quotebot/README.md

quotebot

A simple quotes IRC bot for Libera.Chat. Standard-library Python only — no pip install, no virtualenv. Connects over TLS, joins a channel, and serves quotes from a local SQLite database via ! commands.

Run it

python3 bot.py

That connects to irc.libera.chat:6697 as treesquotes and joins #r.trees.

To override anything, copy the example config and source it first:

cp config.example.env config.env     # config.env is gitignored
# edit config.env as needed
set -a; source config.env; set +a
python3 bot.py

Commands (in-channel)

Command	Does
!quote	Random quote
!quote <id>	Quote by number
!addquote <text>	Store a new quote, returns its id
!grabquote [user]	Grab the last line a user said (!grab alias); no user = last speaker
!delquote <id>	Delete a quote
!search <term>	First quote containing a substring
!quotecount	How many quotes are stored
!help	List commands

Notes

• Quotes live in quotes.db (SQLite, created on first run, gitignored).
• !grabquote reads an in-memory buffer of each user's last channel line; that buffer is per-session and resets on reconnect. Grabbed lines are stored as <nick> message. Bot commands are never recorded, so you can't grab one.
• The bot auto-reconnects with exponential backoff and answers PING.
• If the nick is taken it appends _ and retries.
• A NickServ password, if set via IRC_NICKSERV_PASS, is sent on connect — keep it in the environment, never in the repo.
• Outbound messages are spaced by QUOTEBOT_SEND_DELAY seconds to avoid tripping Libera's flood limits.

Registering the nick (recommended)

Libera lets unregistered bots connect, but channels can be set to block unregistered users. To register treesquotes:

1. Connect once, then /msg NickServ REGISTER <password> <email>.
2. Confirm via the emailed code.
3. Put the password in config.env as IRC_NICKSERV_PASS and restart.