HiveMind HackChat Bridge

Relay a hack.chat channel to a HiveMind hub.

hack.chat is a minimal, anonymous, channel-based websocket chat. This bridge is a HiveMind satellite whose input and output are a hack.chat channel instead of a microphone. Channel messages become utterances sent to the hub. The hub's spoken reply goes back into the channel, addressed to the user. Any HiveMind hub, and the OVOS skills behind it, becomes a hack.chat bot.

hack.chat channel  ⇄  HiveMind-HackChatBridge  ⇄  HiveMind hub  ⇄  OVOS skills

Prerequisites

• A running HiveMind hub (hivemind-core) reachable over the network, and a HiveMind access key for this bridge (hivemind-core add-client).
• A hack.chat channel name to join, and a nickname for the bot. hack.chat is anonymous, so no account or token is needed.

Install

pip install HiveMind-HackChatBridge

Or from a checkout:

git clone https://github.com/JarbasHiveMind/HiveMind-HackChatBridge
cd HiveMind-HackChatBridge
pip install .

Declared dependencies: hivemind-bus-client, ovos-bus-client, ovos-utils, websocket-client, click.

Quickstart

1. Register the bridge on the hub, where hivemind-core is installed:

hivemind-core add-client --name hackchat-bridge \
  --access-key "your-access-key" --password "your-password"

A new client is registered but mute: the hub denies every message type until you whitelist it. Do this next, or the bridge will connect and never answer:

hivemind-core allow-msg recognizer_loop:utterance hackchat-bridge
hivemind-core allow-msg speak hackchat-bridge

If you run more than one bridge on the same host, give each its own credentials. Bridges sharing an identity share a Noise session pin, and the hub treats reconnects from either as the same client, breaking encryption for both.

2. Run the bridge. Pass the configuration on the command line, using the hivemind-hackchat-bridge console script (or python -m hackchat_bridge):

hivemind-hackchat-bridge \
  --channel your_channel \
  --username Jarbas_BOT \
  --access-key "your-access-key" \
  --password "your-password" \
  --host ws://127.0.0.1 \
  --port 5678

3. Send a message. Open the same channel at https://hack.chat/?your_channel and type:

what time is it?

The bridge forwards the message to the hub and posts the reply back as @user , <answer>.

Configuration

hivemind-hackchat-bridge options:

Option	Description	Default
--channel	hack.chat channel name to join	required
--username	Bot nickname shown in the channel	Jarbas_BOT
--host	HiveMind hub host (wss:// / ws://)	ws://127.0.0.1
--port	HiveMind hub port	5678
--access-key	HiveMind access key	None
--password	HiveMind password	None
--self-signed	Accept self-signed SSL certificates	off
--lang	Language code for utterances	en-us

The bridge forwards every channel message except its own, and strips a leading @username mention of the bot before sending it.

Troubleshooting

• Bot joins but never answers. Confirm the hub is reachable and the access key and password are registered (hivemind-core list-clients), and that the hub produces a speak for the answer.
• Wrong channel. The bot and the user must join the same hack.chat channel name. Open https://hack.chat/?<channel>.
• Bridge connects but never replies. The client is registered but not whitelisted. Run hivemind-core allow-msg recognizer_loop:utterance hackchat-bridge and hivemind-core allow-msg speak hackchat-bridge on the hub.
• invalid api key at connect time. The hub rejected the handshake, usually because the bridge or hivemind-bus-client is older than the hub. Upgrade the bridge.
• "reconnect worker already running" in the log. A known issue in older hivemind-bus-client releases when a dropped connection retries overlap. Fixed upstream; upgrade hivemind-bus-client and the bridge.
• Handshake fails after the hub was reinstalled or the client's key changed. The bridge is holding a stale Noise session pin. Clear it on the hub with hivemind-core reset-noise-pin hackchat-bridge and restart the bridge.

Documentation

• Setup walkthrough: install a hub, register the bridge, and run it end to end.
• Operator setup: the anonymous hack.chat model, security notes, and live end-to-end testing.
• Configuration reference: every command-line option and how message handling works.
• Examples: running the bridge, embedding it in code, and a sample conversation.

Related projects

• HiveMind-core: the HiveMind hub this bridge connects to.

License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE.