Use the /add command to register an existing nest from The Silph Road Nest Atlas to your group. The parameters are: Here is a simple /add example that lets the bot automatically determine the category from Google Maps:

You do not need to let the bot determine the Category/City for you. Sometimes Google Maps doesn't have the correct address at your coordinates. And sometimes your community may group nests in a custom fashion. For example, "Downtown" or "Mission District".

NOTE: If you find yourself doing this a lot, take a look at the /setplacetype command.

Here is an example where the default Google Maps value of "Walnut Creek" is explicitly overridden with "Downtown":

If you have an existing nest, you can change the name, category, or coordinates by invoking the /add command again with the new values.

Use the /addalias command to create an alias for a nest. The name that a nest was created with will continue to be the primary name of the nest, and will be used for all nest messages (e.g. /all, /search, /pin, etc.)

Nest aliases can be used by any command to reference the same nest. This is useful when a park or area has an official name (the primary nest name) but is often referred to by community members by another unofficial name. It is also useful when the spelling of a name is not standardized or difficult. For example, "skatepark" is often spelled as "skate park".

The parameters are:

The /aliases command lists all the aliases for a nest. Use the /addalias command to create aliases for nests.

Using the /all command by itself will print all nests. This includes both nests that are reported and unreported.

If there are too many nests, the /all command can return only the nests in a single category. This will still include all nests (reported and unreported). You do not need to specify the entire category name. Also, uppercase and lowercase does not matter.

When community members make nest reports, normally they must be reviewed by an administrator. The nest bot has the ability to automatically approve new reports from users with N% of their previous reports having been approved. The "N" is configured by the using the /autoapprove command.

In the following example, the nest bot will approve any new report from a user with a 75% or higher approval rating. If a user only has 74% or less of their reports approved, then their new reports will still need to be manually reviewed by an administrator.

By default, the user must have submitted 3 reports before auto-approval takes effect for that user. However, an optional "min" parameter can be used to specify how many reports each user must have submitted before being eligible for auto-approval.

To see your current auto-approval settings, use the /autoapprove command without any parameters.

To disable auto-approval, use the /autoapprove command with the "off" or "disable" keywords.

The /communityname command sets the name of your local Pokémon GO community. Using this command is optional, but recommended.

Other users who connect to your nest list with one of the PokeNest bots will see this community name. When they see a community name that they recognize, they will feel more comfortable knowing they are connecting to the right community.

To see your current community name, use the /communityname command without any parameters.

Using /disablecommand prevents a command from being used by anyone in your community. This is useful if there is a nest bot command that conflicts with a command from another bot. Most nest bot commands have multiple aliases. If you disable one of them, then the other aliases will still be available.

For example, if another bot also uses the /pin command, then you can disable the nest bot's /pin command with "/disablecommand pin". The /nestpin alias will still be available, but the /pin command will be ignored by the nest bot.

If a command has been disabled by /disablecommand (usually because it conflicts with another bot's command), it can be reenabled by using /enablecommand.

The result of the /export command is a unique key for your group. This key can be used to restore a lost connection to your nest list, or to migrate PokeNestAdminBot to a different chat.

The export key is essentially a password, so be sure to keep it secret and in a safe location. Do not share this value with other members of your community. Also, because everyone in the chat with PokeNestAdminBot can invoke /export, be sure you trust all the members in the chat.

The /import command takes an export key and moves administrative capabilities from an old chat to the current chat. There are several scenarios for wanting to do this.

First, you may be in the process of reorganizing your Telegram groups, and you want to move PokeNestAdminBot, and all its capabilities, to a new group. The first step of this process is to run /export in the old Telegram group. (You did this anyway because the tutorial said to do it as one of the first steps in setting up the PokeNestAdminBot, right?!) Then, go to the new Telegram group, add PokeNestAdminBot to the group, and run the /import command with the export key.

The second scenario is when you've somehow lost access to PokeNestAdminBot's Telegram group. Perhaps someone accidentally deleted your Telegram group. The steps for recovery are exactly the same as the first scenario because you remembered to backup the export key, right? (You should be getting the hint to backup the export key by now.)

The third scenario is when you just need to change the export key. This could happen because perhaps a member was kicked out of the admin group and you want to make sure they don't have the export key.

To change the key, simply execute the /import command in the same Telegram Group. Remember to make note of the new export key, and of course, back it up in a secret, secure place.

The /links command prints a list of useful links that you can use inside or outside of Telegram. You can choose to provide these links to your community to interact with the various PokeNest bots.

In the following example, MYREADKEY will automatically be replaced with your /readkey.

Find nests with Pokémon that can Mega Evolve.

The /megaicon command will add an icon by nests that contain Mega Evolution eligible species. The specific icon can be chosen by your community.

To disable the Mega Evolution icon, use the "none" keyword.

The /nest command gives the details of a nest, along with a map to the nest's location. You do not need to specify the entire nest name. Also, uppercase and lowercase does not matter.

An optional feature of the nest bot is to specify the size of each nest (see the /nestsize command.) To help your community easily distinguish between large and small nests, you can use the /nesticons command.

