otouto

The plugin-wielding, multipurpose Telegram bot.

Public Bot | Official Channel | Development Group

otouto is a plugin-based, IRC-style bot written for the Telegram Bot API. Originally written in February of 2015 as a set of Lua scripts to run on telegram-cli, otouto was open-sourced and migrated to the bot API later in June that year.

otouto is free software; you are free to redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3. See LICENSE for details.

The Manual

For Users	For Coders
Setup	Plugins
Control plugins	Bindings
Group administration	Database
List of plugins	Output style
	Contributors

---

Setup

You must have Lua (5.2+), luasocket, luasec, multipart-post, and dkjson installed. You should also have lpeg, though it is not required. It is recommended you install these with LuaRocks.

To get started, clone the repository and set the following values in config.lua:

• bot_api_key as your bot authorization token from the BotFather.
• admin as your Telegram ID.

Optionally:

• lang as the two-letter code representing your language.

Some plugins are not enabled by default. If you wish to enable them, add them to the plugins array.

When you are ready to start the bot, run ./launch.sh. To stop the bot, send "/halt" through Telegram. If you terminate the bot manually, you risk data loss. If you do you not want the bot to restart automatically, run it with lua main.lua.

Note that certain plugins, such as translate.lua and greetings.lua, will require privacy mode to be disabled. Additionally, some plugins may require or make use of various API keys:

• bing.lua: Bing Search API key (bing_api_key)
• gImages.lua & youtube.lua: Google API and CSE keys (google_api_key, google_cse_key)
• weather.lua: OpenWeatherMap API key (owm_api_key)
• lastfm.lua: last.fm API key (lastfm_api_key)
• bible.lua: Biblia API key (biblia_api_key)
• cats.lua: The Cat API API key (optional) (thecatapi_key)
• apod.lua: NASA API key (nasa_api_key)
• translate.lua: Yandex API key (yandex_key)
• chatter.lua: SimSimi API key (simsimi_key)

---

Control plugins

Some plugins are designed to be used by the bot's owner. Here are some examples, how they're used, and what they do.

Plugin	Command	Function
control.lua	/reload	Reloads all plugins and configuration.
	/halt	Shuts down the bot after saving the database.
	/script	Runs a list a bot commands, separated by newlines.
blacklist.lua	/blacklist	Blocks people from using the bot.
shell.lua	/run	Executes shell commands on the host system.
luarun.lua	/lua	Executes Lua commands in the bot's environment.

---

Group Administration

The administration plugin enables self-hosted, single-realm group administration, supporting both normal groups and supergroups whch are owned by the bot owner. This works by sending TCP commands to an instance of tg running on the owner's account.

To get started, run ./tg-install.sh. Note that this script is written for Ubuntu/Debian. If you're running Arch (the only acceptable alternative), you'll have to do it yourself. If that is the case, note that otouto uses the "test" branch of tg, and the AUR package telegram-cli-git will not be sufficient, as it does not have support for supergroups yet.

Once the installation is finished, enable the administration plugin in your config file. The administration plugin must be loaded before the about and blacklist plugins. You may have reason to change the default TCP port (4567); if that is the case, remember to change it in tg-launch.sh as well. Run ./tg-launch.sh in a separate screen/tmux window. You'll have to enter your phone number and go through the login process the first time. The script is set to restart tg after two seconds, so you'll need to Ctrl+C after exiting.

While tg is running, you may start/reload otouto with administration.lua enabled, and have access to a wide variety of administrative commands and automata. The administration "database" is stored in administration.json. To start using otouto to administrate a group (note that you must be the owner (or an administrator)), send /gadd to that group. For a list of commands, use /ahelp. Below I'll describe various functions now available to you.

