Hutbot is a simple IRC bot that runs executable files (such as shell scripts) to respond to commands. You can extend it by adding new scripts, and there's no need to restart hutbot.
Assuming you have $GOPATH
set,
go get github.com/hut8labs/hutbot
$GOPATH/bin/hutbot irc.example.com:6697 '#mychannel'
When hutbot joins your channel, you can talk to it:
hutbot [~hutbot@example.com] entered the room.
[you] hutbot: build myproject
[hutbot] ok, building myproject
When you address hutbot, the first word after its name is interpreted as the name of an executable to run (in hutbot's working directory) and the rest of the line is interpreted as a single string argument.
So, the above message causes hutbot to run ./build
. The executable is called
with "myproject" on stdin, and with a bunch of environment variables set:
$HUTBOT_SENDER
as the name of the sender ("you")$HUTBOT_CHANNEL
as the name of the channel ("#mychannel")$HUTBOT_CREATED
as the timestamp (seconds since epoch) for when the message was entered in IRC$HUTBOT_BOT
as the name of the bot ("hutbot")$HUTBOT_DIR
as hutbot's working directory$HUTBOT_COMMAND
as the first word of the message to hutbot ("build")$HUTBOT_ARGS
as the rest of the message to hutbot ("myproject")$HUTBOT_MESSAGE
as the full message ("hutbot: build myproject")
Whatever ./build
writes to stdout (in this case, "ok, building myproject") is
sent back to IRC. So, ./build
might contain:
#!/bin/bash
start-project-build ${HUTBOT_ARGS} && echo "ok, building ${HUTBOT_ARGS}"
If ./build
is a directory, hutbot will instead run each of the executable
files in that directory. (You'll see why you'd want this in a bit.)
Hutbot also honors a few special script names.
These scripts let hutbot track who is in a channel.
irc-join
is called when a user joins a channelirc-part
is called when a user parts a channelirc-quit
is called when a user quits a channel
These scripts allow hutbot to respond dynamically to messages.
.all
is called for every message, even those not addressed to hutbot (except, for now, things that hutbot itself says).missing
is called whenever there's no script for a command
These scripts allow hutbot to take periodic actions (e.g., email a transcript
of a conversation after nobody has spoken for 30 minutes). They are invoked
with a subset of the usual environment variables ($HUTBOT_BOT
and
$HUTBOT_DIR
).
.minute
is called once per minute.hour
is called once per hour.day
is called once per day