BatCLI

A simple terminal-based MUD client for BatMUD (bat.org:23).

🇫🇮 Lue ohjeet suomeksi

Features

• Telnet connection to BatMUD
• ANSI color support
• ISO-8859-1 character encoding (Nordic characters)
• Unicode input support
• Command history (Ctrl-P / Ctrl-N)
• Line editing with cursor movement
• Scroll back through output history
• Auto-login from .env file
• Prompt hold: MUD prompt (IAC GA/EOR) displayed on input line
• Password hiding: Input hidden when server requests password
• Connection handling: Clear messages on disconnect or connection errors
• Debug mode: View raw telnet data with /debug on
• Session logging: Save sessions to file with /log
• Auto-logging: Automatically start logging on connect via .env
• User aliases: Create shortcuts for commands with /alias

Requirements

• Python 3.7+
• No external dependencies (uses only standard library)

Installation

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/batcli.git
cd batcli

Global command setup (optional)

Make batcli available as a command from anywhere:

# Make the script executable
chmod +x batclient.py

# Create ~/bin directory and add to PATH (if not already done)
mkdir -p ~/bin
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc  # or ~/.bashrc for bash

# Create symlink
ln -sf "$(pwd)/batclient.py" ~/bin/batcli

# Reload shell config
source ~/.zshrc  # or ~/.bashrc

Now you can run batcli from any directory.

Optional: Auto-login setup

cp .env_sample .env
# Edit .env with your credentials

Optional: Auto-logging

Enable automatic session logging by adding to your .env:

AUTO_LOG=true
LOG_DIR=/path/to/logs  # Optional, defaults to logs/

Optional: Emoji status indicators

Use emoji instead of text in status bar:

STATUS_EMOJI=true  # Shows 📝 🐛 instead of LOG DBG

Usage

# If installed globally:
batcli

# Or run directly from the project directory:
python3 batclient.py

Keyboard shortcuts

Key	Action
Enter	Send command
Left/Right	Move cursor
Up	Move to beginning of line
Down	Move to end of line
Ctrl-P	Previous command from history
Ctrl-N	Next command from history
Ctrl-A	Move to beginning of line
Ctrl-E	Move to end of line
Ctrl-U	Clear line
Ctrl-K	Delete from cursor to end
Page Up/Down	Scroll output history
Home/End	Scroll to top/bottom

Commands

All commands starting with / are handled by the client. Use // to send a literal / to the server (e.g., //who sends /who).

Command	Action
/help	Show help
/clear	Clear the screen
/log [on|off]	Start/stop session logging
/alias [name] [cmd]	Create or list aliases
/alias -d <name>	Delete an alias
/debug on|off	Toggle debug mode
/quit	Exit the client

Security Note

Telnet is an unencrypted protocol. Your credentials are transmitted in plain text. This is a limitation of the MUD protocol, not this client. Use unique passwords for MUD games.

License

MIT

Links

• BatMUD - The game
• BatMUD Wiki - Game wiki