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Reliable Discord-client IRC Daemon (rdircd)

Table of Contents

<a name=hdr-description></a>

Description

rdircd is a daemon that allows using a personal Discord account through an IRC client.

It translates all private chats and public channels/threads on "discord servers" into channels on an IRC server that it creates and that you can connect to using regular IRC client, instead of a browser or electron app.

"reliable" is in the name because one of the initial goals was to make it confirm message delivery and notify about any issues in that regard, which was somewhat lacking in other similar clients at the time.

There's an IRC channel to talk about the thing - join #rdircd at libera.chat.
IRC URL: ircs://irc.libera.chat/rdircd (github refuses to make ircs:// links)

See also Links section below for rarely-updated list of other alternative clients.

Repository URLs:

Last one has git-notes with todo list and such at the default ref for those.

<a name=hdr-warning></a>

WARNING

While I wouldn't call this app a "bot" or "automating standard user accounts" - intent here is not to post any automated messages or scrape anything - pretty sure Discord staff considers all third-party clients to be "bots", and requires them to use special second-class API (see Bot vs User Accounts section in API docs), where every account has to be separately approved by admins on every connected discord server/guild, making it effectively unusable for a random non-admin user.

This app does not present itself as a "bot" and does not use bot-specific endpoints, so using it can result in account termination if discovered.

See also More info on third-party client blocking section below.

You have been warned! :)

<a name=hdr-features></a>

Features

<a name=hdr-limitations></a>

Limitations

<a name=hdr-usage></a>

Usage

<a name=hdr-requirements></a>

Requirements

<a name=hdr-installation></a>

Installation

Simplest way might be to use package for/from your linux distribution, if it is available.

Currently known distro packages (as of 2020-05-17):

There's also a Dockerfile and docker-compose.yml for running this in a docker/podman or some other OCI-compatible containerized environment.
(see also README.docker-permissions.md doc for info on common access issues with those)

Should be easy to install one script and its few dependencies manually as well, as described in the rest of this section below.

On debian/ubuntu, installing dependencies can be done with this one command:

# apt install --no-install-recommends python3-minimal python3-aiohttp

Other linux distros likely have similar packages as well, and I'd recommend trying to use these as a first option, so that they get updates and to avoid extra local maintenance burden, and only fallback to installing module(s) via "pip" if that fails.

On any arbitrary distro with python (python3) installed, using pip/venv to install aiohttp module (and its deps) to unprivileged "rdircd" user's home dir might work (which is also used to run rdircd in the next example below), but ignore this if you've already installed it via OS package manager or such:

root # useradd -m rdircd
root # su - rdircd

## Option 1: use venv to install dependencies into "_venv" dir

rdircd % python3 -m venv _venv
rdircd % ./_venv/bin/pip install aiohttp

## Option 2: install pip (if missing) and use it directly

rdircd % python3 -m ensurepip --user
rdircd % python3 -m pip install --user aiohttp

If you have/use pipx (e.g. from distro repos), it can be used to run python apps like this one and auto-maintain dependencies - just "pipx run" the main script: pipx run rdircd --help - without needing to touch venv or pip at all (pipx will do it "under the hood").

After requirements above are installed, script itself can be fetched from this repository and run like this:

## Ignore "useradd" if you've already created a user when running "pip" above
root # useradd -m rdircd
root # su - rdircd

## If using "venv" install example above - load its env vars
# Or alternatively run script via "./_venv/bin/python rdircd ..." command line
rdircd % source ./_venv/bin/activate

rdircd % curl -o rdircd https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mk-fg/reliable-discord-client-irc-daemon/master/rdircd
rdircd % chmod +x rdircd

## Use "pipx run rdircd ..." here and below, if using pipx instead of pip/venv/distro-pkgs
rdircd % ./rdircd --help
...to test if it runs...

rdircd % ./rdircd --conf-dump-defaults
...for a full list of all supported options with some comments...
...alternatively, to create rdircd.ini template: ./rdircd -c rdircd.ini --conf-init

rdircd % nano rdircd.ini
...see below for configuration file info/example...

rdircd % ./rdircd --debug -c rdircd.ini
...drop --debug and use init system for a regular daemon...

For setting up daemon/script to run on OS boot, rdircd.service systemd unit file can be used in most Linux environments (edit ExecStart= options and paths there), or otherwise probably via init.d script, or maybe in "screen" session as a last resort ad-hoc option. Make sure it runs as e.g. "rdircd" user created in snippet above, not as root.

To update the script later, if needed, replace it with a latest version, e.g. via re-downloading with a curl command above, git-pull on the repo clone, docker-compose up --build, updating os package, or in some other way, usually related to how it got installed in the first place.

<a name=hdr-setup_and_actual_usage></a>

Setup and actual usage

Create configuration file with discord and ircd auth credentials in ~/.rdircd.ini (see all --conf... opts wrt these):

[irc]
password = hunter2

[auth]
email = discord-reg@email.com
password = discord-password

Note: IRC password can be omitted, but make sure to firewall that port from everything in the system then (or maybe do it anyway).

If you set password though, maybe do not use IRC password= option like above, and use password-hash= and -H/--conf-pw-scrypt to generate it instead. Either way, make sure to use that password when configuring connection to this server in the IRC client as well.