The /nesticons command is extremely configurable, allowing you to determine the exact icons and also the thresholds for each icon. The parameters are repeating icons, separated by the lower bound for the next group. Some examples will help demonstrate this.

The simplest usage is just to have two categories: large and small. Let's define large as any nest with 10 or more Pokémon per hour.

The icons used above are completely arbitrary. Let's see another example with three categories (small, medium, and large) that uses different icons.

And finally, let's see an example with many different size categories.

Using the /nests command by itself will print all nests that have been reported.

If there are too many nests, the /nests command can return only the nests in a single category. You do not need to specify the entire category name. Also, uppercase and lowercase does not matter.

You can specify the approximate size of a nest by using the /nestsize command. The size is measured in the number of nest Pokémon that appear in one hour.

Note that it is impossible to determine exactly how many Pokémon appear every hour. To explain this, it is necessary to understand how nests work. Each nest is a combination of one or more invisible "spawn points". Every 30 minutes, a nest species has a 25% possibility of appearing at a spawn point.

For example, if a nest has 1 spawn point, then on average a nest Pokémon will appear in the nest for 30 minutes out of every 2 hours. (i.e. 1/2 Pokémon per hour.) Using another example, if a nest has 8 spawn points, then on average 2 nest Pokémon will appear every 30 minutes. (i.e. 4 Pokémon per hour.)

Why is any of that important? It means that you shouldn't worry too much about determining exactly how big each nest is. Just use a best guess, based on how big and useful your community thinks each nest is.

You can change a nest's size at any time by re-using the /nestsize command with a different number.

If you want to remove a nest's size completely, use the /nestsize command with a blank parameter, or the number zero, or the keywords "none" or "unknown".

The /nestsize command pairs nicely with the /nesticons command, which displays size icons next to the nest's name in many of the other nest bot commands.

The /pin command generates a message that can be pinned to the top of the Telegram chat. The great part about the pinned message is that PokeNestAdminBot will automatically update the message with the current state of your local nests.

You should only need to execute the /pin command once. However, if there is ever a need to execute it again, be sure to pin the new generated message. PokeNestAdminBot will only update the last message sent by the /pin command.

Clicking on one of those "Add this bot" links in the pinned message will guide you through the process of adding a PokeNest bot to another Telegram group.

Without any parameters, the /pin command will include all reported nests. However, there a couple optional parameters you can use to include subsets of nests. This might be useful to reduce the size of the message for large communities, or just to ignore certain unimportant nests that you still want to track. The parameters are: The nest bot also has the ability to filter the pinned message list by nest size. First, use the /nestsize command to indicate the size of your nests. Then when you generate a pinned message, use the "Minimum Size" parameter. Only nests with that size or larger will be displayed.

Suggestion: Also use the /nesticons command to help identify big, medium, or small nests in your pinned message.

The second optional parameters allows you to only include nests from certain categories. If you are using more than one category, separate the different categories with commas. Only nests in these categories will be displayed.

Sometimes, you already have a pinned message in one of your Telegram channels and you want to retain that information. Normally, the nest bot's pinned message will replace that existing pinned message. However, you can use the /pinprefix command to add some custom text to the nest bot's generated pinned message.

The /pinprefix command is specific to the Telegram group that you invoke the command in. That means you can have a different prefix for each of your Telegram groups. For example, each of your groups may have a different set of rules or instructions.

In Telegram, you can send a multi-line message by holding the Shift key when you press Enter.

To view your existing prefix, you can use the /pinprefix command with no arguments.

To remove a prefix that you no longer want to use, use the /pinprefix command with the argument "none".

The result of the /readkey command is a unique key for your group. At first glance this seems really similar to the results of the /export key. But there are a few differences:

First, while the export key is secret, the read key can be shared publicly. No need to keep it secret.

Second, the export key is used by the /import command, but the read key is used by a PokeNest bot's /readkey command.

And finally, the export key can only be imported once, but the read key can be imported an unlimited number of times. This is an important distinction. It means that only one Telegram group can administer your nest list. However many Telegram groups can view and search your nest list.

Most times, you won't need to use the read key explicitly. In the /pin message there is a link called "Connect this bot to another group." If you look at that link closely, you'll notice that it actually contains the read key as a URL parameter. Clicking that link will automatically use the read key to connect a PokeNest bot back to this nest list upon startup. For a complete list of links, see the /links command.

Use the /remove command to remove a nest from your group. It does not modify The Silph Road Nest Atlas. You do not need to specify the entire nest name. Also, uppercase and lowercase does not matter.

If you just want to change the details of a nest, you do not need to remove it first. Simply issue the /add command again with the new details.

Use the /removealias command to delete an alias that was created with the /addalias command.

This command requires the entire name of the alias. To identify existing aliases, use the /aliases command.

Use the /report command when you've identified which species of Pokémon is at a nest. The parameters are: Both required parameters are case-insensitive. (Uppercase and lowercase does not matter.)

There are many Pokémon nicknames and common misspellings that the PokeNest bots understands. For example, "nidoran boy", "nidoran male", "nidoran pink", and "nidoran purple" all work just as well as "Nidoran♂".

