Jerk

A fun little IRC bot library for node.js. Ridiculously simple to set-up and get going!

OHMYGOD

Seriously, it's stupidly simple.

Your First Bot

Firstly, we'll need to grab Jerk. If you use npm it's as easy as:

npm install jerk

If you prefer straight-up git:

git clone git://github.com/gf3/Jerk.git

Hoo haa, now that we're locked and loaded, let's write a goddamn bot! We need to include Jerk:

var jerk = require( 'jerk' )

You'll need some options. Jerk takes the exact same options object as the IRC-js library. Let's just go ahead and supply some basic info:

var options =
  { server: 'irc.freenode.net'
  , nick: 'YourBot9001'
  , channels: [ '#your-channel' ]
  }

Hah, now you're going to cry once you see how easy this is:

jerk( function( j ) {
 
  j.watch_for( 'soup', function( message ) {
    message.say( message.user + ': soup is good food!' )
  })
 
  j.watch_for( /^(.+) are silly$/, function( message ) {
    message.say( message.user + ': ' + message.match_data[1] + ' are NOT SILLY. Don\'t joke!' )
  })
 
}).connect( options )

Really. That's it.

ADVANCED USER OF THE INTERNETS

The jerk object (j) has only one method: watch_for. Which takes two arguments, the first can be either a string or a regex to match messages against. The second argument is your hollaback function for when a match is found. The hollaback receives only one argument, the message object. It looks like this:

{ user:       String
, source:     String
, match_data: Array
, say:        Function( message )
, msg:        Function( message )
}

One thing I will tell you though, is the say method is smart enough to reply to the context that the message was received, so you don't need to pass it any extra info, just a reply :) However, the msg method can be used if you'd like to force sending a message directly to a user (aka a PM).

The connect method returns an object with some handy methods that you can use outside of your watch_fors:

{ say:    Function( destination, message )
, action: Function( destination, action )
, forget: Function( pattern )
, part:   Function( channel )
, join:   Function( channel )
, quit:   Function( message )
}

Example:

var superBot = jerk( ... ).connect( options )
// Later...
superBot.say( '#myChan', 'Soup noobs?' )
superBot.join( '#haters' )
superBot.action( '#hates', 'hates all of you!' )

I think everything there is pretty self-explanatory, no?

Running Your Bot

node yourBot9001.js

Run your bot on a remote server:

nohup node yourBot9001.js &

Although I recommend using something like forever to keep your bot running for a while.

Done.

A Better Example

Here's a more practical example, meet protobot. Protobot hangs out on Freenode#prototype all day – stop by and say hi!

A few bots using Jerk:

• Protobot
• csbot
• Codebot
• Misao-chan
• node-sedbot
• Crockbot

Wrote a bot with Jerk? Email me and I'll add it to the list!

Credit & Junk

{ "author" : "Gianni Chiappetta <[e-mail]> (http://gf3.ca)"
, "contributors" :
  [ "Isaac Z. Schlueter <[e-mail]> (http://blog.izs.me)"
  , "Arnaud Berthomier <[e-mail]> (http://wtf.cyprio.net)"
  , "Suresh Harikrishnan <[e-mail]> (http://www.activesphere.com)"
  , "Tomás Senart <[e-mail]> http://about.me/tsenart"
  ]
}

Jerk is UNLICENSED.