Relay mode

All megabridges support relay mode with the same mechanism: a specific login can be designated as a relay, which will be used for bridging messages from users who haven't logged into the bridge.

0. Enable relay mode by setting bridge → relay → enabled to true in the bridge config. Also make sure that the users you want to invite have at least the relay level in the permissions section.
   • By default, admin_only is true, which means only bridge admins (as defined by the permissions section) can set a relay. If you want room admins to also be able to set themselves as a relay, set admin_only to false.
1. Log into the bridge normally using the relaybot account.
   • For most use cases, you will want a dedicated Matrix account for the login rather than doing it on your main account. See the "Shared relays" section below for details.
2. Run !prefix set-relay in the chats where you want to use the relaybot, replacing !prefix with the appropriate command prefix for the bridge, like !signal or !wa. You can also use set-relay <login ID> to choose a specific login to be the relay (use list-logins to find login IDs).
3. Use !prefix set-pl 100 to be able to modify room settings and invite others.

Note that reactions from relayed users will not be bridged at all, because the bot wouldn't be able to bridge sender info nor multiple reactions of the same emoji.

Shared relays

Relays are only used for users who have not logged into the bridge (or whose logins are not present in the room). This means that the user who is marked as a relay won't use the relay themselves. Instead, their messages will be sent without the displayname prefix that relayed users get.

If you want everyone to be relayed, you should make a dedicated Matrix account that will run the login command. A dedicated Matrix account in this context means a normal new Matrix user. It is not related to the bridge bot or any other bridge-managed account in any way. If you want relay bridges to multiple different chat networks, you can safely share the dedicated relay account between all bridges.

By default, only admins can set relays. If you want to set up a shared relay account that anyone can enable, add the login ID (from list-logins) to the default_relays list in the config after logging in. Alternatively, you can set admin_only to false to allow anyone to set themselves as a relay.

Bridging existing rooms

If you want to bridge existing rooms, you can use the !prefix bridge command in v26.04 and up.

The bridge command takes one or two parameters: first optionally the login ID to use and second the internal chat ID on the remote network. If a login ID is not provided, the command will use either the sender's default login, or the first valid login in the default_relays config.

You may also want to add the relay login IDs to bridge → portal_create_filter → always_deny_from_login in order to prevent automatic portal room creation. If a portal room is already created, a bridge admin or room admin in the existing portal is required to unbridge it.

When the command is used with a login listed in default_relays, it will automatically apply set-relay as well.

Note: if relay → allow_bridge is set to false, then default relays will not be used.

Legacy bridges

Some of the legacy bridges that haven't been rewritten as Megabridges yet have slightly different system. In particular

• Telegram's Python version (pre-v26.04) has relay bots
• Discord has relay webhooks
• iMessage doesn't require using set-relay, enabling it in the config will enable relay in all chats.
• Google Chat doesn't support relay mode at all