Start rdircd daemon: ./rdircd --debug

Connect IRC client to "localhost:6667" - default listen/bind host and port.

(see ./rdircd --conf-dump-defaults or corresponding CLI -i/--irc-bind / -s/--irc-tls-pem-file options for binding on different host/port and TLS socket wrapping, for non-localhost connections)

Run /list to see channels for all joined discord servers/guilds:

Channel           Users Topic
-------           ----- -----
#rdircd.control       1  rdircd: control channel, type "help" for more info
#rdircd.debug         1  rdircd: debug logging channel, read-only
#rdircd.monitor       1  rdircd: read-only catch-all channel with messages from everywhere
#rdircd.leftover      1  rdircd: read-only channel for any discord messages in channels ...
#rdircd.voice         1  rdircd: read-only voice-chat notifications from all discords/channels
#rdircd.monitor.jvpp  1  rdircd: read-only catch-all channel for discord [ Server-A ]
#rdircd.leftover.jvpp 1  rdircd: read-only msgs for non-joined channels of discord [ Server-A ]
...
#me.chat.SomeUser     1  me: private chat - SomeUser
#me.chat.x2s456gl0t   3  me: private chat - some-other-user, another-user, user3
#jvpp.announcements   1  Server-A: Please keep this channel unmuted
#jvpp.info            1  Server-A:
#jvpp.rules           1  Server-A:
#jvpp.welcome         1  Server-A: Mute unless you like notification spam
...
#axsd.intro           1  Server-B: Server info and welcomes.
#axsd.offtopic        1  Server-B: Anything goes. Civility is expected.

Notes on information here:

/j #axsd.offtopic (/join) as you'd do with regular IRC to start shitposting there. Channels joins/parts in IRC side do not affect discord in any way.

Run /topic (often works as /t) irc-command to show more info on channel-specific commands, e.g. /t log to fetch and replay backlog starting from last event before last rdircd shutdown, /t log list to list all activity timestamps that rdircd tracks, or /t log 2h to fetch/dump channel log for/from specific time(stamp/span) (iso8601 or a simple relative format).

Daemon control/config commands are available in #rdircd.control channel, #rdircd.debug chan can be used to tweak various logging and inspect daemon state and protocols more closely, send "help" there to list available commands.

For broad outline of various supported configuration settings, see rdircd.defaults.ini file (output of ./rdircd --conf-dump-defaults), and more on particular uses of those below.

<a name=hdr-misc_feature_info></a>

Misc Feature Info

Notes on various optional and less obvious features are collected here.
See "Usage" section for a more general information.

<a name=hdr-multiple_config_files></a>

Multiple Config Files

Multiple ini files can be specified with -c option, overriding each other in sequence.

Last one will be updated wrt [state], token= and similar runtime stuff, as well as any values set via #rdircd.control channel commands, so it can be useful to specify persistent config with auth and options, and separate (initially empty) one for such dynamic state.

E.g. ./rdircd -c config.ini -c state.ini will do that.
--conf-dump can be added to print resulting ini assembled from all these.
--conf-dump-defaults flag can be used to list all options and their defaults.

Frequent state timestamp updates are done in-place (small fixed-length values), but checking ctime before writes, so should be safe to edit any of these files manually anytime anyway.

Sending SIGHUP to the script or "reload" command in control-channel should load and apply values from all config files in the same order. Note that such operation won't reset any values missing in files to their defaults, only apply stuff explicitly set there on top of the current config.

<a name=hdr-private_chats></a>

Private Chats

ALL chats in rdircd (and discord) are a channel.
IRC's /q, /query and /msg cannot be used in an IRC-typical way.
To talk in any private chat, join a channel like #me.chat.<username>, which behaves like any other discord/rdircd channels.

There is currently no way to create new private chats from rdircd, use other clients or WebUI for that (or ask someone to contact you first), but once private chat channel is created, it can be used in rdircd as well.

See also Auto-joining channels and/or /join e.g. #rdircd.leftover.me channel to monitor private messages reliably, if needed.

<a name=hdr-channel_commands></a>

Channel Commands

In all IRC channels representing a discord channel - send /topic (or /t - shorthand for it often supported in IRC clients) - which should print up-to-date info on all channel-specific commands, like those:

Just /t or /topic in any discord proxy channel will list more such commands and more info on how to use them.

Last message sent to a discord channel can be edited using sed-replacement command like s/hoogle/google/ to fix a typo or quickly amend/reword/clarify that last line.
Or //del command can be used to delete it - see "quick edits/deletes" section below.

@silent prefix-command in messages can suppress user notifications about it (also explained below somewhere).

In special channels like #rdircd.control and #rdircd.debug: send h or help.
They can have somewhat long list of supported commands, e.g. here are some of the commands for #rdircd.control:

...and there are more of those - type help there for full up-to-date info.

<a name=hdr-_rdircd.monitor_and_rdircd.leftover_channels></a>

#rdircd.monitor and #rdircd.leftover channels

#rdircd.monitor can be used to see activity from all connected servers - gets all messages, prefixed by the relevant irc channel name.

#rdircd.monitor.guild (where "guild" is a hash or alias, see above) is a similar catch-all channels for specific discord server/guild.

