botcall-print 0.2.0

Print daemon for botcall/printgif - receive print jobs from the cloud

botcall-print

Local print daemon for botcall. Receives print jobs from the cloud and sends them to your USB thermal printer.

Installation

pip install botcall-print

Or install from source:

cd clients/print-daemon
pip install -e .

Setup

1. Get your botcall API key from https://botcall.io
2. Configure the daemon:

botcall-print setup
# Enter your API key when prompted

3. Test your printer:

botcall-print test "Hello from botcall!"

4. Start the daemon:

botcall-print daemon

Running as a Service

macOS (launchd)

# Create launch agent
cat > ~/Library/LaunchAgents/io.botcall.print.plist << EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>io.botcall.print</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>$(which botcall-print)</string>
        <string>daemon</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>
EOF

# Load it
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/io.botcall.print.plist

Linux (systemd)

# Create service file
sudo cat > /etc/systemd/system/botcall-print.service << EOF
[Unit]
Description=botcall print daemon
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=$USER
ExecStart=$(which botcall-print) daemon
Restart=always
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

# Enable and start
sudo systemctl enable botcall-print
sudo systemctl start botcall-print

Commands

Command	Description
botcall-print setup	Configure API key
botcall-print daemon	Start listening for print jobs
botcall-print test "text"	Test print some text
botcall-print status	Show configuration and printer status

Supported Printers

Any ESC/POS compatible USB thermal printer. Common models:

• Epson TM-T20/T88
• Star TSP100/TSP650
• Generic 58mm/80mm receipt printers (ZJ-58, XP-58, etc.)

Troubleshooting

Printer not found

Check USB connection:

# macOS
system_profiler SPUSBDataType | grep -A5 -i printer

# Linux
lsusb | grep -i printer

Permission denied (Linux)

Add udev rule:

echo 'SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0416", MODE="0666"' | sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/99-thermal-printer.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules

Slow/corrupted prints on Mac

Known macOS USB driver issue. The daemon includes chunking to work around this, but very image-heavy prints may still have issues. Consider using a Raspberry Pi for best results.