irssi-rocketchat

irssi-rocketchat is an irssi module to connect to a Rocket.Chat instance

It is still in a work-in-progress state and a lot of things does not work, so use it at your own risks.

Why ?

Because I like irssi and I don't like using a mouse for a text chat, nor waiting 2 seconds to autocomplete a nick

What works ?

• login using an authentication token (you need to log in using a web browser to generate a token)
• list public channels
• list users
• join an existing room (public/private channel, discussion, direct message). leaving a room is not implemented
• create direct message using /query <nick>
• receive/send messages from/to rooms
• automatic join to rooms when a message is received
• room history: the last messages can be loaded using /rocketchat history
• nicklist

Installation

Requirements

• CMake
• A C compiler toolchain
• irssi development files
• glib
• Jansson (>= 2.11)
• libwebsockets (>= 4.1) with glib support

On debian stable, you can install these with the following command:

apt-get install cmake build-essential irssi-dev libglib2.0-dev libjansson-dev libwebsockets-dev

Building

Once all dependencies are installed, build and install irssi-rocketchat

cd /path/to/irssi-rocketchat
cmake -S . -B build -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -D IRSSI_MODULEDIR=~/.irssi/modules
cmake --build build --target install

This will install irssi-rocketchat in ~/.irssi/modules

Usage

First generate an access token:

• sign in with a web browser to your Rocket.Chat instance
• on your account page, go to "Personal access tokens"
• create a new access token and keep it visible, you will need to copy it into your irssi config file

Then define a new chatnet and a new server in your ~/.irssi/config

chatnets = {
    MyRocketChat = {
        type = "rocketchat";
    }
};
servers = (
    {
        address = "chat.example.com";
        chatnet = "MyRocketChat";
        port = "443";
        use_tls = "yes";
        password = "<your-access-token>";
    }
);

In ~/.irssi/startup, add the following line:

LOAD rocketchat

Then open irssi and enter the following command:

/connect MyRocketChat

Once connected you can list public channels

/rocketchat channels

foo (ID: aQhQEXsMuoS439dGS)
general (ID: GENERAL)
test (ID: 497BsckNzoaT2PeMF)

and join one or more using their ID or their name

/join aQhQEXsMuoS439dGS,GENERAL,test

To automatically join a room when connected to the server you can add it to your channels list

/channel add -auto test MyRocketChat

To start a private discussion with someone, use the /query command

/query john

Message format & theme

Message formats are customizable in the theme

Type /format rocketchat to get the list of all available formats

These formats use 2 "abstracts" that are not defined in irssi's default theme: msgid and tmid. By default they are defined as {comment $0}. If you want to change them:

1. open your theme file (by default it's ~/.irssi/default.theme),
2. find the abstracts section,
3. inside this section add the following lines and customize them as you wish (see https://github.com/irssi/irssi/blob/master/docs/formats.txt):

   msgid = "{comment $0}"; # message id
   tmid = "{comment $0}"; # thread id
   

Settings

rocketchat_print_msgid

• Type: boolean
• Default value: OFF
• Description: If enabled, each message will have its ID printed in front of it

rocketchat_max_tmids_saved

• Type: integer
• Default value: 10
• Description: Maximum number of thread ids saved per channel/query. These are used for /rocketchat thread completion

Commands

/rocketchat channels

List public channels

/rocketchat users

List users

/rocketchat history [<count>]

Print the last <count> lines of history for the current channel/query

If <count> is omitted, the last 10 lines of history are printed

/rocketchat thread [<tmid>] [<message>]

Send a message to a thread.

<tmid> is the thread id. It's displayed before each received message that is from a thread. You can also reply to any message to create a new thread.

If <message> is omitted, set <tmid> as the "current" thread. All messages sent after this will be sent to that thread, until /rocketchat thread is called without arguments.

If both <tmid> and <message> are omitted, unset the "current" thread. All messages sent after this will be sent to the channel.

Known bugs

• /query <nick> <message> only works when the query already exists. If the query does not exist yet the message will not be sent.