Command	Function	Privilege	Internal?
/groups	Returns a list of administrated groups (except the unlisted).	1	N
/ahelp	Returns a list of accessible administrative commands.	1	Y
/ops	Returns a list of the moderators and governor of a group.	1	Y
/desc	Returns detailed information for a group.	1	Y
/rules	Returns the rules of a group.	1	Y
/motd	Returns the message of the day of a group.	1	Y
/link	Returns the link for a group.	1	Y
/kick	Removes the target from the group.	2	Y
/ban	Bans the target from the group.	2	Y
/unban	Unbans the target from the group.	2	Y
/setmotd	Sets the message of the day for a group.	2	Y
/changerule	Changes an individual group rule.	3	Y
/setrules	Sets the rules for a group.	3	Y
/setlink	Sets the link for a group.	3	Y
/alist	Returns a list of administrators.	3	Y
/flags	Returns a list of flags and their states, or toggles one.	3	Y
/antiflood	Configures antiflood (flag 5) settings.	3	Y
/mod	Promotes a user to a moderator.	3	Y
/demod	Demotes a moderator to a user.	3	Y
/gov	Promotes a user to the governor.	4	Y
/degov	Demotes the governor to a user.	4	Y
/hammer	Blacklists and globally bans a user.	4	N
/unhammer	Unblacklists and globally bans a user.	4	N
/admin	Promotes a user to an administrator.	5	N
/deadmin	Demotes an administrator to a user.	5	N
/gadd	Adds a group to the administrative system.	5	N
/grem	Removes a group from the administrative system.	5	Y
/glist	Returns a list of all administrated groups and their governors.	5	N
/broadcast	Broadcasts a message to all administrated groups.	5	N

Internal commands can only be run within an administrated group.

Description of Privileges

#	Title	Description	Scope
0	Banned	Cannot enter the group(s).	Either
1	User	Default rank.	Local
2	Moderator	Can kick/ban/unban users. Can set MOTD.	Local
3	Governor	Can set rules/link, promote/demote moderators, modify flags.	Local
4	Administrator	Can globally ban/unban users, promote/demote governors.	Global
5	Owner	Can add/remove groups, broadcast, promote/demote administrators.	Global

Obviously, each greater rank inherits the privileges of the lower, positive ranks.

Flags

#	Name	Description
1	unlisted	Removes a group from the /groups listing.
2	antisquig	Automatically removes users for posting Arabic script or RTL characters.
3	antisquig++	Automatically removes users whose names contain Arabic script or RTL characters.
4	antibot	Prevents bots from being added by non-moderators.
5	antiflood	Prevents flooding by rate-limiting messages per user.
6	antihammer	Allows globally-banned users to enter a group.

antiflood

antiflood (flag 5) provides a system of automatic flood protection by removing users who post too much. It is entirely configurable by a group's governor, an administrator, or the bot owner. For each message to a particular group, a user is awarded a certain number of "points". The number of points is different for each message type. When the user reaches 100 points, he is removed. Points are reset each minute. In this way, if a user posts twenty messages within one minute, he is removed.

Default antiflood values:

Type	Points
text	5
contact	5
audio	5
voice	5
photo	10
document	10
location	10
video	10
sticker	20

Additionally, antiflood can be configured to automatically ban a user after he has been automatically kicked from a single group a certain number of times in one day. This is configurable as the antiflood value autoban and is set to three by default.