#rdircd.monitor.me can be useful, for example, to monitor any private chats and messages for discord account (see also Auto-joining channels example).

#rdircd.leftover and similar #rdircd.leftover.guild channels are like monitor channels, but skip messages from any channels that IRC client have JOIN-ed, including e.g. /join #rdircd.leftover.game-x hiding that "game-x" discord msgs from global catch-all #rdircd.leftover, but not counting #rdircd.monitor channels (i.e. joining them doesn't affect "leftover" ones in any way).

#rdircd.voice is a channel similar to #rdircd.monitor, but only catching voice-chat event notices, to be able to track those in a timely manner.

These channels can be ignored if not needed, or disabled entirely by setting e.g. chan-monitor to an empty value under [irc] ini config-file section. For example, per-discord voice-activity channels are default-disabled there.

Configuration file also has [unmonitor] section for an optional list of channel-names to ignore in monitor/leftover channels, for example:

[unmonitor]
# All filters are applied to channel names and are case-insensitive
Ignore this particular "bot-commands" channel = game-X.bot-commands
skip forum threads in "game-X" guild = glob:game-X.forum.=*
"wordle" threads in any guild (and chans ending in .wordle) = glob:*.wordle
Don't show threads in any forum-like channels = re:^[^.]+\.(forum|discuss)\.=.*
disregard all voice-chat stuff = glob:*.vc

Keys (as in part before "=") in such config section are ignored, and can be anything, e.g. comments explaining the patterns (like in example above), while values are either exact channel names (with discord prefix, optional #-prefix), or a "glob:"/"re:"-prefixed glob / regexp pattern (shell-like globs or python regexps), written as <some-key/comment> = glob:<wildcard-pattern> or <some-key/comment> = re:<regexp-pattern> lines - see examples just above.

Channel names matched by those filters will be dropped from monitor-channels, so this can be used to define a list of spammy things that you don't care about and don't want to see even there.

"unmonitor" (or "um") command in #rdircd.control can add/remove such filters on-the-fly anytime. See also match-counters config option to keep track of whether specific rule(s) are still needed/being-used.

Messages in monitor-channels are limited to specific length/lines, to avoid excessive flooding by long and/or multi-line msgs. "len-monitor" and "len-monitor-lines" parameters under [irc] config section can be used to control these limits, see "./rdircd --conf-dump-defaults" output for their default values. There are also options to change name format of monitor channels.

<a name=hdr-people_s_names_on_discord></a>

People's names on discord

On IRC, everyone has one name, but that's not the case with Discord, where each user can have following names:

login is closest concept to IRC nicknames, as it's globally-unique, consistent, short, ascii-only, and can be used by setting name-preference-order = login option in [discord] section (not the default).

Official discord clients display other names first, which is why name-preference-order option defaults to nick display login value, which uses discord/friend-specific nicknames first, if any, falling back to free-form name that user set in account settings, and their login name otherwise.

Other things in fancy user-set nicknames that IRC doesn't allow also get replaced with common unicode characters, spaces with "·" middle-dots for example, or <> common irc-nick brackets with ◄► unicode arrows. Long Discord nicks are truncated.

There are no IRC notifications about users changing their discord-specific display/nick-names at the moment, and they don't have to be unique, which might make it hard to tell who-is-who, if they keep changing nicks for whatever reason.

All this is configurable via ini file settings (or in #rdircd.control channel), so if it gets too silly and maddening, set name-preference-order = login to use unique consistent IRC-friendly nicks for everyone instead.

IRC /who command or /topic info can help translating between these names, for example /t info john1234 can be used to print info for that name/login in the channel buffer, which should include all users with partial match of that name on that specific discord, while /who command searches all joined discords.

<a name=hdr-local_name_aliases></a>

Local Name Aliases

(more like "renames" than "aliases", as old names don't continue to work for these)

Can be defined in the config file to replace hash-based discord prefixes or server channel names with something more readable/memorable or meaningful to you:

[renames]
guild.jvpp = game-x
guild.sn3y = log-bot
guild.sn3y.chan-fmt = logs/{name}.log
chan.some-long-and-weird-name = weird
chan.@710035588048224269 = general-subs
user.noname123 = my-pal-bob
user.@123980071029577864 = joe

This should:

Currently only listed types of renaming are implemented, for discord prefixes and channels, but there are also options under [irc] section to set names for system/monitor/leftover and private-chat channels - "chan-sys", "chan-private", "chan-monitor" and such (see "./rdircd --conf-dump-defaults" output).

Set chan-monitor-guild = {prefix} there for example, to have #game-x channel be catch-all for all messages in that discord, without default long #rdircd.monitor.* prefix.

<a name=hdr-private_messages_and_friends></a>

Private messages and friends

Discord private messages create and get posted to channels in "me" server/guild, same as they do in discord webui, and can be interacted with in the same way as any other guild/channels (list, join/part, send/recv msgs, etc).

Join #rdircd.monitor.me (or #rdircd.monitor, see above) to get all new msgs/chats there, as well as relationship change notifications (friend requests/adds/removes) as notices.

Accepting friend requests and adding/removing these can be done via regular discord webui and is not implemented in this client in any special way.