If you want to change the species at a nest, simple use the /report command again for the same nest.

If you aren't 100% sure about the nest species, you can mark the report as questionable. Questionable reports will be marked with a question mark in all lists.

If continuous observation of a nest seems to indicate that a nest has an unimportant species, then you can use the "common" keyword. A "common" nest contains a species that is indistinguishable from its surrounding biome. Common nests are treated as if they are reported, however they do not show up in any of the normal lists (e.g. /nests, /pin.)

If you want to unreport a nest (i.e. remove a species completely from a nest), then you can use the special keywords "none" or "nothing".

The /search command can find all nests with a Pokémon of a given type. Uppercase and lowercase does not matter.

There are a few type aliases that PokeNestBot understands. Here are some working aliases that aren't official Pokémon types: air (flying), metal (steel), stone (rock), lightning (electric), and snow (ice). As before, uppercase and lowercase does not matter.

The /search command can also find nests with specific Pokémon by their name. Uppercase and lowercase does not matter.

You can also search for a portion of a Pokémon name. This is especially useful for Nidoran as seen here. As before, uppercase and lowercase does not matter.

There are many Pokémon aliases that PokeNestBot understands. These include common mispellings (Wheezing), punctuation variations (Mr Mime), and synonyms (Nidoran Female). As before, uppercase and lowercase does not matter.

This is a command that not many communities will use. When you use the /add command, the bot will contact Google Maps with the coordinates for the new nest. Google returns the address found at the coordinates.

By default, the bot will use the "locality" found in the address as the nest's category. "locality" usually corresponds to City Name. But the portion of the address that the bot uses can be configured.

For example, Anaheim, CA is so large that each address has an associated "neighborhood". Changing the place type will affect all future /add commands.

To reset the behavior of the bot to use city names, call the /setplacetype command with no arguments.

Find nests with Pokémon that can possibly be shiny.

The /shinyicons command will add an icon by nests that contain species that can be shiny. The specific icon can be chosen by your community.

In addition, the NestBot can show a different icon by nests that have a boosted shiny rate. These species have a higher chance of being shiny than normal species. For a normal species, the chance of finding a shiny is approximately 1:500. Whereas a boosted species can have a shiny chance of 1:60 or even better!

When specifying a boosted icon, first indicate the normal shiny icon, followed by the boosted shiny icon.

To disable shiny icons, use the "none" keyword.

PokeNestAdminBot can pull nest reports from The Silph Road Nest Atlas (TSR), but it can't update TSR directly.

That means if you update TSR directly, eventually the report will find its way into PokeNestAdminBot. However, if you use the /report command in PokeNestAdminBot without updating TSR, it will never find its way into TSR.

When PokeNestAdminBot detects a conflict between a report in TSR and a report in the bot, it will mark the nest with an exclamation point (❗️).

Use the /sync command to see additional details about each of these nests. You can click on the name of each nest to see the nest on TSR.

If you have previously used the /pin command to generate a pinned message, PokeNestAdminBot will keep that message up to date with the latest nest statuses.

If you later decide to unpin or delete the pinned message, PokeNestAdminBot will continue to update the previous message.

This might not be a problem for you, but consider using the /unpin command to free up PokeNestAdminBot resources. Resources that can be used to mine cryptocurrency search for Pokémon faster!

Using the /unreported command by itself will print all nests that have not yet been reported. This command is a great tool to help your local community identify nest species.

If there are too many nests, the /unreported command can return only the nests in a single category. You do not need to specify the entire category name. Also, uppercase and lowercase does not matter.

The /unreported command has the ability to display the largest nests in your area. The largest nests are usually the most useful for farming Pokémon. (Especially if they're good ones!)

Note that questionable reports will be included in the list (along with the questionable species), because they need help from the community to confirm reports.

You can list more than one by providing an optional number parameter. For example, use "3" to list the largest 3 unreported nests in your area. The results will be sorted from largest to smallest.

The /unreported command has the ability to display the closest nests near you. This may be useful if you are unfamiliar with an area, and you have some free time to map some nests.

Note that questionable reports will be included in the list (along with the questionable species), because they need help from the community to confirm reports.

If you have time to map more than one nest, you can also provide an optional number parameter which will list that number of nests. For example, use "3" to list the shortest path to 3 unreported nests.

Note that these are not necessarily the closest 3 nests to you! This is the approximate shortest path to 3 different unreported nests. Also, the path is not guaranteed to be the absolute shortest path because of something called The Travelling Salesman Problem. (Don't ask me about it. Just Google it. Basically it means that it takes too long to find the shortest path, but approximations are usually pretty good.)

In the above example, it is 1.27 from you to the DVC Commons nest. Then, from the DVC Commons nest it is 0.46 miles to the Community Center nest. It is not 0.46 miles from you to the Community Center nest. Then, finally, it is 1.07 miles from the Community Center nest to the City Hall nest.

These distances are "as the crow flies" and not driving distances.

You can click on the "Directions to All" link to see the shortest driving path in Google Maps to all 3 nests.