nidibot

Description

nidibot is a simple to install and configure bot for controlling your game servers from any messaging platform. Any is a bit of exaggeration here, since only Discord and Telegram is supported.

nidibot name was derived from Nitrado, Discord and bot - game server provider and messaging platform for which this bot was written originally.

It seems that only Nitrado has a good API for developers available. Any other game server provider does not provide (pun intended) any API at all. Some of them provide possibility of managing game server with remote console (RCON) though. RCON support would be a great addition to this project (someday).

Any contributions, bug reports and pull requests are welcome!

Features

• A minimalistic set of fundamental commands - everything you need to run and manage your game server.
• Possibility of connecting unlimited (somewhat) amount of game server providers and bots.
• High extensibility for game server providers and bots - just add a new class for missing game server provider or bot and make a PR.
• Easy setup - install ready-made nidibot package from PyPI and call initialize_folder().
• Simple configuration - everything is located in bot_configuration.json file in bot folder. Please see configuration description below for more details.

Limitations

• Command /backup_restore shows only latest 25 backups in Discord bot. This is coming from Discord limitation, it can show only 25 buttons in total (5 rows with 5 buttons each).
• Telegram bot can not notify about game server status changes if 'allowed_channels' is empty. This is coming from Telegram API limitation.

Commands

nidibot supports following commands:

/status [OPTIONAL:name]

Provides extended status information about game server.

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/start [OPTIONAL:name]

Starts server if it is offline, restarts server if it is online.

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/stop [OPTIONAL:name]

Stops server if it is online.

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/restart [OPTIONAL:name]

Restarts server if it is online, starts server if it is offline.

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/backup_create [OPTIONAL:name]

Creates backup of games server files. Backed up files are stored in the working folder of bot under backups folder.

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/backup_list [OPTIONAL:name]

Lists available backups of specific game server.

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/backup_restore [OPTIONAL:name] [REQUIRED:backup_name]

Restores specific backup on a game server.

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Each command supports optional argument name. It is a convenience argument in case you have multiple game servers connected to the bot at once. In case if no name is specified, the command is applied to the first game server in the list.

Quick start

Prerequisites

You need to have following before you proceed with the instructions:

1. Virtual machine (VM) or server somewhere in the Internet.
2. Bot account (Discord or Telegram one).
3. Any Discord server or Telegram channel where you have administrative access.
4. Nitrado account (register or login at https://server.nitrado.net/en-GB/).
5. Any game server that runs on Nitrado to which you have administrative access.

Installation

Docker

1. Create a compose.yml file with the following contents:

name: nidibot
services:
  nidibot:
    container_name: nidibot
    image: ghcr.io/thechainercygnus/nidibot:latest
    volumes:
      - ./backups:/app/backups
      - ./logs:/app/logs
    restart: unless-stopped
    # env_file:
    #  - .env
    # Uncomment to set Environment Variables
    # environment:
    #  - NITRADO_TOKEN=nitrado_api_token
    #   Uncomment the following to use Discord
    #   - DISCORD_TOKEN=discord_token
    #   - DISCORD_PRIVILEGED_USERS=user1,user2                    # Can be single or comma separated list
    #   - DISCORD_ALLOWED_CHANNELS=channel_id_1,channel_id_2      # Can be single or comma separated list
    #   Uncomment the following to use Telegram
    #   - TELEGRAM_TOKEN=telegram_atoken
    #   - TELEGRAM_PRIVILEGED_USERS=user1,user2                   # Can be single or comma separated list
    #   - TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_CHANNELS=channel_id_1,channel_id_2     # Can be single or comma separated list

2. Nidibot requires a few environment variables to get up and running. Use only the necessary chat platforms (e.g. if you only need discord, only set the discord settings).