See also Auto-joining channels section below for an easy way to pop-up new private chats in the IRC client via invites.

<a name=hdr-discord_channel_threads___forums></a>

Discord channel threads / forums

"Threads" is a Discord feature, allowing non-admin users to create transient ad-hoc sub-channels anytime for specific topic, which are auto-removed ("archived") after a relatively-short inactivity timeout (like a day).

Discord "forum" channels are basically channels, where people can only create and talk in theads, with listing of those replacing default channel chatter.

All non-archived threads should be shown in rdircd channel list as a regular IRC channels, with names like #gg.general.=vot5.lets·discuss·stuff, extending parent chan name with thread id tag ("=vot5" in this example) and a possibly-truncated thread name (see "thread-chan-name-len" config option).

There are several options for how to see and interact with threads from the parent channel (mostly in [discord] section, see --conf-dump-defaults output):

[irc]
thread-chan-name-len = 30

[discord]
thread-id-prefix = =
thread-msgs-in-parent-chan = yes
thread-msgs-in-parent-chan-monitor = no
thread-msgs-in-parent-chan-full-prefix = no
thread-redirect-prefixed-responses-from-parent-chan = yes
...

But even with all these disabled, a simple notice should be sent to the channel when threads are started, so that one won't miss them entirely.

There's no support for creating new threads from IRC, unarchiving old ones or otherwise managing these, and joining thread channel in IRC doesn't actually "join thread" in Discord UI (pining it under channel name), but posting anything there should do that automatically.

<a name=hdr-auto-joining_channels></a>

Auto-joining channels

"chan-auto-join-re" setting in [irc] section allows to specify regexp to match channel name (without # prefix) to auto-join when any messages appear in them.

For example, to auto-join any #me.* channels (direct messages), following regular expression value (python "re" syntax) can be used:

[irc]
chan-auto-join-re = ^me\.

Or to have irc client auto-join all channels, use chan-auto-join-re = .
Empty value for this option (default) will match nothing.

This can be used as an alternative to tracking new stuff via #rdircd.monitor/leftover channels.

This regexp can be tweaked at runtime using "set" command in #rdircd.control channel, same as any other values, to e.g. temporary enable/disable this feature for specific discords or channels.

<a name=hdr-discord_user_mentions_and_emojis></a>

Discord user mentions and emojis

Mentions are @username tags on discord, designed to alert someone to direct-ish message.

With default config, when you see e.g. <Galaxy🌌·Brain> Hi! and want to reply highlighting them, sending Hey @galaxy and welcome should probably work. Can also use their full irc nick, to be sure.

How it works: if rdircd matches msg-mention-re regexp conf-option against something in a message being sent (e.g. @galaxy @-mention above), that'd be treated as a "mention", which is either uniquely-matched and translated into a discord mention in the sent message, or returns an error notice (with nicks that match that mention ambiguously, if any).

Default value for it should look like this:

[discord]
msg-mention-re = (?:^|\s)(@)(?P<nick>[^\s,;@+]+)

Which would match any word-like space- or punctuation-separated @nick mention in sent lines.

Regexp (python "re" syntax) must have named "nick" group with nick/username lookup string, which will be replaced by discord mention tag, and all other capturing groups (i.e. ones without ?:) will be stripped (like @ in above regexp).

Default regexp above should still allow to send e.g. \@something to appear non-highlighted in webapp (and without \ due to markdown), as it won't be matched by (?:^|\s) part due to that backslash prefix.

As another example, to have classic irc-style highlights at the start of the line, regexp like this one can be used:

msg-mention-re = ^(?P<nick>\S+)(:)(?:\s|$)

And should translate e.g. mk-fg: some msg into @mk-fg some msg (with @-part being mention-tag). Trailing space is included in regexp there to avoid matching URL links.

To ID specific discord user, "nick" group will be used in following ways:

Such strict behavior is designed to avoid any unintentional mis-translations, and highlighting wrong person should generally only be possible via misspelling.

Related msg-mention-re-ignore option (regexp to match against full capture of pattern above) can also be used to skip some non-mention things from being treated as such, that'd otherwise be picked-up by first regexp, stripping capturing groups from them too, which can be used to e.g. undo escaping.

Note that discord user lists can be quite massive (500K+ users), are not split by channel, and are not intended to be pre-fetched by the client, only queried for completions or visible parts, which doesn't map well to irc, hence all this magic.

Similar regexp is configured for per-discord emojis:

msg-emoji-re = (?:^|\s)(:)(?P<emoji>\w+)(:)(?=[^\w]|$)

Where for example I use :Arch: btw from IRC will match that regexp, lookup/replace "emoji" group there using this discord's emojis (case-insensitive), and either send it translated as I use 🐧 btw, or return error notice if such emoji isn't available in that discord.

Set msg-mention-re / msg-emoji-re to an empty value to disable such translations.

<a name=hdr-quick_edits_deletes_for_just-sent_messages></a>

Quick edits/deletes for just-sent messages

Similar to Discord user mentions above, there's a special regexp-option that matches commands to be interpreted as edit or removal of last message sent to this channel.

