Random Nonsense Generator

A Telegram bot to generate messages using Markov chains

Preparation

Creating a bot on Telegram

Creating a bot is done through @BotFather. See the official documentation for more details.

Make sure to disable privacy mode, otherwise the bot won't be able to store user messages to generate its replies from.

Project installation

1. Install dependencies:

   yarn install

2. Add your bot token from BotFather to the .env file in the project directory:

   TOKEN=<insert your Telegram bot token here>

Development

Running the bot

yarn run dev:start

Building for production

yarn run build

Build files will be output to build/prod.

Deployment

The steps below should be done in the deployment environment.

1. Copy the contents of the build/prod folder to the desired location on the server.

2. Follow the steps in the Project installation section.

3. Apply database migrations:

   yarn run prod:apply-migrations

4. Run the bot:

   node index.cjs

Usage

Adding the bot to your group

The process of adding the bot user is the same as adding any other user.

Generating messages

By default, the bot replies with a generated message when it is @mentioned.

For more information on how to adjust reply settings see Bot configuration.

Bot configuration

Send /settings in the group chat to access the bot's settings menu and configure its settings for that group.

Options

• Reply on mention: Reply when the bot is mentioned.
• Reply randomly: Send a message when the number of messages sent in the group reaches a certain amount since the bot's last message.
• Admin-only settings: Allow setting changes only by group admins.
• Admin-only bot commands: Allow the bot's commands to be used only by group admins.