/news-bot

Primary LanguagePythonBSD 2-Clause "Simplified" LicenseBSD-2-Clause

Hacker News to Mastodon Bot

Overview

This Python script fetches the latest top story from Hacker News and posts it to a Mastodon account. It can operate in two modes:

  1. Console Mode: Prints the latest top story details to the console.
  2. Mastodon Mode: Posts the latest top story details to a Mastodon account.

The script is designed to work in a loop, with a configurable sleep time between each query to the Hacker News API. It also supports running in a Docker container and can store the last printed story ID in a Google Cloud Storage bucket to survive container restarts.

Requirements

  • Python 3.x
  • requests library
  • mastodon.py library
  • Google Cloud Storage Python SDK

Environment Variables

  • MASTODON_ACCESS_TOKEN: Access token for Mastodon API
  • MASTODON_API_BASE_URL: Base URL for Mastodon API
  • GCS_BUCKET_NAME: Google Cloud Storage bucket name

Installation

  1. Clone the repository.

  2. Create a Python virtual environment:

    python3 -m venv venv

  3. Activate the virtual environment:

    source venv/bin/activate

  4. Install the required packages:

    pip install -r requirements.txt

Usage

Console Mode

python main.py --mode console --sleep_time 300

Mastodon Mode

python main.py --mode mastodon --sleep_time 300

Deployment in Docker

  1. Build the Docker image:

    docker build -t hn-to-mastodon-bot .

  2. Run the Docker container:

    docker run -e MASTODON_ACCESS_TOKEN=<token> -e MASTODON_API_BASE_URL=<url> -e GCS_BUCKET_NAME=<bucket_name> hn-to-mastodon-bot

Deployment in Google Cloud Function

  1. Deploy the function:

    gcloud functions deploy hacker_news_function --runtime python39 --trigger-http --allow-unauthenticated

  2. Set the environment variables in the Google Cloud Console.

Google Cloud Storage (GCS) Requirement

The script uses a Google Cloud Storage bucket to store the ID of the last printed story. This is particularly useful in scenarios where the script is running in a Docker container and needs to survive container restarts without losing its state. By storing the last printed story ID in a GCS bucket, the script can continue from where it left off, ensuring that no stories are missed or duplicated.