Default regexps look something like this (check --conf-dump-defaults jic):

[discord]
msg-edit-re = ^\s*s(?P<sep>[/|:])(?P<aaa>.*)(?P=sep)(?P<bbb>.*)(?P=sep)\s*$
msg-del-re = ^\s*//del\s*$

They match sed/perl/irc-like follow-up amendment lines like s/spam/ham/, and //del line, which will never be sent to discord, only used as internal commands.

(s|/some/path|/other/path| and s:cat /dev/input/mouse0 | hexdump:hexdump </dev/input/mouse0: syntaxes are also allowed by default edit-regexp, just like with sed, for easier handling of common stuff like paths, which can have these chars in them)

Both commands matched by these operate on last message sent by rdircd to the same discord channel, with //del simply removing that last message, and edit running python re.sub() (PCRE-like) regexp-replacement function on it.

"msg-edit-re" regexp option value matching sed-like command must have named "aaa" and "bbb" groups in it, which will be used as pattern and replacement args to re.sub(), respectively.

If edit doesn't seem to alter last-sent message in any way, it gets discarded, and also generates IRC notice response, to signal that replacement didn't work.

Successful edit/deletion should also be signaled as usual by discord, with [edit] or such prefix (configurable under [irc] section).

Any older-than-last messages can be edited through Discord WebUI - this client only tracks last one for easy quick follow-up oops-fixes, nothing more than that.

<a name=hdr-_silent_messages_and_other_such_flags></a>

@silent messages and other such flags

Somewhat similar to quick edits/deletes above, "msg-flag-silent-re" option is there to match/remove "@silent" prefix in messages (by default), which disables sending discord push notifications for it, same as with the official client.

That and similar message flags on incoming messages are not represented in any way, as they don't seem to be relevant for an irc client anyway.

<a name=hdr-custom_replacements_blocks_in_outgoing_m.NzCf></a>

Custom replacements/blocks in outgoing messages

Config can have a [send-replacements] section to block or regexp-replace parts of messages sent (by you) from IRC on per-discord basis.

This can be used to add discord-specific tags, unicode shorthands, emojis, stickers, block/replace specific links or maybe even words/language before proxying msg to discord.

Here's how it can look in the ini file(s):

[send-replacements]

*.unicode-smiley = (^| ):\)( |$) -> \1😀\2
*.twitter-to-nitter = ^(https?://)((mobile|www)\.)?twitter\.com(/.*)?$ -> \1nitter.ir\4

guildx.never-mention-rust! = (?i)\brust\b -> <block!>
guildx.localize-color-word = \bcolor(ed|i\S+)\b -> colour\1

Where each key has the form of discord-prefix> "." comment, with a special * prefix to apply rule to all discords, while values are regexp " -> " <replacement_or_action with one special <block!> action-value to block sending msg with error-notice on regexp match. "comment" part of the key can be any arbitrary unique string.

So when sending e.g. test :) msg on IRC, discord will get test 😀.

Same as with other regex-using options, regexps have python "re" module syntax, applied via re.sub() function, using raw strings from config value as-is, without any special escapes or interpretations.

Replacements are applied in the same order as specified, but with * keys preceding per-discord ones, and before processing to add discord tags, so anything like @username that can normally be typed in messages can be used there too.

#rdircd.control channel has "repl" command to edit these rules on-the-fly.

<a name=hdr-custom_filtering_for_all_received_messages></a>

Custom filtering for all received messages

If you join #rdircd.monitor channel, see - for example - a message like this:

<helper-bot> #pub.welcomes :: Welcome!

...and think "don't want to see messages like that again!" - config files' [recv-regexp-filters] section or corresponding "rx" command in #rdircd.control channel can help.

Depending on what "messages like that" means, here are some ways to filter those out:

[recv-regexp-filters]
discard msgs from this bot = ^<helper-bot>
ignore all msgs in that channel of that discord = ^\S+ #pub\.welcomes ::
drop all msgs from "pub" discord = ^\S+ #pub\.
no messages from #welcomes channels of any discord pls = ^\S+ #\w+\.welcomes ::
never see "Welcome!" message-text again!!! = ^\S+ #\S+ :: Welcome!$
some combination of the above = (?i)^<helper-bot> #\w+\.welcomes ::
...

(tweak e.g. last example on regex101.com for more hands-on understanding)

Lines in that section have the usual <key> = <regexp> form, where <key> part can be anything (e.g. comment to explain regexp, like in examples above), and <regexp> value is a regular expression to match against the message in <user> #discord.channel-name :: message text format like that helper-bot msg presented above, and same as can be seen in monitor-channels.

Any message received from discord will be matched against all regexps in order, stopping and discarding the message everywhere on first (any) match. So it might be a good idea to write as precise patterns as possible, to avoid them matching anything else and dropping unrelated messages accidentally.

Same as with some other conf options, basic knowledge of regular expressions might be needed to use such filters - here's a link to nice tutorial on those (though there are 100s of such tutorials on the web).

Particular regexps here use PCRE-like python re syntax, with re.DOTALL flag set (. matches newlines in multiline messages). I'd also recommend commonly adding (?i) case-insensitive-match flag, as IRC nicks and channel names ignore character case and can be displayed in misleading/inprecise ways in the client.