---

List of plugins

Plugin	Command	Function	Aliases
help.lua	/help [command]	Returns a list of commands or command-specific help.	/h
about.lua	/about	Returns the about text as configured in config.lua.
ping.lua	/ping	The simplest plugin ever!
echo.lua	/echo ‹text›	Repeats a string of text.
bing.lua	/bing ‹query›	Returns Bing web results.	/g
gImages.lua	/images ‹query›	Returns a Google image result.	/i
gMaps.lua	/location ‹query›	Returns location data from Google Maps.	/loc
youtube.lua	/youtube ‹query›	Returns the top video result from YouTube.	/yt
wikipedia.lua	/wikipedia ‹query›	Returns the summary of a Wikipedia article.	/w
lastfm.lua	/np [username]	Returns the song you are currently listening to.
lastfm.lua	/fmset [username]	Sets your username for /np. /fmset -- will delete it.
hackernews.lua	/hackernews	Returns the latest posts from Hacker News.	/hn
imdb.lua	/imdb ‹query›	Returns film information from IMDb.
hearthstone.lua	/hearthstone ‹query›	Returns data for Hearthstone cards matching the query.	/hs
calc.lua	/calc ‹expression›	Returns conversions and solutions to math expressions.
bible.lua	/bible ‹reference›	Returns a Bible verse.	/b
urbandictionary.lua	/urban ‹query›	Returns the top definition from Urban Dictionary.	/ud
time.lua	/time ‹query›	Returns the time, date, and a timezone for a location.
weather.lua	/weather ‹query›	Returns current weather conditions for a given location.
nick.lua	/nick ‹nickname›	Set your nickname. /nick - will delete it.
whoami.lua	/whoami	Returns user and chat info for you or the replied-to user.	/who
eightball.lua	/8ball	Returns an answer from a magic 8-ball.
dice.lua	/roll ‹nDr›	Returns RNG dice rolls. Uses D&D notation.
reddit.lua	/reddit [r/subreddit ¦ query]	Returns the top results from a subreddit, query, or r/all.	/r
xkcd.lua	/xkcd [query]	Returns an xkcd strip and its alt text.
slap.lua	/slap ‹target›	Gives someone a slap (or worse).
commit.lua	/commit	Returns a commit message from whatthecommit.com.
fortune.lua	/fortune	Returns a UNIX fortune.
pun.lua	/pun	Returns a pun.
pokedex.lua	/pokedex ‹query›	Returns a Pokedex entry.	/dex
currency.lua	/cash [amount] ‹cur› to ‹cur›	Converts one currency to another.
cats.lua	/cat	Returns a cat picture.
reactions.lua	/reactions	Returns a list of emoticons which can be posted by the bot.
apod.lua	/apod [date]	Returns the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day.
dilbert.lua	/dilbert [date]	Returns a Dilbert strip.
patterns.lua	/s/‹from›/‹to›/	Search-and-replace using Lua patterns.
me.lua	/me	Returns user-specific data stored by the bot.
remind.lua	/remind	Reminds a user of something after a duration of minutes.
channel.lua	/ch \n	Sends a markdown-enabled message to a channel.

---

Plugins

otouto uses a robust plugin system, similar to yagop's Telegram-Bot.

Most plugins are intended for public use, but a few are for other purposes, like those for use by the bot's owner. See here for a list of plugins.

There are five standard plugin components.

Component	Description
action	Main function. Expects msg table as an argument.
triggers	Table of triggers for the plugin. Uses Lua patterns.
init	Optional function run when the plugin is loaded.
cron	Optional function to be called every minute.
command	Basic command and syntax. Listed in the help text.
doc	Usage for the plugin. Returned by "/help $command".
error	Plugin-specific error message; false for no message.

No component is required, but some depend on others. For example, action will never be run if there's no triggers, and doc will never be seen if there's no command.

Return values from action are optional, but they do affect the flow. If it returns a table, that table will become msg, and on_msg_receive will continue with that. If it returns true, it will continue with the current msg.

When an action or cron function fails, the exception is caught and passed to the handle_exception utilty and is either printed to the console or send to the chat/channel defined in log_chat in config.lua.

Interactions with the bot API are straightforward. See the Bindings section for details.

Several functions used in multiple plugins are defined in utilities.lua. Refer to that file for usage and documentation.

---

Bindings

Calls to the Telegram bot API are performed with the bindings.lua file through the multipart-post library. otouto's bindings file supports all standard API methods and all arguments. Its main function, bindings.request, accepts four arguments: self, method, parameters, file. (At the very least, self should be a table containing BASE_URL, which is bot's API endpoint, ending with a slash, eg https://api.telegram.org/bot123456789:ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ987654321/.)

method is the name of the API method. parameters (optional) is a table of key/value pairs of the method's parameters to be sent with the method. file (super-optional) is a table of a single key/value pair, where the key is the name of the parameter and the value is the filename (if these are included in parameters instead, otouto will attempt to send the filename as a file ID).

Additionally, any method can be called as a key in the bindings table (for example, bindings.getMe). The bindings.gen function (which is also the __index function in its metatable) will forward its arguments to bindings.request in their proper form. In this way, the following two function calls are equivalent:

bindings.request(
	self,
	'sendMessage',
	{
		chat_id = 987654321,
		text = 'Quick brown fox.',
		reply_to_message_id = 54321,
		disable_web_page_preview = false,
		parse_method = 'Markdown'
	}
)

bindings.sendMessage(
	self,
	{
		chat_id = 987654321,
		text = 'Quick brown fox.',
		reply_to_message_id = 54321,
		disable_web_page_preview = false,
		parse_method = 'Markdown'
	}
)