Variable	Description	Required
NITRADO_TOKEN	Nitrado API Token	Yes
DISCORD_TOKEN	Discord Bot Token	No
DISCORD_PRIVILEGED_USERS	Comma Separated List of Privileged Discord Usernames	No
DISCORD_ALLOWED_CHANNELS	Comma Separated List of Allowed Channels for Nidibot to recieve commands in	No
TELEGRAM_TOKEN	Telegram Bot Token	No
TELEGRAM_PRIVILEGED_USERS	Comma Separated List of Privileged Telegram Usernames	No
TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_CHANNELS	Comma Separated List of Allowed Channels for Nidibot to recieve commands in	No

3. Set required environment variables for your needs using either:
   1. .env File method. a. Delete lines 12-22 of compose.yml. b. Uncomment the remainder of the file. c. Create a file named .env alongside compose.yml. d. Create the file with the needed variables besides NITRADO_TOKEN to connect to your services.
   2. Set the variables in compose.yml. a. Delete lines 10-12 of compose.yml. b. Uncomment the remainder of the file. c. Update and Delete lines as needed to configure your instance.
4. Start the bot with docker compose up -d
5. Note that it can take up to an hour for the new slash commands to register in your client. This can sometimes be worked around by completely closing and reopening your client.

Linux Service

1. Login to your VM or server via SSH.
2. Install Python 3.x. Do this only if Python 3.x is missing or very old. You don't need to have latest Python version for this bot.
3. Install this bot as Python package via pip:

pip install nidibot

4. Or upgrade already installed bot:

pip install nidibot --upgrade

Configuration

1. Login to your VM or server via SSH.
2. Create new folder for storing bot files.
3. Proceed to the folder.
4. Call following command for initializing bot in this folder and create default configuration files:

# Ubuntu/Linux only.
python3 -c 'from nidibot import Nidibot; Nidibot.initialize_folder()'

5. Open bot_configuration.json file in any text editor and modify required values to your own:

{
    "general": {
        "backups_folder_path": "backups",
        "logs_folder_path": "logs"
    },
    "bots": [
        {
            "type": "discord",
            "token": "your-bot-token",
            "privileged_users": [],
            "allowed_channels": [],
            "notify_polling_seconds": 5
        }
    ],
    "server_providers": [
        {
            "type": "nitrado",
            "token": "your-gameserver-api-token",
            "timeout_seconds": 10,
            "polling_seconds": 5,
            "notifications": {
                "on_new_server": true,
                "on_status_change": true,
                "on_address_change": true,
                "on_version_change": true,
                "on_update_available_change": true
            }
        }
    ]
}

6. Install nidibot service, so it will start automatically every system restart.

# Ubuntu/Linux only.
sudo cp nidibot.service /etc/systemd/system/nidibot.service && sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl enable nidibot.service

7. Start newly installed service:

# Ubuntu/Linux only.
sudo systemctl start nidibot.service

8. Check service status:

# Ubuntu/Linux only.
sudo systemctl status nidibot.service

Configuration description

The top level of configuration contains:

Group	Description
general	General parameters of nidibot configuration.
bots	List of structures describing bot configuration parameters.
server_providers	List of structures describing game server configuration parameters.

General

Parameter	Description
backups_folder_path	The directory path in which all backups will be stored. Can be both relative or absolute. Default: "backups", relative to bot working directory.
logs_folder_path	The directory path in which logs will be stored. Can be both relative or absolute. Default: "logs", relative to bot working directory

Bot configuration

Parameter	Description
type	The type of the bot. Allowed values: discord, telegram. Default: empty.
token	The authentication token required for the bot. Default: empty.
privileged_users	The list of privileged users that can call administrative commands. Default: empty.
allowed_channels	The list of allowed channels from where commands will be accepted and processed. Default: empty.
notify_polling_seconds	The period in seconds for forwarding messages from queue to connected channels. Default: 5.

Server provider configuration

Parameter	Description
type	The type of the server provider. Allowed values: nitrado. Default: "".
token	The authentication token required for the server provider. Default: "".
timeout_seconds	The timeout in seconds for getting a response from the server provider. Default: 10.
polling_seconds	The period in seconds for polling a status from the server provider. Default: 5.
notifications / on_new_server	Toggles notification on a new game server appearing. Default: false.
notifications / on_status_change	Toggles notification on a game server status change. Default: false.
notifications / on_address_change	Toggles notification on a game server IP address change. Default: false.
notifications / on_version_change	Toggles notification on a game server version change. Default: false.
notifications / on_update_available_change	Toggles notification if game server got an update available. Default: false.