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Skybot (will rename it when find something).

Goals

  • simplicity
    • little boilerplate
    • minimal magic
  • power
    • multithreading
    • automatic reloading
    • extensibility

Features

  • Multithreaded dispatch and the ability to connect to multiple networks at a time.
  • Easy plugin development with automatic reloading and a simple hooking API.

Requirements

To install dependencies, run:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Database

Skybot defaults to SQLite (stored under persist/).

To use PostgreSQL instead, add this to config.json:

"database": {
  "type": "postgres",
  "postgres": {
    "dsn": "postgresql://USER:PASSWORD@HOST:5432/DBNAME",
    "schema_prefix": "skybot"
  }
}

Install the driver:

pip install "psycopg[binary]"

Skybot runs on Python 2.7, 3.7 and Python 3.13.(WIP in some areas to full update code to 3.13, for now partial support.)

IRCv3 support (message-tags, etc)

Skybot supports a small but useful subset of IRCv3:

  • message-tags — parses incoming IRCv3 message tags (@key=value;flag) and exposes them to plugins
  • batch — enables related-message groups (used by features like chat history)
  • cap-notify — server can notify clients about new/removed capabilities
  • labeled-response — lets clients label commands and correlate server responses via @label=...
  • away-notify — notifies you when users set/unset away via AWAY
  • server-time — enables a time tag on servers that support it
  • echo-message — server echoes your own PRIVMSG/NOTICE back to you (useful for message tags like msgid/time on your own messages)
  • setname — allows changing realname on an active connection via SETNAME
  • +draft/multiline — work-in-progress multiline messages via BATCH (messages can include line breaks)
  • account-tag — enables an account tag on servers that support it
  • account-notify — sends ACCOUNT messages when a user's account status changes
  • chghost — sends CHGHOST messages when a user's user/host changes
  • extended-join — JOIN messages may include account/realname fields
  • invite-notify — notifies you when you are invited to channels
  • inspircd.org/stats-tags — InspIRCd vendor capability adding extra message-tags to some stats output
  • multi-prefix — NAMES replies can include multiple user prefixes (e.g. @+nick)
  • userhost-in-names — NAMES replies may include nick!user@host entries
  • standard-replies — server may use standardized numeric replies for common errors (varies by server)
  • extended-monitor — extends MONITOR to send metadata change notifications (away/account/chghost/setname) for monitored nicks
  • chathistory / draft/chathistory — allows requesting chat history via the CHATHISTORY command (server support varies)
  • msgid — when supported, servers attach a msgid tag to messages (often delivered via message-tags)

Related (non-CAP) extensions:

  • WHOX (ISUPPORT token) — extended WHO replies (numeric 354). Skybot tracks ISUPPORT and can send WHOX-style queries via conn.who(mask, fields=..., token=...).
  • MONITOR (ISUPPORT token) — server-side online/offline notifications via the MONITOR command (numerics 730-734). Skybot provides helpers: conn.monitor_add([...]), conn.monitor_remove([...]), conn.monitor_list(), conn.monitor_status(), conn.monitor_clear().
  • UTF8ONLY (ISUPPORT token) — server enforces UTF-8-only traffic; servers may use FAIL/WARN ... INVALID_UTF8 when standard-replies is enabled.
  • BOT (ISUPPORT token) — advertises the bot user mode (often +B) used by the bot-mode extension. Skybot will set it on connect when available (disable with connection setting "bot_mode": false).

Configuration

IRCv3 capability configuration is per-connection (inside the connections object).

Default behavior: Skybot requests message-tags, batch, cap-notify, labeled-response, away-notify, server-time, echo-message, setname, draft/multiline, account-tag, account-notify, chghost, extended-join, invite-notify, inspircd.org/stats-tags, multi-prefix, userhost-in-names, standard-replies, and extended-monitor.

Note: When echo-message is enabled, Skybot ignores its own echoed PRIVMSG/NOTICE lines to prevent double-processing (e.g., command loops when the bot speaks with its own prefix).

Note: chathistory / draft/chathistory is supported by Skybot but is intentionally opt-in (some servers may auto-send history on join when the capability is enabled). Add it to ircv3.caps only if you want it.

Some networks may still send server-driven BATCH ... chathistory on join even when you don't request the capability. Skybot suppresses these batches by default so plugins/logging don't treat history as new messages.

Per connection you can control this in config.json:

  • ignore_chathistory_batches (bool, default true): suppress all chathistory batches.
  • ignore_chathistory_channels (list of strings): if set, suppress only these targets.
  • allow_chathistory_channels (list of strings): if set, allow only these targets (everything else suppressed).

To override the requested capabilities:

"connections": {
  "network name": {
    "server": "irc.example.net",
    "nick": "Skybot",
    "ircv3": {
      "caps": ["message-tags", "batch", "cap-notify", "labeled-response", "server-time", "echo-message", "account-tag", "account-notify", "chghost", "extended-join", "invite-notify", "inspircd.org/stats-tags", "multi-prefix", "userhost-in-names", "standard-replies", "extended-monitor", "msgid", "draft/msgid"]
    }
  }
}

("caps": [...] at the top level of the connection is also accepted for compatibility.)

