mmtools - i3 status bar and notification script for Mattermost

mmtools are various tools using the mattermost API.

Changelog

1.0.0

Breaking change for mmwaybar: it now stays running and listens for Mattermost websocket events, writing updated JSON status lines as the unread status changes. Integrations that expect mmwaybar to exit after a single status check must be updated to handle the long-running process.

Installation

sudo pip3 install mmtools

This will install mmtols from pypi, including the following required packages:

caep
pydantic
mattermostdriver
passpy
notify2
dbus-python
requests

For dbus-python to build, you need to have the libdbus-1-dev package installed. On debian you can do

sudo apt install libdbus-1-dev

Tools

The following tools are included:

mmstatus

mmstatus connects to the mattermost API to get unread messages in all channels. It then outputs a statusbar (usable in i3blocks) of unread messages and exits. Supports private/public/user channels and different coloring on group chats and user chats.

Example configuration for i3blocks:

[mattermost]
command=/usr/local/bin/mmstatus
separator=true
interval=60
signal=12

mmpolybar

mmpolybar same as mmstatus, but with polybar colors.

Example configuration for polybar:

[module/mmpolybar]
type = custom/script
exec = mmpolybar
tail = true

mmwaybar

mmwaybar outputs the initial unread status and then listens for Mattermost websocket events, writing a new JSON line whenever messages or channel views can change the unread status.

Event bursts are combined over 250 ms. A safety refresh runs every 30 seconds to recover missed updates and stale responses. Direct-message unread counts are verified separately when a DM is unread, was previously displayed, or is referenced by an event.

If a refresh fails, the last successful text stays visible with an additional stale CSS class and an error tooltip. Failed refreshes retry on the next event or 30-second refresh. Slow HTTP requests can delay the next refresh. Before the first successful refresh, errors appear as status text. Logs go to stderr unless a logfile is configured; stdout contains JSON status lines.

Example configuration for waybar:

"custom/mattermost": {
    "exec": "mmwaybar",
    "return-type": "json"
}

To make stale data visible, add a rule to your Waybar CSS, for example:

#custom-mattermost.stale {
    opacity: 0.6;
}

mmwatch

mmwatch connects to the mattermost websocket API and can display notification on messages and send SIGUSR2 to i3blocks to update statusbar before next interval.

Configuration

All tools can be configured using both command line arguments and a configuration file.

mmtools will first look for a configuration in ~/.config/mmtools/config-<HOSTNAME> with fallback to ~/.config/mmtools/config.

Use the following command to create the configuration ~/.config/mmtools/config. The same configuration file is used for both tools.

mmconfig init

In this file you must specify at least:

# Mattermost server
server = <SERVER>

# Mattermost user
user = <USERNAME>

# either password
password = <MATTERMOST PASSWORD>

# OR pass entry (https://www.passwordstore.org)
password-pass-entry = <PASS ENTRY>

User service for `mmwatch`

mmwatch can be started as a systemd user service by creating the following file:

.config/systemd/user/mmwatch.service

with this content:

[Unit]
Description=mm watch

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/mmwatch

Restart=always

# time to sleep before restarting a service
RestartSec=30

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Enable at login

systemctl --user enable mmwatch

Start manually

systemctl --user start mmwatch

Local development

For local development, se uv.

Metadata

Release files for mmtools 1.0.2

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for mmtools 1.0.2
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
mmtools-1.0.2-py3-none-any.whl 15.3 kB Oct 7, 2026	Python 3	none	any	Details

Release files / mmtools-1.0.2-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	mmtools-1.0.2-py3-none-any.whl
Size	15.3 kB
Tags	Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`6141a91fe41c9ce5a48f70fbefc4dcef3136757735a3a2abb6b74a24903641af`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`ab76584c17139cbac313895ff1eb5163b68d057c92aca435c69835f090ecae9e`
Upload date	Oct 7, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`uv/0.12.23 {"installer":{"name":"uv","version":"0.12.23","subcommand":["publish"]},"python":null,"implementation":{"name":null,"version":null},"distro":{"name":"Arch Linux","version":null,"id":null,"libc":null},"system":{"name":null,"release":null},"cpu":null,"openssl_version":null,"setuptools_version":null,"rustc_version":null,"ci":null}`