Building Testable Telegram Bots with Zustand
When most developers think of Zustand, they picture React hooks and component state. But what if I told you that Zustand's vanilla store could power a sophisticated Telegram bot with predictable state management and reactive behavior?
This project began with two unrelated moments that collided perfectly. I was deep-diving into Zustand's internals, trying to understand how createStore worked under the hood (the vanilla API that powers React hooks). Around the same time, my girlfriend complained about yet another obnoxious QR code website with ads, paywalls, and questionable privacy practices.
"Challenge accepted!" I announced to my reflection in the black screen of my laptop. The challenge hadn't even been issued. I was literally having a conversation with myself, in my mind, and it totally changed the trajectory of my next few days. But that's how the best projects start, with a completely unprompted moment of caffeinated hubris at 2 AM.
But instead of building another web app, I thought: What if I made this a Telegram bot? It would be easier for her whole team to use than deploying a desktop app or a website and it would be easier for me to craft, since I wouldn't need to worry about UI niceties.