Plugin access

For every incoming line, plugins receive a tags dict:

  • input.tags — mapping of tag name to value
    • tags without a value (flag tags) map to None
    • tags with an explicit empty value (key=) map to ""

Example:

@hook.regex(r"^\\.whoami$")
def whoami(inp, reply=None, tags=None, **kwargs):
    reply("account=%s time=%s" % (tags.get("account"), tags.get("time")))

If you want to use labeled-response from a plugin:

label = inp.conn.cmd_labeled("WHO", [inp.nick])
inp.reply("sent WHO with label=%s" % label)

If you want to request account/host info using WHOX (when the server supports it):

# Request: account (a), user (u), host (h), nick (n)
inp.conn.who("#channel", fields="auhn", token=42)

# Listen for numeric 354 (RPL_WHOSPCRPL) in a plugin:
@hook.event("354")
def whox_reply(inp, **kwargs):
    # inp.paraml contains the WHOX fields in server-defined order.
    pass

Chat history notes

Skybot does not automatically fetch history on connect; it only provides the plumbing.

If the server supports CHATHISTORY, a plugin can request history using the connection object:

  • conn.chathistory_latest("#channel", limit=50)
  • conn.chathistory_before("#channel", reference="2025-12-17T00:00:00.000Z", limit=50)
  • conn.chathistory_after("#channel", reference="2025-12-17T00:00:00.000Z", limit=50)

Servers deliver results using BATCH plus @batch=... message tags on the enclosed lines. You can read the batch association from input.tags.get("batch").

Feeds plugin

The feeds plugin (plugins/feeds.py) can watch RSS/Atom feeds and announce new items into IRC channels.

Configuration

Top-level feeds settings:

"feeds": {
  "poll_interval": 300,
  "max_items_per_poll": 3
}

Notes:

  • Watches are stored in the database, so they survive restarts and work with both SQLite and PostgreSQL.
  • The plugin polls on normal bot activity (event-driven), so in a totally idle network it may not poll until some messages/events are seen.

Commands

  • .feed add <url> [#channel] — start watching a feed (defaults to the current channel)
  • .feed remove <url> [#channel] — stop watching a feed
  • .feed list — list watched feeds
  • .feed info — show plugin status

Crowdcontrol plugin

Crowdcontrol (plugins/crowdcontrol.py) applies moderation rules to channel messages.

Rule types

Rules are configured under the top-level crowdcontrol array. A rule can match by:

  • re — a regular expression
  • badness — mojibake/spam heuristic score (matches when badness(message) >= threshold)
  • flood — per-user flood control (matches when a user sends more than count lines within seconds)

Common fields:

  • msg — message used either as a warning (reply) or as a kick reason
  • kick — 1 to kick, 0 to only warn
  • ban_length — 0 no ban, -1 ban without unbanning, >0 ban then unban after N seconds

Temporary bans: when ban_length > 0, the plugin schedules an unban in the database and unbans asynchronously (no time.sleep() blocking). This means unbans survive bot restarts.

Optional tuning (defaults are fine):

"crowdcontrol_unban": {
  "poll_interval": 10,
  "batch": 50
}

Flood control example

"crowdcontrol": [
  {
    "flood": {
      "count": 5,
      "seconds": 8,
      "escalate": {"ban_after": 2, "window": 600, "ban_length": 300}
    },
    "msg": "Flood in #{channel} ({flood_strikes}/{flood_ban_after}). Action={flood_action}.",
    "kick": 1,
    "ban_length": 0
  }
]

Flood escalation (kick first, ban on repeat):

  • escalate.ban_after — strike count to start banning (default 2)
  • escalate.window — seconds in which strikes accumulate before resetting (default 600)
  • escalate.ban_length — seconds to ban once ban_after is reached (default 300)

Notes:

  • Keep the rule-level ban_length as 0 for flood rules. Escalation controls bans.
  • Flood escalation uses the same identity key as the flood limiter (nick!user@host), scoped per server+channel.

Flood backend:

  • Default is in-memory (fast, bounded with LRU).

  • Optional DB-backed mode exists if you really want no per-user state in the bot process, but it does a DB read+write per message and may not scale well on very busy channels.

    "crowdcontrol": [ { "flood": {"backend": "db", "count": 5, "seconds": 8}, "msg": "Flood in #{channel} (>{flood_count}/{flood_seconds}s via {flood_backend}).", "kick": 1, "ban_length": 0 } ]

Flood tuning keys (in-memory backend only):

  • flood.max_keys — maximum tracked identities (default 50000)
  • flood.idle_ttl — evict state for idle identities after N seconds (default max(300, seconds*10))

Flood tuning keys (DB backend):

  • flood.idle_ttl — controls cleanup of old DB rows

Mojibake/badness example

"crowdcontrol": [
  {
    "badness": 2,
    "msg": "Mojibake/spam in #{channel} (score={badness} threshold={threshold}).",
    "kick": 1,
    "ban_length": 60
  }
]

Message placeholders

In msg, you can use placeholders (unknown placeholders are left as-is):

  • {channel} / {chan} (also supports Ruby-style #{channel})
  • {nick} {user} {host} {server} {message}
  • {badness} {threshold}
  • {flood_backend} {flood_count} {flood_seconds} {flood_hits} {flood_tokens} {flood_max_keys}
  • {flood_strikes} {flood_ban_after} {flood_strike_window} {flood_action} {flood_ban_length}

Database tables

Crowdcontrol creates the following tables automatically:

  • crowdcontrol_unbans — scheduled unbans (used when ban_length > 0)
  • crowdcontrol_flood — flood token buckets (only when using flood.backend: "db")
  • crowdcontrol_flood_strikes — strike counters for flood escalation (only when using flood.backend: "db")

License

Skybot is public domain. If you find a way to make money using it, I'll be very impressed.

See LICENSE for precise terms.