Trigger Watcher Settings

Description

Runs your Lich triggers: when the game shows a line you've defined, it sends the responses you've defined. Responses can be plain game commands, or trigger commands that run scripts, set UserVars, log to a file or window, pause, run Ruby, or branch with if/else.

This page covers trigger-watcher's settings and behavior. For a walkthrough of writing triggers, with more examples, see Lich Triggers.

It isn't stopped by ;kill all or paused by ;pause all. Stop it with ;kill trigger-watcher.

If you have no lich_triggers, it says "WARNING: You have no lich_triggers defined." and stops.

Settings

YAML Settings

Where triggers go

Put a lich_triggers: block in Charname-setup.yaml, or in a separate Charname-triggers.yaml. It can also go in an include file.

Use one place only. The lich_triggers block doesn't combine across files. The triggers file's block replaces the one in your setup file, and your setup file's replaces one in an include.

A trigger

lich_triggers:
  wave_hello:
    triggers:
      - Bobafett just arrived
      - Hansolo just arrived
    responses:
      - wave
    use_with_scripts:
      - afk
    no_use_scripts:
      - combat-trainer

Setting	Purpose
trigger name	Any name you like (wave_hello above).
triggers	Lines of game output to watch for. Any one of them fires the trigger.
responses	What to do, in order. A plain line is sent to the game as a command; a line starting with = is a trigger command (below). A trigger with no responses does nothing.
use_with_scripts	Optional. Only fire while at least one of these scripts is running.
no_use_scripts	Optional. Never fire while any of these scripts is running. This wins over use_with_scripts.

Each triggers line is a case-insensitive regular expression, matched anywhere in the line. Bobafett just arrived also matches "bobafett just arrived" and longer lines that contain it. Characters like . ? ( ) [ * and + have special meanings, so put a \ before them when you mean the character itself. Wrap the line in single quotes if YAML complains.

Trigger commands

Wrap everything after a trigger command in curly braces, with one space after the command: =exec {buff}. A command line without its braces stops trigger-watcher completely when that trigger fires. Only =reload takes no braces.

Command	Example	What it does
=exec	=exec {buff combat}	Starts a script, with arguments, and carries straight on.
=execw	=execw {buff combat}	Starts a script and waits for it to finish before the next response.
=eval	=eval {DRC.message("hello")}	Runs the text as Lich/Ruby code.
=uvar	=uvar {set MyVar 22} =uvar {delete MyVar}	Sets or deletes a UserVar. Put Ruby in an inner pair of braces to set the result, for example =uvar {set Count {UserVars.Count.to_i + 1}}.
=logf	=logf {mylog Saw $1}	Appends a timestamped line to mylog.txt. Ruby in inner braces is run first.
=logw	=logw {mywindow Saw $1}	Writes a bold line to a window with that name, creating the window if needed. Ruby in inner braces is run first.
=pause	=pause {10}	Waits that many seconds before the next response. Decimals such as 2.5 work.
=if / =elsif / =else	=if {3 > 2} {DRC.message("yes")} =else {DRC.message("no")}	Checks the Ruby condition in the first braces and runs the Ruby in the braces after it. You can have several =elsifs, and several actions for each. They can't be nested.
=reload	=reload	Re-reads your lich_triggers without restarting the script, and lists what changed.

• =pause needs a plain number of seconds. Anything else, such as =pause {5 seconds} or a UserVar that isn't set, is skipped with a message, and the next response runs straight away.
• =logf and =logw stop trigger-watcher if the text contains }}. Only simple code, in a single pair of inner braces, is supported.
• =logf writes the text inside brackets and quotes, for example 2026-10-04 01:23pm ["Saw a thing"]. The file is created relative to the folder Lich runs from.
• =exec and =execw split the arguments on spaces, so an argument can't contain a space.

Substitutions

Before the responses run, it fills these in:

• $1 to $9: the matching capture group from your triggers regex, for example You are (.*) years old with say I am $1. $0 is the whole matched text. If the group doesn't exist, it warns you and leaves $1 as it is.
• $name: the value of the UserVar name. The name must start with a letter and be at least two characters long. If the UserVar isn't set, it warns you and leaves the text alone.

Every $word in a response is treated as a UserVar, including inside =eval code. If a UserVar happens to share the name of a Ruby $global you use, its value is put in instead.

What happens when a trigger fires

There are no settings for these; this is what to expect.

1. Checks use_with_scripts and no_use_scripts. If they rule the trigger out, it does nothing.
2. Fills in substitutions and works through the responses in order. Plain commands wait for roundtime after each one.
3. Resets the trigger, ready for the next time. That happens even if the scripts check ruled it out.

Argument Settings

Argument	Purpose
debug	Show detailed messages about every trigger and response.

You can also turn on debug output with ;e UserVars.trigger_watcher_debug = true.

Usage

;trigger-watcher

;trigger-watcher debug

Leave it running. To have it start every time you log in, add it to your Lich autostart. After editing your triggers, fire a trigger that uses =reload, or restart the script.