Show "Forwarded from" attribution on forwarded Telegram messages

Mirrors the repost-line treatment tweets already get. GramJS resolves a
forward's origin channel/user from entities Telegram sends alongside the
same getMessages response (message.forward.chat/.sender), falling back
to fwdFrom.fromName for the rarer case where the origin hid its identity.
TelegramCard shows "↪️ Forwarded from @username" (or just the name if no
public handle) above the meta row.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_014c1L8ghNBFjfiH64UMViP8

backend/src/ingestion/adapters/base.ts

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import type { Source, ContentItem, TweetMediaItem, TelegramMediaRef } from '../../storage/db/types.js';
+import type { Source, ContentItem, TweetMediaItem, TelegramMediaRef, TelegramForwardedFrom } from '../../storage/db/types.js';
 import { cleanHtml, toSummary } from '../clean.js';
 
 export interface FetchedItem {
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ export interface FetchedItem {
 		channelUsername: string;
 		messageId: string;
 		media: TelegramMediaRef[];
+		forwardedFrom: TelegramForwardedFrom | null;
 	};
 	raw: unknown;
 }

backend/src/ingestion/adapters/telegram.ts

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 // where those refs turn into an actual servable url.
 
 import type { Api } from 'telegram';
-import type { Source, TelegramMediaRef } from '../../storage/db/types.js';
+import type { Source, TelegramMediaRef, TelegramForwardedFrom } from '../../storage/db/types.js';
 import type { SourceAdapter, FetchedItem } from './base.js';
 import { logger } from '../../storage/db/logs.js';
 import { getClient, fetchChannelMessages } from '../../telegram/client.js';
@@ -69,6 +69,30 @@ function refForMessage(message: TgMessage): TelegramMediaRef | null {
 	return null;
 }
 
+/**
+ * Detects a forwarded message and resolves where it came from. GramJS's `message.forward`
+ * wraps the raw fwdFrom header using entities Telegram already sent alongside the same
+ * getMessages response (the whole point of that header is letting clients show forward
+ * attribution without a separate resolve call) — `.chat` is the origin channel/group,
+ * `.sender` the origin user. Falls back to fwdFrom.fromName for the rarer case where the
+ * origin has no resolvable identity (e.g. a user who hid their account from forwards).
+ */
+function detectForward(message: TgMessage): TelegramForwardedFrom | null {
+	const fwd = message.fwdFrom;
+	if (!fwd) return null;
+
+	const chat = message.forward?.chat as { title?: string; username?: string } | undefined;
+	if (chat) return { name: chat.title ?? chat.username ?? 'Unknown', username: chat.username ?? null };
+
+	const sender = message.forward?.sender as { firstName?: string; lastName?: string; username?: string } | undefined;
+	if (sender) {
+		const name = [sender.firstName, sender.lastName].filter(Boolean).join(' ') || sender.username || 'Unknown';
+		return { name, username: sender.username ?? null };
+	}
+
+	return { name: fwd.fromName ?? 'Unknown', username: null };
+}
+
 /** Groups consecutive messages sharing a non-null groupedId (Telegram's multi-photo/video "album" concept) into one entry each. */
 function groupMessages(messages: TgMessage[]): TgMessage[][] {
 	const order: string[] = [];
@@ -144,7 +168,8 @@ export const telegramAdapter: SourceAdapter = {
 					channelName,
 					channelUsername,
 					messageId: String(group[0].id),
-					media
+					media,
+					forwardedFrom: detectForward(primary)
 				},
 				raw: { messageIds: group.map((m) => m.id) }
 			});

backend/src/pipeline/publish.ts

@@ -263,7 +263,8 @@ export async function publishDirect(item: ContentItem, settings: GlobalSettings)
 			channelUsername,
 			channelAvatarUrl: avatar.url,
 			sourceItemId: item.id,
-			media: resolvedMedia.media
+			media: resolvedMedia.media,
+			forwardedFrom: item.telegramMessage.forwardedFrom
 		};
 	}
 

backend/src/storage/db/types.ts

@@ -45,6 +45,12 @@ export interface TelegramMediaRef {
 	height: number | null;
 }
 
+/** Where a forwarded Telegram message originated — username is null when the origin has no public handle (e.g. a private channel/user, or a sender who hid their identity), in which case the card falls back to showing just the name. */
+export interface TelegramForwardedFrom {
+	name: string;
+	username: string | null;
+}
+
 export interface ContentItem {
 	id: string;
 	sourceId: string;
@@ -70,6 +76,7 @@ export interface ContentItem {
 		channelUsername: string;
 		messageId: string;
 		media: TelegramMediaRef[];
+		forwardedFrom: TelegramForwardedFrom | null;
 	} | null;
 	raw: unknown;
 }
@@ -96,6 +103,7 @@ export interface MergedArticle {
 		channelAvatarUrl: string | null;
 		sourceItemId: string;
 		media: TelegramMediaItem[];
+		forwardedFrom: TelegramForwardedFrom | null;
 	} | null;
 	category: string[];
 	geo: string | null;

frontend/src/lib/components/TelegramCard.svelte

@@ -28,6 +28,10 @@
 </script>
 
 <a class="telegram-card" href={messageUrl} target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">
+	{#if article.telegramMessage?.forwardedFrom}
+		{@const from = article.telegramMessage.forwardedFrom}
+		<div class="forward-line">↪️ Forwarded from {from.username ? `@${from.username}` : from.name}</div>
+	{/if}
 	<div class="meta">
 		<span>{article.category[0] ?? ''}</span>
 		<span>&middot;</span>
@@ -88,6 +92,12 @@
 		text-decoration: none;
 		border-color: var(--border-accent);
 	}
+	.forward-line {
+		font-size: 12px;
+		font-weight: 600;
+		color: var(--text-secondary);
+		margin-bottom: 10px;
+	}
 	.meta {
 		font-size: 11px;
 		color: var(--text-accent);

frontend/src/lib/types.ts

@@ -20,6 +20,12 @@ export interface TweetMediaItem {
 /** Same shape as TweetMediaItem — distinct name for readability at Telegram call sites. */
 export type TelegramMediaItem = TweetMediaItem;
 
+/** Where a forwarded Telegram message originated — username is null when the origin has no public handle, in which case TelegramCard falls back to showing just the name. */
+export interface TelegramForwardedFrom {
+	name: string;
+	username: string | null;
+}
+
 export interface MergedArticle {
 	id: string;
 	title: string;
@@ -33,6 +39,7 @@ export interface MergedArticle {
 		channelAvatarUrl: string | null;
 		sourceItemId: string;
 		media: TelegramMediaItem[];
+		forwardedFrom: TelegramForwardedFrom | null;
 	} | null;
 	category: string[];
 	geo: string | null;