nc://chatto

Chatto: talk to Nodecode through a self-hosted team chat server. A Nodecode rewrite of jrimmer/hermes-chatto-plugin by jrimmer.

Chatto is a self-hostable team chat server with rooms, threads and direct messages. This cell puts a bot account in it: mention the bot in a room and it answers in a thread under your message; write to it directly and every message is an ask. A poll of the server's own API brings the messages in, so your machine needs no public address and no open port.

Get it

Tell the agent "add the chatto cell", or run nodecode add nc://chatto.

The channel kit that ships with Nodecode comes with it, and does the rooms, lanes, threads, cards and delivery; this folder contributes Chatto's API.

Set it up

1. Give the bot an account of its own on your Chatto server. Never use yours.
2. Keep its password in a file (mode 600) or an environment variable, never in the config.
3. Add a channels.chatto section to ~/.nodecode/config.jsonc; config.example.jsonc has every key. The least that works:

"channels": {
  "chatto": {
    "url": "https://chat.example.com",
    "login": "nodecode-bot",
    "password_file": "~/.nodecode/secrets/chatto-password",
    "allowed_users": ["you"],
    "owner": ["you"]
  }
}

At least one of allowed_users / allowed_rooms must be set: a message runs with full access to your machine, so the bot never starts open to everyone.

4. Say "set up chatto" to Nodecode, or call (nck:probe "chatto") yourself: it logs in and names the rooms the account can see, by id and name, so you can fill allowed_rooms from that instead of guessing ids.

Use it

• Direct messages: every message is an ask, answered under it.
• Rooms: mention the bot — @nodecode-bot what broke the build? — and it answers in a thread under your message. A line starting with / runs a command without a mention.
• Threads: keep talking inside the thread without mentioning the bot; each reply continues the same conversation.
• Many rooms: with allowed_rooms empty the bot serves every room it is in and picks up rooms it is added to on the next poll. Name ids to narrow it.
• Replies: an answer is written as Chatto Markdown, in the room, under the ask's thread.

The lane polls every few seconds (poll_seconds, default 5). Messages said before the bot started are marked, not answered; a restart does not replay them.

What it does not do

The original plugin listens on Chatto's realtime WebSocket; this one polls the ConnectRPC API, so a reply lands within a few seconds rather than at once. A status card's edit arrives as a fresh line in the thread, because Chatto's edit call is not carried. File uploads and reactions are the next additions.

License

MIT, see LICENSE. Rewritten from the plugin named in NOTICE.