More random examples of [recv-regexp-filters], incl. more advanced CNF weirdness:

[recv-regexp-filters]
disregard wordle thread there = ^\S+ #pub\.general\.=w8mk\.wordle ::
ignore "wordle" threads everywhere = ^\S+ #\S+\.=\w{4}\.wordle ::
activity-level bots are annoying = (?i) advanced to level \d+[ !]
gif replies of YY in ZZ = (?i)^<YY> #ZZ\.\S+ :: (-- re:[^\n]+\n)?\[att\] .*/image\d\.gif\?

;; Advanced stuff: connect multiple regexps via CNF logic (Conjunctive Normal Form)
;; If key starts with "∧ " (conjunction symbol), it's AND'ed with previous regexp
;; ¬ (negation) in that prefix inverts the logic, so e.g. "∧¬ ..." is "and not ..."
;; Disjunction (∨) is the default behavior and doesn't need the (implied) prefix
;; Any complex logical expression can be converted to such CNF form -
;;  - use calculators like https://www.dcode.fr/boolean-expressions-calculator

Drop welcome msgs in welcome-chans = (?i)^\S+ #\w+\.\S*welcome\S* :: .*\bwelcome\b.*
∧ but only if they have an exclaimation mark in them somewhere = :: .*!
∧¬ and not from this specific "lut" discord-prefix = ^\S+ #lut\.

Most channels here are not relevant = ^\S+ #myc\.
∧¬ except these ones = ^\S+ #myc\.(announcements|changelog|forum)[. ]
∨ but skip github CI logs there = ^<github> #myc\.

Pretty much anything can be matched with clever regexps, so CNF-logic stuff like in last examples is seldom useful, but might still be simpler than expressing arbitrary ordering or negation in regexps.

See also match-counters config option to keep track of whether specific rule(s) are still needed/being-used.

<a name=hdr-lookup_discord_ids></a>

Lookup Discord IDs

Mostly useful for debugging - /who command can resolve specified ID (e.g. channel_id from protocol logs) to a channel/user/guild info:

All above ID values are unique across Discord service within their type.

Results of all these commands should be dumped into a server buffer (not into channels), regardless of where they were issued from.

In irc channels corresponding to ones on discord, /topic info command (often works as shortened /t info in clients too) can be used to print more information about linked discord channel and its server/guild.

/t info <username> can also print info on user in that discord (unlike /who @<username> which looks the name up in all connected discords), for example /t info john will print info for anyone with "john" in the name.

Usernames in these queries can match exact irc name or discord username, in which case that result is returned, or otherwise more general server-side lookup is made, which can return matches in any type of discord name(s) (see People's names on discord for more info on those).

<a name=hdr-channel_name_disambiguation></a>

Channel name disambiguation

Discord name translation is "mostly" deterministic due to one exception - channels with same (casemapped) IRC name within same server/guild, which discord allows for.

When there is a conflict, chan names are suffixed by .<id-hash> (see chan-dedup-* config options), to allow using both channels through IRC. Renaming conflicting channels on Discord will rename IRC chans to remove no-longer-necessary suffixes as well. Such renames affect thread-channels too.

Note that when channels are renamed (including name conflicts), IRC notice lines about it are always issued in affected channels, and any relevant monitor/leftover channels, topic should be changed to reflect that old-name channel is no longer useful, and posting msgs there should emit immediate warnings about it.

<a name=hdr-osc_8_hyperlinks_for_terminal_irc_clients></a>

OSC 8 hyperlinks for terminal IRC clients

Discord CDN URLs for attachments can end up being quite long with same host, long discord/channel IDs in there, then actual filename, and ?ex=...&is=...&hm=... trail of CDN parameters after that.

Many Linux IRC clients run in Terminal Emulators though, which often support OSC 8 terminal hyperlink standard, so can display clickable links in a much more compact and readable form.

For example, this attachment URL to a Discord CDN:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1183893786254905414/1206216641877377024/20240211_My_Cat_Photo.jpg?ex=65db33c9&is=65c8bec9&hm=9c1dbecbfb2f9edf2302ec078f5e62fffa7f8c2f32e5cd6e3563ae25d8a356e1&

Can be displayed in a terminal like this instead: 20240211_My_Cat_Photo.jpg
I.e. same as how one would see hyperlinks displayed in a browser.

This is disabled by default, but if you use terminal IRC client that might support those, set terminal-links = yes option in config file or via set command in an #rdircd.control channel to try it out.

Adjacent terminal-links-re and terminal-links-tpl options can be used to control which part of the link to display as its visible name, which terminal-specific escape characters to use, and such customization.

<a name=hdr-voice_chat_activity_notifications></a>

Voice chat activity notifications

Discord has voice channels, where in addition to text people can talk verbally, share camera or screen capture (aka streaming, screen sharing). IRC protocol does not support anything like this of course, but it can be useful to get notified when someone starts talking, to hop into different discord client (e.g. open it in a browser), and use these channels from there.

All IRC channels corresponding to discord voice chats automatically get .vc suffix (unless renamed), and get notice messages about voice activity in there, but limited to following events, to avoid being too spammy:

And with additional rate-limit set by voice-notify-rate-limit-tbf value, to notify about up to 5 events in a row, but otherwise no more often than once in 5 minutes ("token bucket algorithm" is technically how this limit is implemented/works).

