. The CHBT bot sends only text and buttons to Telegram, MAX and VKontakte - it will not send photos, PDFs or video attachments. Files directly work only in the widget on the site. For the code word, this means: the material lives on the link, and the bot gives out the link.

Where to place the material so that the link works without friction:

Post in a closed or open Telegram channel with an attached file - opens in the same application, downloaded in one tap. The most convenient option for the Telegram audience.
Cloud storage (Yandex Drive, Google Drive) with access via link - universal, but requires attention to rights access.
Page on your website - the plus is that you see transitions in web analytics and can put the CHBT widget there for questions.
Video - link to player or channel; it will not load into the messenger.

How to issue an issue. In Telegram - short text plus a URL button “Open guide”: the button is more visible than the link in the text. In MAX and VK - the link is directly in the text of the message, in a separate line, so that it is easy to click. Add one phrase about what's inside and where to start: "Start on the second page - there's a table." This increases the share of those who actually open it.

If the material is paid or personal, the code word is not a protection: it will be forwarded. For such cases, issue a link only after “Collecting data” with checking the e-mail and do not count on the secrecy of the word itself.

The tag is set - what next?

Distributing material is not the end, but the first touch. Tag magnet: guide unlocks three sequels.

Reheating in the same flow. After issuing, there is a “Pause” block for a day and a “Message”: “Did you finish reading? The main conclusion is on page 7. If you want to apply this to yourself, write to us and we’ll sort it out.” Next is the “Condition” for the tag: if a person left a request during this time, do not press it. This is already an auto funnel, and its logic with metrics is discussed in the article about the funnel without mysticism.

Segment for mailing. On paid plans, the “Mailouts” section allows you to select an audience by tag: write in a week only to those who took the guide - with the announcement of an analysis or webinar. Not the entire database.

Accounting of sources. If the same word appears in different places, you will not know where the person came from. Give each source its say: guide in the channel, guidevk in the VK community, guide advertising in the ad - and three different tags. After two weeks, the filter in “Contacts” will show which source brings people and which brings only views. How to build a tagging system so that it doesn’t fall apart in six months - in the article about tags as a segmentation system.

The contact card in “Contacts” stores the channel, tags, collected e-mail and the entire history of the conversation. Export to CSV - if you want to transfer the list to a manager or upload it to your system.

Limitations and pitfalls that are learned after the fact

Five situations that are discovered after the launch of advertising.

The word intercepts someone else's script. The “Keyword” trigger is checked on every incoming message, including when the person is already following a different flow. If you have the word “name” in “contains” mode, and in the recording script the bot asks “What is your name?”, the answer “My name is Name” will trigger the output of material in the middle of the recording. Rule: code words are rare and long, and everything that may turn out to be a normal human response is in the “exact” mode or not in code words at all.
One word in two flows. The first one will work in order, the second one will never start. Check the other active scripts before adding a word.
Typos. “Guyt”, “bad”, “guide)” - this is the norm on the phone. "Contains" tolerates extra characters around, but not within, a word; Only regex with a list of options catches typos inside. An emergency exit also helps: the “Any message” trigger with the text “I don’t understand. If you are following the guide, press the button and the button that leads to the same flow.
The bot is silent on the free plan. Free limit is 30 unique interlocutors per calendar month. A successful post in a channel with 3,000 subscribers will exhaust it as soon as 1% of readers respond, and the next new people will receive a service message about the limit instead of a guide. Before launching the word to a large audience - Basic plan.
Spaces and a period for “exactly”. The coincidence is literal: “guide.” does not equal "guide". If you want strictness without false positives, use a regex with optional punctuation at the end, as in the example above.

And one limitation not related to CHBT: the bot cannot write first to someone who has not written to him yet. The code word solves exactly this problem - the person takes the first step himself, and after that the bot has the right to continue the conversation.

Where to place the word so that it is written

A word only works where it is convenient for a person to write it. Let's look at the sites.

Post in Telegram channel. Here the code word has a competitor - a deep link: a link like t.me/your_bot?start=guide launches the script with one click, without typing. For a channel, deep linking is almost always better; leave the word as a duplicate path for those who read from devices where the link did not open. What else the bot can do for the channel - in the article about bots for Telegram channel.

VKontakte community. Main flow: post → “write the WORD in community messages” → bot responds. The VK audience is accustomed to such mechanics, and the community bot works specifically in private messages - the connection is described on the page bot VKontakte.

Advertising. In the ad, the word is pronounced or written directly in the text: “Write a DISCUSSION to our bot.” Plus - accounting of the source through a separate word; minus - an extra step compared to a clickable link to a bot with a deep link. In MAX, deep linking also works, so for advertising in messengers, select a link, and a word - for sites where the link cannot be placed or it looks suspicious.

Offline and sound. A printed booklet, a sign, a speech, a podcast, a broadcast - here the word wins without any options: you can’t dictate the link, but “write the word LECTURE to the bot” is remembered. For printed products, there is also a QR code with a deep link - the “QR campaigns” section in CHBT generates it in a minute - but the word also works where scanning is inconvenient.

Overflow from other social networks. In the profile header there is a link to the bot, in stories and reels - “write the word GUIDE to the bot via the link in the header.” The scheme is discussed in detail in the article about transferring subscribers to Telegram and MAX.

Codeword or deep link: a short comparison

Both mechanics lead a person into the desired flow, and both are in CHBT. The difference is in friction and accounting.

Deeplink (trigger “Deeplink” by payload) - one click, the source is included in the link, no typos. Works in Telegram and MAX. Doesn't work where the link cannot be placed, and requires the person to be on the same device where they opened it.
Code word (trigger “Keyword”) - works everywhere where a person can write to a bot, including VK and offline. Tolerates oral and printed media. He pays for this with typos, the need to explain “where to write” and the risk of intercepting other people’s scripts.

Practical tip: keep both inputs in one script. Trigger "Deeplink" with payload guide and trigger "Keyword" with guide can stand in one script and launch one search result - and put a different source tag in the very first “Action” in each branch. Then both the link and the word work, and you see what people use more often.

Checklist before launch

The word is long and rare; does not match likely responses in other flows; it is not present in other active flows.
Mode: “contains” for the audience, “exactly” for service commands, regex - if typos and boundaries are needed.
The material is opened via a link without requesting access; The link is verified from the phone in each channel.
After issuing, there is “Action” → “Add tag” with the source name.
After issuing there is a button “Have a question” → “Operator” and there is no dead end.
There is an escape route for misunderstood messages - the “Any message” trigger with a button.
If the audience is more than a couple of dozen people per month - the Basic plan, otherwise the Free limit will work before the post ends.
Run in “Check Script”: word in capitals, with a period, with a typo, inside a phrase.

It takes ten minutes to set up, sometimes longer to choose a word. Start with the “Lead Magnet Submission” template, replace the trigger with “Keyword” and launch to one source. Create a bot and set up a code word for free →

Template “Issuing a lead magnet”Auto funnel without mysticism What a bot can do for a Telegram channel Tags as a segmentation system VKontakte chatbot for the community