This is a hubot extension designed to allow you to break free from node and javascript and still have all the chat operations you'd like.
You load executable commands in the HUBOT_EXTERNAL_COMMANDS_DIR directory. Hubot then loads each file that has executable permissions as a command. Optionally if you have a <command>.desc along side the <command> executable file, it will read in the lines from the desc onto the help menu.
npm install --save hubot-external-commands
edit your external-scripts.json file and add hubot-external-commands to it.
Requires hubot 11 or later and Node.js 18 or later.
HUBOT_EXTERNAL_COMMANDS_DIR- directory of executables. Defaults to./shell, relative to the bot's working directory.HUBOT_EXTERNAL_COMMANDS_TIMEOUT- seconds a command may run before it (and any processes it started) is stopped withSIGTERM. Defaults to300.
In this example HUBOT_EXTERNAL_COMMANDS_DIR is set to $HUBOT_HOME/shell.
shell/
├── foo
├── sprint
└── sprint.desc
When loading, hubot will process the command foo with no help string. Sprint will be processed and the sprint.desc will be read for the help strings. Only lines in a .desc file that start with the command name are used. Run hubot refresh-commands to rescan the directory after adding or removing commands.
sprint help - Display help message
sprint left - Display time left in sprint
sprint progress - Display sprint remaining information
sprint scope - Display scope change information
> !help foo
!botsnack - give the bot a food
!foo
> !help sprint
!sprint help - Display help message
!sprint left - Display time left in sprint
!sprint progress - Display sprint remaining information
!sprint scope - Display scope change information
On hubot 14 and later, the built-in help command only lists commands registered with hubot's CommandBus, so this package extends it: hubot help also lists help lines from scripts (including the .desc lines above), and hubot help <query> filters both. Help scripts such as hubot-help show the .desc lines on any version.
Commands are run directly by full path, not through a shell. Arguments are split on spaces, and the characters ` | ' " ; & $ ! { } < > are removed from them.
stdout is sent to the room. Any stderr is included too, with each chunk prefixed stderr: . If the command exits non-zero, [exit: N] is appended, and if it was stopped for running too long, [stopped: SIGTERM].
This plugin now has initial support for Slack blocks. The plugin will only work with slack blocks if it detects slack as the adapter in play with hubot. (e.g. it won't attempt blocks if using discord, irc, or shell adapters).
To use slack blocks, you can test them out using the Slack Block Kit Builder.
The stdout of the external program you write needs to emit the full JSON document that will be send via the bot. The bot will then add channel information (and the thread, if the command was run in a thread) and send the payload through the Slack adapter's web client without additional modification.
The default mode is strings on stdout. If those strings contain URIs, slack will make them links even without doing a full JSON block.
- You cannot use a file with a dot "." in the filename. This breaks several the command/help processing subsystem.
- Executables/scripts must be executable and have ownership open to the hubot user
- Placing scripts in subdirectories of
HUBOT_EXTERNAL_COMMANDS_DIRwill not work. - The bot must be addressed directly to use the command. (respond vs hear). This may change in the future.
npm install
npm test # runs test/ with node --test
npm run lint
npm run dev # shell adapter with the commands in fixtures/shell and alias "!"
MIT