If description above sounds confusing, here's config tweaks to remove all limits on voice-activity event notifications - try those, and maybe re-read this section later if they get too spammy (maybe never!):

[discord]
voice-notify-after-inactivity = 0
voice-notify-rate-limit-tbf = 0

#rdircd.voice monitor-channel(s) can also be used to only track voice-chat notifications across discords/channels, potentially filtered via "um" command in #rdircd.control or [unmonitor] in ini config(s).

<a name=hdr-highlight_on_incoming_private_messages></a>

Highlight on incoming private messages

IRC convention is to treat mention of a nickname as a "highlight" - a more notification-worthy event than a regular channel message, so it might be useful if messages in private channels did always highlight the nick for IRC client.

prefix-all-private option can be used for that:

[irc]
prefix-all-private = mynick: \

Might also be necessary to either join monitor/leftover channels or setup auto-joining channels for new PMs to be received by IRC client at all.

Private chats are not implemented via direct IRC messages for various practical reasons, i.e. to have everything work via channels, because it works that way on the discord side, they can have multiple users, to list those easily, to query topic/history/etc there, and such stuff.

There is a similar prefix-all option, to add prefix to all messages, if prefix-all-private doesn't go far enough.

<a name=hdr-message_acks_typing_notifications_and_ot.9aX7></a>

Message ACKs, typing notifications and other events from IRC

By default, [discord] msg-ack=yes enables sending (delayed) ACKs for received messages in private chats, so that discord counts those as read and doesn't send an email notification about them. This can be disabled or adjusted in config file.
Messages blocked by e.g. [recv-regexp-filters] or received when there are no IRC clients connected don't count.

If IRC client supports IRCv3 typing notifications and has these enabled, rdircd will forward those from discord users/channels by default, which can be disabled by setting typing-interval = 0 in [irc] configuration section, or interval/timeout values can be adjusted there to work better for IRC app.

Separate typing-send-enabled option controls whether typing notifications from IRC are sent to a discord channel. It is disabled by default for privacy reasons, and likely needs to be explicitly enabled in IRC client as well.

Any IRCv3 features like that typing stuff can also be disabled via ircv3-caps option, e.g. if there're problems with them in rdircd or client.

<a name=hdr-warning_session_auth_rejected_unexpected.ZboG></a>

WARNING :: Session/auth rejected unexpectedly - disabling connection

This should happen by default when discord gateway responds with op=9 "invalid session" event to an authentication attempt, not reconnecting after that, as presumably it'd fail in the same way anyway.

This would normally mean that authentication with the discord server has failed, but on (quite frequent) discord service disruptions, gateway also returns that opcode for all logins after some timeout, presumably using it as a fallback when failing to access auth backends.

This can get annoying fast, as one'd have to manually force reconnection when discord itself is in limbo.

If auth data is supposed to be correct, can be fixed by setting ws-reconnect-on-auth-fail = yes option in [discord] ini section, which will force client to keep reconnecting regardless.

<a name=hdr-captcha-solving_is_required_to_login_for.ls9P></a>

Captcha-solving is required to login for some reason

Don't know why or when it happens, but was reported by some users in this and other similar discord clients - see issue-1 here and links in there.

Fix is same as with bitlbee-discord - login via browser, maybe from the same IP Address, and put auth token extracted from this browser into configuration ini file's [auth] section, e.g.:

[auth]
token = ...

See "Usage" in README of bitlbee-discord (scroll down on that link) for how to extract this token from various browsers.

Note that you can use multiple configuration files (see -c/--conf option) to specify this token via separate file, generated in whatever fashion, in addition to main one.

Extra token-manual = yes option can be added in that section to never try to request, update or refresh this token automatically in any way. Dunno if this option is needed, or if such captcha-login is only required once, and later automatic token requests/updates might work (maybe leave note on issue-1 if you'll test it one way or the other).

Never encountered this problem myself so far.

<a name=hdr-debugging_anything_strange_unknown_or_un.NQDm></a>

Debugging anything strange, unknown or unexpected

Most likely source of that should be missing handling for some new/uncommon discord events, or maybe a bug in the code somewhere - either can be reported as a github issue.

To get more information on the issue (so that report won't be unhelpful "don't work"), following things can be monitored and/or enabled:

Generally if an issue is easy to reproduce (e.g. "I send message X anywhere and get this error"), it can be reported without digging much deeper for more info, as presumably anyone debugging it should be able to do that as well, but maybe info above can still be helpful to identify any of the more non-obvious problems, or maybe give an idea where to look at for fixing or working around these.

<a name=hdr-random_tips_and_tricks></a>

Random tips and tricks

Some configuration tweaks that I use, or mentioned in #rdircd on IRC and such.
Feel free to suggest any other lifehacks to add here.

