pinhook

The pluggable python framework for IRC bots and Twitch bots

• Installation
• Creating an IRC Bot
  • From Config File
  • From Python File
• Creating a Twitch Bot
• Creating plugins
• Examples

Installation

Pinhook can be installed from PyPI:

pip install pinhook

Creating an IRC Bot

A pinhook bot can be initialized using the command line tool pinhook with a config file, or by importing it into a python file to extend the base class.

From Config File

Pinhook supports configuration files in YAML, TOML, and JSON formats.

Example YAML config:

nickname: "ph-bot"
server: "irc.somewhere.net"
channels:
    - "#foo"
    - "#bar"

Required configuration keys:

• nickname: (string) nickname for your bot
• server: (string) server for the bot to connect
• channels: (array of strings) list of channels to connect to once connected

Optional keys:

• port: (default: 6667) choose a custom port to connect to the server
• ops: (default: empty list) list of operators who can do things like make the bot join other channels or quit
• plugin_dir: (default: "plugins") directory where the bot should look for plugins
• log_level: (default: "info") string indicating logging level. Logging can be disabled by setting this to "off"
• ns_pass: this is the password to identify with nickserv
• server_pass: password for the server
• ssl_required: (default: False) boolean to turn ssl on or off

Once you have your configuration file ready and your plugins in place, you can start your bot from the command line:

pinhook config.yaml

Pinhook will try to detect the config format from the file extension, but the format can also be supplied using the --format option.

$ pinhook --help
Usage: pinhook [OPTIONS] CONFIG

Options:
  -f, --format [json|yaml|toml]
  --help                         Show this message and exit.

From Python File

To create the bot, just create a python file with the following:

from pinhook.bot import Bot

bot = Bot(
    channels=['#foo', '#bar'],
    nickname='ph-bot',
    server='irc.freenode.net'
)
bot.start()

This will start a basic bot and look for plugins in the ‘plugins’ directory to add functionality.

Optional arguments are:

• port: (default: 6667) choose a custom port to connect to the server
• ops: (default: empty list) list of operators who can do things like make the bot join other channels or quit
• plugin_dir: (default: "plugins") directory where the bot should look for plugins
• log_level: (default: "info") string indicating logging level. Logging can be disabled by setting this to "off"
• ns_pass: this is the password to identify with nickserv
• server_pass: password for the server
• ssl_required: (default: False) boolean to turn ssl on or off

Creating a Twitch Bot

Pinhook has a baked in way to connect directly to a twitch channel

from pinhook.bot import TwitchBot

bot = TwitchBot(
    nickname='ph-bot',
    channel='#channel',
    token='super-secret-oauth-token'
)
bot.start()

This function has far less options, as the server, port, and ssl are already handled by twitch.

Optional aguments are:

• ops
• plugin_dir
• log_level

These options are the same for both IRC and Twitch

Creating plugins

There are two types of plugins, commands and listeners. Commands only activate if a message starts with the command word, while listeners receive all messages and are parsed by the plugin for maximum flexibility.

In your chosen plugins directory (“plugins” by default) make a python file with a function. You use the @pinhook.plugin.command decorator to create command plugins, or @pinhook.plugin.listener to create listeners.

The function will need to be structured as such:

import pinhook.plugin

@pinhook.plugin.command('!test')
def test_plugin(msg):
    message = '{}: this is a test!'.format(msg.nick)
    return pinhook.plugin.message(message)

The function will need to accept a single argument in order to accept a Message object from the bot.

The Message object has the following attributes:

• cmd: (for command plugins) the command that triggered the function
• nick: the user who triggered the command
• arg: (for command plugins) all the trailing text after the command. This is what you will use to get optional information for the command
• text: (for listener plugins) the entire text of the message
• channel: the channel where the command was initiated
• ops: the list of bot operators
• botnick: the nickname of the bot
• logger: instance of Bot’s logger
• datetime: aware datetime.datetime object when the Message object was created
• timestamp: float for the unix timestamp when the Message object was created
• bot: the initialized Bot class

It also contains the following IRC functions:

• privmsg: send a message to an arbitrary channel or user
• action: same as privmsg, but does a CTCP action. (i.e., /me does a thing)
• notice: send a notice

You can optionally set a command to be used only by ops

The function will need to be structured as such:

@pinhook.plugin.command('!test', ops=True, ops_msg='This command can only be run by an op')
def test_plugin(msg):
    return pinhook.plugin.message('This was run by an op!')

The plugin function can return one of the following in order to give a response to the command:

• pinhook.plugin.message: basic message in channel where command was triggered
• pinhook.plugin.action: CTCP action in the channel where command was triggered (basically like using /me does a thing)

Examples

There are some basic examples in the examples directory in this repository.

Here is a list of live bots using pinhook:

• pinhook-tilde - fun bot for tilde.town
• adminbot - admin helper bot for tilde.town, featuring some of the ways you can change the Bot class to suit your needs