compoBotA mastodon bot tooting composekey sequences
compoBot — A bot to toot composekey sequences
The compose key (a.k.a. Multi Key) is a massively useful and (unfortunately) forgotten feature. It lets you type a keyboard sequence eg. <Multi_Key><t><m> and it inserts a special character: ™.
This bot regularly toots one of those sequences to a mastodon account so that everyone can appreciate them.
The sequences used, are standard on modern linux systems. However, the compose/multikey is usually not mapped on most keyboards. With xmodmap, it can be mapped to a rarely used key like menu or capslock. On windows systems, there is WinCompose to get similar results.
Usage
compoBot can be used from shell or docker. The prerequisits are minimal: sqlite3, curl and the standard tools.
It is configured by environment variables wich may be set in a file called env.
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| database | ./compobot.db3 (/data/compobot.db3 on Docker) | Databasefile |
| minWait | 43200 (=12 h) | Minimum random time to wait between toots in seconds |
| maxWait | 86400 (=24 h) | Maximum random time to wait between toots in seconds |
| mtdVisibility | direct | Privacy setting for the toot¹ (public unlisted private direct) |
| mtdApi | https://mastodon.example/api/v1/statuses | API endpoint to sent statuses² |
| mtdToken | INSERT-YOUR-BEARER-TOKEN | API authentication² |
¹) https://docs.joinmastodon.org/entities/status/ ²) https://docs.joinmastodon.org/methods/apps/#create-an-application