James Price
0f9030b72e
Group-chat bot that downloads videos from X/Instagram/YouTube/TikTok links via yt-dlp and posts them back, plus /speed and /rev video toys. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
71 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
71 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
# signal-bot
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A Signal group-chat bot that grabs videos from links people post (X/Twitter,
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Instagram, YouTube, TikTok) and posts them back into the chat, plus a couple of
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toys for messing with the last video.
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## What it does
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- **Auto-download** — watches every group message for a supported link and
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replies with the video. Powered by [yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp).
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Videos over 100 MB are auto re-encoded with ffmpeg to fit.
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- **`/speed [n]`** — re-posts the last video sped up `n`× (default 2×), pitch-shifted
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like tape. e.g. `/speed 4`, `/speed 0.5`.
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- **`/rev`** — re-posts the last video reversed (audio too).
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- **`/cookies`** (DM, admins only) — paste exported `.instagram.com` cookie lines
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to refresh Instagram auth without touching the server.
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Supported links: `x.com` / `twitter.com` (and `fxtwitter`/`vxtwitter`/`fixupx`
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wrappers), `instagram.com/reel|p`, `youtube.com` / `youtu.be` / Shorts, and TikTok.
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## How it's wired
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```
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Signal ──► signal-cli-rest-api (json-rpc, :8080) ──► bot.py (signalbot lib)
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[docker-compose.yml] [systemd service]
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│
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yt-dlp + ffmpeg + cookies.txt
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```
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- `bot.py` connects to a [signal-cli-rest-api](https://github.com/bbernhard/signal-cli-rest-api)
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daemon over a websocket in `json-rpc` mode.
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- `docker-compose.yml` runs that daemon; the linked-account data lives in a
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`./signal-cli-data` volume (gitignored — it holds private keys).
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- `signal-bot.service.example` is the systemd unit that runs `bot.py`.
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## Setup
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1. **Run signal-cli-rest-api and link it as a device** to your Signal account:
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```
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docker compose up -d
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```
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Then link via the QR at `http://127.0.0.1:8080/v1/qrcodelink?device_name=bot`
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(scan from Signal → Settings → Linked devices). Keep signal-cli up to date —
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an out-of-date signal-cli silently stops receiving messages when Signal
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changes its server protocol (`getServerGuid must not be null` in the logs);
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`docker compose pull && docker compose up -d` fixes it.
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2. **Python env:**
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```
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python3 -m venv venv
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venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
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```
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YouTube also needs a system `node` on PATH (for `yt-dlp-ejs`).
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3. **Cookies:** copy `cookies.txt.example` to `cookies.txt` and fill in real
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exported cookies for the sites you want auth'd. (gitignored)
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4. **Service:** copy `signal-bot.service.example` to `signal-bot.service`, set
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your user / phone number / paths, install it:
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```
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sudo cp signal-bot.service /etc/systemd/system/
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sudo systemctl enable --now signal-bot
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```
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## Notes
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- The bot only acts in **group** chats (except `/cookies`, which is DM-only).
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- Reply-targeting (e.g. "speed up *this* video") was intentionally dropped:
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Signal Desktop strips quote metadata from synced transcripts, so `/speed` and
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`/rev` always act on the last video seen in the group.
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