# Pete A Matrix news bot that ingests RSS feeds from curated sources and routes each story to a configured channel. ## Features - **RSS ingestion** from configurable sources (Guardian, Ars Technica, Time Extension, …) with per-source polling intervals - **Direct routing** — every source declares a `direct_route` channel; Pete posts there. No LLM, no classification step - **Deduplication** — GUID exact match, canonical-URL match, normalized-headline match, and per-channel canonical-URL cooldown - **Metered release** — per-channel post queues with minimum interval (5min) and burst cap (3/30min) - **Round-robin mode** — opt-in pacing: one story per N hours (default 4), cycling through channels in sorted order, skip-and-advance over empty channels, state persists across restarts - **Reaction tracking** — records emoji reactions on posts - **`!post` on demand** — type `!post` in any configured channel room and Pete force-publishes the next queued story for that channel, bypassing min-interval, burst cap, and daily cap (canonical-URL dedup still applies); replies in-thread if the queue is empty - **Paywall detection** — if an article's visible body text is below threshold, Pete swaps in a Wayback Machine snapshot URL for both the lead image and the posted link - **FTS5 search** — full-text search across headlines and ledes - **Image validation** — HEAD-based checks filter tracking pixels, uploads valid images via MXC - **Video thumbnails** — extracts a frame via `ffmpeg` for video sources; also falls back to `ffmpeg` when Go's stdlib JPEG decoder rejects a source image - **Seasonal weather** — canvas-based ambient overlay (snow, leaves, rain, etc.) driven by a Portugal/Lisbon calendar; visitors can toggle it with the ⭐ star button in the nav - **Web UI** — read-only browser interface (Tailwind, Animal-Crossing-ish vibe, day/night palette that follows the visitor's clock) at `/` plus a section per channel. Designed for a `news.parodia.dev`-style deployment ## Channels | Channel | Purpose | |---|---| | `gaming` | Gaming news, releases, platform announcements | | `tech` | Technology news, product/industry stories | | `politics` | Political, policy, current events | | `eu` | Portugal and the wider European beat (web-only — does not post to Matrix) | | `music` | Records, scenes, artists | | `anime` | Series, studios, manga | | `foss` | Kernel, distros, free/open source | ## Requirements - Go 1.25+ - A Matrix account for Pete with access to target rooms - SQLite (bundled via pure Go driver, no CGo) - `ffmpeg` on `PATH` — used for video-frame thumbnails and as a fallback decoder for JPEGs the Go stdlib rejects - No CGo dependencies — E2EE uses pure Go crypto (goolm) via mautrix v0.28 ## Setup ```bash # Clone and build git clone && cd pete go build -tags goolm . # Create config from example cp config.example.toml config.toml # Edit config.toml — fill in Matrix credentials, room IDs, and a direct_route for every source # First run: seed current feed items as seen (prevents flood) ./pete -config config.toml -seed # Post one story to verify the pipeline ./pete -config config.toml -test # Run ./pete -config config.toml ``` ## Configuration See `config.example.toml` for the full structure. Key sections: - `matrix` — homeserver, credentials, channel room IDs, optional admin room - `posting` — rate limiting (min interval, burst cap, daily cap), optional `round_robin` block - `storage` — database path, retention windows - `sources` — RSS feeds with tier, polling interval, and **required** `direct_route` (must match a key in `matrix.channels`) - `web` — read-only HTTP UI (enabled toggle, listen address, site title, public base URL) Environment variables can be referenced with `${VAR}` syntax in the TOML. ### Web UI Set `web.enabled: true` (default port `:8080`) to expose Pete's classified-story archive over HTTP. A landing page at `/` plus one section per channel (`/gaming`, `/tech`, `/politics`, `/eu`, `/music`, `/anime`, `/foss`), all pulling from the `stories` table. A `/weather` page demos the seasonal canvas overlay in isolation. Adding a section is two lines in `internal/web/server.go` (the `channels` slice) plus a matching theme color in `internal/web/static/css/input.css`. The frontend uses a small Tailwind build: ```bash npm install npm run build:css # produces internal/web/static/css/output.css # or for live editing: npm run watch:css ``` The Docker image runs the build automatically as a first stage, so deployments don't need Node. Front the server with a reverse proxy (Caddy, nginx, Traefik) terminating TLS for e.g. `news.parodia.dev → 127.0.0.1:8080`. The day/night palette is driven by the visitor's browser clock — no server-side timezone needed. ### Round-robin mode Set `posting.round_robin.enabled: true` to switch Pete from "post immediately" to a paced rotation. On each tick (`interval_hours`, default 4) Pete picks the newest unposted story routed to the next channel in sorted order, posting through the existing queue. Empty channels are skipped; the rotation pointer advances to whichever channel actually posted, and `last_channel` / `last_tick_at` are persisted so restarts don't reset the cycle. Rotating by channel (not by source) guarantees variety even when one channel has many more feeds than the others. With a 4-hour cadence Pete will post at most 6 stories/day, so set `posting.daily_cap_total` to 0 (or ≥6) when enabling this — otherwise the daily cap can silently swallow a tick. ## Flags | Flag | Description | |---|---| | `-config ` | Path to config file (default: `config.toml`) | | `-seed` | Ingest all current feed items as seen without posting, then exit | | `-test` | Post one story to verify the full pipeline, then exit | | `-local` | Web/RSS-only mode: poll feeds and serve the web UI on `web.listen_addr`. Skips Matrix login and posting — useful for local testing | ## Docker ```bash docker compose up -d ``` Set `PETE_PASSWORD` in your environment or a `.env` file for the Matrix password. ## Architecture ``` RSS Feed → Poller → GUID/Canonical/Headline Dedup → Article Fetch → Store → Route by direct_route → Image Validate → Queue → Matrix ↓ Paywall? → Wayback snapshot ``` ### Packages | Package | Purpose | |---|---| | `internal/config` | TOML config loading with `${ENV}` expansion | | `internal/storage` | SQLite with WAL, FTS5, all queries | | `internal/ingestion` | Per-source RSS polling, feed parsing, image validation, paywall detection | | `internal/dedup` | Canonical URL + headline normalization helpers | | `internal/matrix` | Password auth with device persistence, posting, threaded replies, reaction + message listener | | `internal/poster` | Per-channel metered release queue, reaction tracking | | `internal/scheduler` | Round-robin posting scheduler: paced rotation across channels when enabled | | `internal/web` | Read-only HTTP UI: Tailwind templates, day/night palette, per-channel feed pages | ## Post Format ``` [lead image if valid] **Headline** → article_url Lede text from feed `source name` ``` ## Testing ```bash go test ./... ```