botIAask

botIAask is a feature-rich IRC bot powered by AI, designed for modern channel management and interactive experiences. Built in Go, it combines traditional IRC bot functionalities with advanced AI integration (via LM Studio), a professional web dashboard, and a secure administrative workflow.

🚀 Key Features

🤖 AI & IRC Interaction

• AI-Powered Responses: Ask questions directly to an AI model using !ask.
• RSS & news: Configurable feeds; optional IRC announcements and per-channel toggles.
• Rate Limiting: Intelligent command throttling to prevent spam.
• Log Rotation: Automatic multi-day log management for all channels.

📊 Web Dashboard

• Real-time Monitoring: Track uptime, AI requests, and connection status.
• Live Log Streaming: View IRC channel activity directly in the browser via SSE.
• interactive Stats: Visualized bot usage and channel metrics with historical views.
• Link Bookmarks: Search and manage bookmarked URLs from IRC.
• Financial Dashboard: Real-time tracking of Crypto, Euro, and Argentinean Peso rates.

📝 Secure Paste System

• Ephemeral Uploads: Users can generate temporary links with !paste to upload logs or code.
• File uploads: !upload provides a time-limited form to submit a binary file (size limit configurable in the web dashboard). The IRC bot and web dashboard must use the same uploads SQLite file (see uploads.db_path in config if your working directory differs between processes).
• Admin Approval: Pastes and file uploads require manual approval before public links work.
• Syntax Highlighting: Beautiful rendering of shared code snippets.
• Auto-Expiration: Pastes are automatically removed after a configurable duration.

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🛠 Quick Setup

Prerequisites

• Go 1.22 or higher (see go.mod for the exact toolchain the project targets).
• LM Studio (for AI capabilities) or any OpenAI-compatible API.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/gcanosa/botIAask.git
   cd botIAask

2. Configure the bot: Copy config/config.yaml.template to config/config.yaml and edit config/config.yaml to set your IRC server, channel preferences, AI endpoint, and all internal parameters.

   irc:
     server: "irc.libera.chat"
     nickname: "MyBot"
     channels: ["#mychannel"]
   ai:
     lm_studio_url: "http://localhost:1234/v1"

3. Run the bot:

   # Remember to copy config.yaml.template file from config folder to a file named config.yaml and set up the parameters, otherwise bot will fail to load configuration.
   
   # Run in foreground for debugging
   go run main.go
   
   # Or run with the web dashboard enabled in daemon mode
   go run main.go -dashboard

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💻 Command Line Interface

botIAask includes a CLI to manage the bot’s lifecycle, optional RSS maintenance, and quick introspection.

• -h / -help: prints application flags only (name, version, and flag defaults). It does not list IRC commands.
• -usage: prints a full IRC command reference, grouped into user commands and admin commands. On a color-capable TTY, user commands and admin commands use different colors; set the environment variable NO_COLOR (to any value) to force plain text.

Option	Description
-dashboard	Starts the bot in daemon mode and enables the web dashboard.
-daemon	Runs the bot in the background (daemon mode).
-debug	Verbose console output from the process (default: true).
-mode <start|stop|restart>	Controls the daemon process explicitly.
-news	Enables the RSS fetcher in the background.
-updatenews [limit]	Backfills the news database and exits.
-dropnews	Clears all news data and exits.
-rehash	Sends SIGHUP to the PID in daemon.pid so a running daemon reloads config/config.yaml.
-usage	Prints the IRC user/admin command list (see above).
-version	Prints name and version.
-about	Shows project details and author.

In config/config.yaml, under rss, announce_to_irc defaults to true. Set it to false to keep fetching and updating the local news database without posting to IRC (avoids flooding the channel after long downtime). You can also run -updatenews [limit] once to backfill the database before starting the bot.

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💬 IRC Commands

User Commands

Command prefix (default !) and the AI trigger name (default ask) are set in config/config.yaml under bot.command_prefix and bot.command_name.

Command	Description
!ask <query>	Asks the AI; same behavior as the configured command name.
!bc <expr>	Evaluates a math expression (e.g. 5+5).
!news [limit]	Fetches recent items from the configured RSS database in channels where news is enabled (limit 1–10).
!bookmark	ADD <URL> [nickname] or FIND <text> to add or search bookmarks.
!uptime	Application uptime and current IRC session uptime.
!spec	Shows the system prompt spec string used for AI replies.
!paste	Generates a secure, temporary link to upload a text paste.
!upload	Generates a secure, temporary link to upload a file (max size in web Uploads settings).
!download [N]	Lists your approved uploads with download URLs (newest first; optional last N).
!euro	Euro / forex panel.
!peso	Argentine peso view.
!crypto	Crypto market view.
!reminder	add <note>, del <id>, or list (per-user reminders).
!help	Short in-channel summary of commands.

Admin Commands

Admins must match a hostmask in config/config.yaml and be in an active !admin session. Mode commands (!op, !deop, !voice, !devoice) are used in a channel where the bot can set modes.

Command	Description
!admin	Starts an admin session.
!admin off	Ends the admin session.
!join #channel [key]	Joins a channel; optional channel key is stored in config.
!part [#channel]	Parts a channel and updates config/config.yaml when applicable.
!ignore <nick>	Ignores a nickname.
!say #channel <message>	Sends a message to a channel.
!news on / !news off	Enables or disables news for the current channel (session only).
!news start / !news stop	Turns global RSS-to-IRC announcements on or off; persists rss.announce_to_irc in config.
!stats	Bot statistics (e.g. AI request count, uptime).
!op [nick] / !deop [nick]	Channel operator; in a channel, acts on the invoker or the given nick.
!voice [nick] / !devoice [nick]	Channel voice.
!ticket pending	Lists pending paste/file tickets.
!ticket approve <ID>	Approves a ticket (paste or file).
!ticket cancel <ID>	Cancels a ticket.
!rehash	Reloads configuration from disk (notifies other admins).
!quit [reason]	Disconnects; quit message from irc.quit_message or default banner.

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🌐 Web Dashboard Features

The dashboard (default: http://localhost:3366) provides several administrative and public features:

• Admin Control Panel: Manage pastes, toggle bot features, and manage web user accounts.
• Live Logs: Dedicated view for watching channel activity in real-time.
• Paste Viewer: Publicly accessible view for approved pastes (/p/<ID>).
• File uploads: Admin Uploads panel, configurable max size; approved files at /f/<ID>.
• Market View: Live financial data panel for crypto and currency rates.
• System Stats: Detailed charts for AI requests and system performance.
• Bookmarks: Searchable database of links shared across channels.

Web Dashboard Security

• Initial admin password: If web.auth.password is not set in config.yaml, a random 32-character password is generated on first run and printed once to the log — save it immediately.
• CSRF protection: All state-changing API endpoints require a valid X-CSRF-Token header (or csrf_token form field). The token is returned at login.
• Login rate limiting: 5 failed attempts per IP per 15 minutes.
• Session cookies: HttpOnly, Secure, SameSite=Strict, 24-hour TTL.
• Reverse proxy: If running behind a trusted proxy, set web.trust_forwarded_for: true in config to enable correct client IP detection. Leave it disabled (default) when exposed directly.

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📄 License

This project is maintained by Gerardo Canosa (gera.canosa@gmail.com). Check the LICENSE file for more details.