Configuring bots

After you've created a bot and assigned at least one management room, you'll need to configure the bot in the management room to tell it which rooms to protect and which policy lists to watch. All such configuration is stored in room state events, which is what allows you to have different sets of configs by having multiple management rooms.

In the future, there will be commands for managing all the state events, but for now you need to send some of them manually (e.g. via /devtools in Element Web).

Subscribing to policy lists

The fi.mau.meowlnir.watched_lists state event is used to subscribe to policy lists. The state key must be empty and the content must have a lists key, which is a list of objects. Each object must contain room_id, shortcode and name, and may specify certain extra flags (documented below).

For example, the event below will apply CME bans and Cat's Active Threats to protected rooms, as well as watch matrix.org's lists without applying them to rooms (i.e. the bot will send messages when the list adds policies, but won't take action based on those).

{
	"lists": [
		{
			"auto_unban": true,
			"name": "CME bans",
			"room_id": "!fTjMjIzNKEsFlUIiru:neko.dev",
			"shortcode": "cme"
		},
		{
			"name": "Cat's Active Threats",
			"room_id": "!QJKZNWnsItkUuthamp:feline.support",
			"shortcode": "cat"
		},
		{
			"auto_unban": true,
			"dont_apply": true,
			"name": "matrix.org coc",
			"room_id": "!WuBtumawCeOGEieRrp:matrix.org",
			"shortcode": "morg-coc"
		},
		{
			"auto_unban": true,
			"dont_apply": true,
			"name": "matrix.org tos",
			"room_id": "!tUPwPPmVTaiKXMiijj:matrix.org",
			"shortcode": "morg-tos"
		}
	]
}

The aliases for the policy lists referenced above are:

• #community-moderation-effort-bl:neko.dev
• #huginn-muminn-active-threats:feline.support
• #matrix-org-coc-bl:matrix.org
• #matrix-org-hs-tos-bl:matrix.org

When you send the event adding a new watched list, Meowlnir will confirm it was successful by sending a message. If you added a list and no message was sent, you probably did something wrong.

To make the bot join a policy list, use the !join <room ID or alias> command.

Available extra flags:

• dont_apply - Watch the list (send notifications) without taking action based on the policies.
• dont_apply_acl - Watch the list and apply all other actions, except for updating m.room.server_acl events in protected rooms.
• auto_unban - Automatically unban users if the policy that triggered the ban is removed.
• auto_suspend - If a policy bans a local user, suspend them using the Synapse admin API automatically. The bot user must be marked as a server admin.
• dont_notify_on_change - Don't send management room notifications when policies are added, removed or modified. Useful if you have multiple management rooms and don't want to be spammed in all of them.

Protecting rooms

Protected rooms are listed in the fi.mau.meowlnir.protected_rooms state event. The state key must be empty and the event content is simply a rooms key which is a list of room IDs.

You can also use the !rooms protect <id or alias> command instead of sending the state event manually.

{
	"rooms": [
		"!randomid:example.com",
		"!anotherrandomid:example.com"
	]
}

After adding rooms to this list, you can invite the bot to the room, or use the !join command.