Getting started with Supybot

Conventions used by Supybot and this document

Vocabulary

Plugin: A plugin contains commands. A plugin can be loaded and unloaded on the fly, as you wish. Plugin names are always capitalized, and may contain other uppercase letter, as a separation between two words, because they cannot contain spaces.
Command: Commands can be called by users of the bot. Command names are always lowercased; they always have an help message, that can be requested at any moment
Argument: Most of the commands requires arguments, in order to give them more informations about what you want it to do.
Configuration variable: A configuration variable is set either by a bot owner or by a channel op.

Syntax of the commands

The syntax of a command describes how to run a command. The syntax is given by the help command. Some examples:

help [<plugin>] [<command>]

This is the help of command-plugin-help.

The chevrons mean you have to replace <plugin> and <command> by a plugin name and a command name.

The brackets mean the argument they wrap is optional.

So, the fellowing commands are correct:

help
help PluginName
help PluginName CommandName
help CommandName

ping takes no arguments

This is the help for command-misc-ping.

I think it is clear enough.

join <channel> [<key>]

This is the help for command-channel-join.

It requires a channel name, and the channel key is optional.

This two commands are ok:

join #limnoria
join #limnoria MySecretKey

utilities last <text> [<text> ...]

This is the help for command-utitilies-last. By the way, there is another last command in the Misc plugin, which doesn't do the same thing, that's why you need to give the plugin name.

You have to give at least one argument, but you can give as many as you wish.

Basics

Identifying with the bot

Everything you want to do with your bot should be done on IRC (apart starting the bot, of course). That's why the first thing you need to do is getting your bot know your are its owner, unless what it won't obey you for administrative commands.

Open a query window with the bot (make sure this is your bot), and write in it:

identify <name> <password>

where <name> and <password> are the name and the password you gave to the supybot-wizard.

Sending the bot a command

There are four ways to ask the bot to do something:

Give the command in private;
Give the command on a channel with a prefix character, either set in the wizard or in the configuration;
Give the command on a channel prefixed by the nick;
Give the command on a channel, prefixed by a string of characters, set in the config.

In this documentation, we the bot is called mybot, and its prefix char is @, because @ is the most common prefix for Supybot; and the bot doesn't have a prefix string of characters.

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