<a name=hdr-simpler_dm_and_monitor_channel_names></a>

Simpler DM and monitor channel names

Normally rdircd uses these long strange "#rdircd.monitor" channel name templates, as well as unnecessary "#me.chat." prefixes, instead of this:

#DMs
#@some-friend
#@some-friend+other-friend+more-ppl
#rdircd
#rdircd.rest
#rdircd.voice
#rdircd.control
#rdircd.debug
#minecraft
#minecraft.general
#minecraft.modding
#minecraft.rest

Use these lines in any loaded ini config file to make it work like that:

[irc]
chan-monitor = rdircd
chan-leftover = rdircd.rest
chan-monitor-guild = {prefix}
chan-leftover-guild = {prefix}.rest
chan-private = {names}

[renames]
guild.me = DMs
guild.me.chan-fmt = @{name}

What these options do, in the same order: rename "#rdircd.monitor" to "#rdircd", set names for all discord-specific monitor channels to just "{prefix}" (e.g. "#dm" or "#minecraft"), set private-chat channels to use people's name(s) without "chat." prefix, rename default "me" guild (private chats) to "DMs", use simpler @ + name format for any channels there.

Defaults are that way to try to be more explicit and descriptive, but once you know what all these channels are for, can easily rename them to something shorter/nicer and more convenient for yourself.

<a name=hdr-change_message_edit_embed_attachment_pre.xxnp></a>

Change message edit/embed/attachment prefixes to shorter emojis

When message is edited, you normally get something like [edit] new msg text, but it can be ✍️ new msg text or 📝 new msg text instead:

[irc]
prefix-edit = 📝 \
prefix-embed = 📎.{} \
prefix-attachment = 🖼️ \
prefix-uis = ⚙️ \
prefix-interact = 🤖 \
prefix-poll = 🗳️.{} \

Note the "space and backslash" at the end in these options, which is to preserve trailing spaces in values, from both text editors that strip those and configuration file parser (which ignores any leading/trailing spaces, unless punctuated by backslash). prefix-embed and poll values need {} placeholder for where to put short id/tag.

Alternatively, set-command like set irc-prefix-edit '✍️ ' can be used in #rdircd.control to configure and tweak this stuff on-the-fly (or -s/--save into config too).

<a name=hdr-cut_down_on_various_common_noise></a>

Cut down on various common noise

Using discord through IRC can be a bit noisy due to edits or spammy notifications ending up in various monitor/leftover channels or other un-irc-like features, which rdircd can help mitigate to some degree, but often doesn't by default, as it's hard to know what other people actually care about.

Here are some random commands to try out in #rdircd.control channel:

All of these examples are not persistent, just to try them out and see, but all commands used there support -s flag to save changed values to last .ini config file, or it can be done manually as well, if any of these are useful to keep around.

<a name=hdr-links></a>

Links

There is a good and well-maintained list of alternative clients here:

There are many alt-clients these days, with a lot of churn among them, and dedicated lists like that are probably best way to discover those.

<a name=hdr-more_info_on_third-party_client_blocking></a>

More info on third-party client blocking

As mentioned in the "WARNING" section above, Bot vs User Accounts section in API docs seem to prohibit people using third-party clients, same as Discord Community Guidelines. Also maybe against their Discord Developer Terms of Service, but dunno if those apply if you're just using the alt-client.

I did ask discord staff for clarification on the matter, and got this response around Nov 2020:

Is third-party discord client that uses same API as webapp, that does not have any kind of meaningful automation beyond what official discord app has, will be considered a "self-bot" or "user-bot"?

I.e. are absolutely all third-party clients not using Bot API in violation of discord ToS, period?

Or does that "self-bot" or "user-bot" language applies only to a specific sub-class of clients that are intended to automate client/user behavior, beyond just allowing a person to connect and chat on discord normally?

Discord does not allow any form of third party client, and using a client like this can result in your account being disabled. Our API documentation explicitly states that a bot account is required to use our API: "Automating normal user accounts (generally called "self-bots") outside of the OAuth2/bot API is forbidden, and can result in an account termination if found."

Another thing you might want to keep in mind, is that apparently it's also considered to be responsibility of discord admins to enforce its Terms of Service, or - presumably - be at risk of whole guild/community being shut down.

Got clarification on this issue in the same email (Nov 2020):

Are discord server admins under obligation to not just follow discord Terms of Service themselves (obviously), but also enforce them within the server to the best of their knowledge?

I.e. if discord server admin knows that some user is in violation of the ToS, are they considered to be under obligation to either report them to discord staff or take action to remove (ban) them from the server?

Should failing to do so (i.e. not taking action on known ToS violation) result in discord server (and maybe admins' account) termination or some similar punitive action, according to current discord ToS or internal policies?

Server owners and admin are responsible for moderating their servers in accordance with our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. If content that violates our Terms or Guidelines is posted in your server, it is your responsibility to moderate it appropriately.

So unless something changes or I misread discord staff position, using this client can get your discord account terminated, and discord admins seem to have responsibility to ban/report its usage, if they are aware of it.

Few other datapoints and anecdotes on the subject:

There are also some HN comments clarifying Discord staff position in a thread here, though none of the above should probably be taken as definitive, since third-party and even support staff's responses can be wrong/misleading or outdated, and such treatment can likely change anytime and in any direction, without explicit indication.

<a name=hdr-api_and_implementation_notes></a>

API and Implementation Notes

Note: only using this API here, only going by public info, can be wrong, and would appreciate any updates/suggestions/corrections via open issues.

Last updated: 2024-10-24