Furthermore, utilities.lua provides two "shortcut" functions to mimic the behavior of otouto's old bindings: send_message and send_reply. send_message accepts these arguments: self, chat_id, text, disable_web_page_preview, reply_to_message_id, use_markdown. The following function call is equivalent to the two above:

utilities.send_message(self, 987654321, 'Quick brown fox.', false, 54321, true)

Uploading a file for the sendPhoto method would look like this:

bindings.sendPhoto(self, { chat_id = 987654321 }, { photo = 'dankmeme.jpg' } )

and using sendPhoto with a file ID would look like this:

bindings.sendPhoto(self, { chat_id = 987654321, photo = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ123456789' } )

Upon success, bindings will return the deserialized result from the API. Upon failure, it will return false and the result. In the case of a connection error, it will return two false values. If an invalid method name is given, bindings will throw an exception. This is to mimic the behavior of more conventional bindings as well as to prevent "silent errors".

---

Database

otouto doesn't use one. This isn't because of dedication to lightweightedness or some clever design choice. Interfacing with databases through Lua is never a simple, easy-to-learn process. As one of the goals of otouto is that it should be a bot which is easy to write plugins for, our approach to storing data is to treat our datastore like any ordinary Lua data structure. The "database" is a table accessible in the database value of the bot instance (usually self.database), and is saved as a JSON-encoded plaintext file each hour, or when the bot is told to halt. This way, keeping and interacting with persistent data is no different than interacting with a Lua table -- with one exception: Keys in tables used as associative arrays must not be numbers. If the index keys are too sparse, the JSON encoder/decoder will either change them to keys or throw an error.

Alone, the database will have this structure:

{
	users = {
		["55994550"] = {
			id = 55994550,
			first_name = "Drew",
			username = "topkecleon"
		}
	},
	userdata = {
		["55994550"] = {
			nickname = "Worst coder ever",
			lastfm = "topkecleon"
		}
	},
	version = "3.11"
}

database.users will store user information (usernames, IDs, etc) when the bot sees the user. Each table's key is the user's ID as a string.

database.userdata is meant to store miscellanea from various plugins.

database.version stores the last bot version that used it. This is to simplify migration to the next version of the bot an easy, automatic process.

Data from other plugins is usually saved in a table with the same name of that plugin. For example, administration.lua stores data in database.administration.

---

Output style

otouto plugins should maintain a consistent visual style in their output. This provides a recognizable and comfortable user experience.

Titles

Title lines should be bold, including any names and trailing punctuation (such as colons). The exception to this rule is if the title line includes a query, which should be italic. It is also acceptable to have a link somewhere inside a title, usually within parentheses. eg:

Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

Search results for star wars :

Changelog for otouto (Github):

Lists

Numerated lists should be done with the number and its following punctuation bolded. Unnumbered lists should use the bullet character ( • ). eg:

1. Life as a quick brown fox.

2. The art of jumping over lazy dogs.

and

• Life as a quick brown fox.

• The art of jumping over lazy dogs.

Links

Always name your links. Even then, use them with discretion. Excessive links make a post look messy. Links are reasonable when a user may want to learn more about something, but should be avoided when all desirable information is provided. One appropriate use of linking is to provide a preview of an image, as xkcd.lua and apod.lua do.

Other Stuff

User IDs should appear within brackets, monospaced ([123456789]). Descriptions and information should be in plain text, but "flavor" text should be italic. The standard size for arbitrary lists (such as search results) is eight within a private conversation and four elsewhere. This is a trivial pair of numbers (leftover from the deprecated Google search API), but consistency is noticeable and desirable.

---

Contributors

Everybody is free to contribute to otouto. If you are interested, you are invited to fork the repo and start making pull requests. If you have an idea and you are not sure how to implement it, open an issue or bring it up in the Bot Development group.

The creator and maintainer of otouto is topkecleon. He can be contacted via Telegram, Twitter, or email.

List of contributors.

There are a a few ways to contribute if you are not a programmer. For one, your feedback is always appreciated. Drop me a line on Telegram or on Twitter. Secondly, we are always looking for new ideas for plugins. Most new plugins start with community input. Feel free to suggest them on Github or in the Bot Dev group. You can also donate Bitcoin to the following address: 1BxegZJ73hPu218UrtiY8druC7LwLr82gS

Contributions are appreciated in all forms. Monetary contributions will go toward server costs. Donators will be eternally honored (at their discretion) on this page.

Donators (in chronological order)
n8 c00
Alex
Brayden