Basic usage

After setting up maubot, you can use the web management interface to make it do things. The default location of the management interface is http://localhost:29316/_matrix/maubot.

Logging into the interface happens with the credentials configured in the admins section in the config. Note that the root user can't have a password, so you must use a different username for logging in.

Uploading plugins

Plugins contain the actual code for a bot, so the first step is to upload a plugin. There's currently no central location to download plugins, but there's a list of plugins at plugins.mau.bot.

Common places to get plugins:

• GitHub releases (assets section), e.g. https://github.com/maubot/echo/releases
• mau.dev CI, e.g. https://mau.dev/maubot/github/-/pipelines
• Cloning the repo and building it yourself:
  • mbc build will package everything properly and output the .mbp file
  • you can also zip it yourself with zip -9r plugin.mbp *

After you have the .mbp file, click the + button next to the "Plugins" header and drop your .mbp file in the upload box.

Creating clients

Each Matrix account you want to use as a bot needs to be added as a client. You could have one bot account that does everything, or many bot accounts with different purposes. To create a client, click the + button next to the "Clients" header and fill in the form.

• The homeserver dropdown gets values from the config's homeservers section, but you can also type a full URL in that box.
• The access token and device ID are acquired by logging into the account. There are several ways to do that, including the mbc auth command included in maubot.
  • Note that encryption won't work if you reuse the token from an e2ee-capable client like Element, so make sure you get a fresh token if you want to use the bot in encrypted rooms.
• The avatar URL can be left empty, you can upload an image after creating the client.
• Both the display name and avatar URL can be set to disable if you don't want maubot to change them. If left empty, maubot will remove the displayname and avatar on Matrix.

Creating instances

Instances are how plugins are linked to clients. After you have uploaded a plugin and created a client, simply click the + button next to the "Instances" header, choose your client and plugin in the relevant dropdowns, invent an instance ID and click "Create".

You may have to refresh the management UI if the plugin and client you created don't show up in the dropdowns.

If the plugin has any configuration options, the config editor will show up under the created instance.