How to run Bot commands without using the Listener class? #138

LuckiestVenus commented 2026年02月21日 03:26:30 +01:00

Describe the bug
I am trying to make a bot that uses local events in the code in order to send bot commands. To give an example, if the clock hits a certain date, the bot sends a message to remind people of someone's birthday.

However, I was not able to use code outside of the listeners for doing this properly.
Most of the listener class only pays attention to Matrix events and I was not able to figure out how to use the more arbitrary on_startup listener or the on_custom_event ones.
Another part of the problem is that I don't know if it is possible to get things like a room's id without using one of the listeners.

I thought of a few solutions depending on what's the case:

1. Solving my problem is possible with existing tools. Updating the documentation with the trick would be massively useful for everyone (or just answering here could do)
2. Adding a listener that can read from some condition that happens locally that's not startup (like a timer, or a boolean)

Sorry if I missed something obvious lol...

Desktop:

• OS: CachyOS Linux 6.18.3-2-cachyos-lts
• Python Version: 3.10
• Package Version 2.12.3

**Describe the bug** I am trying to make a bot that uses local events in the code in order to send bot commands. To give an example, if the clock hits a certain date, the bot sends a message to remind people of someone's birthday. However, I was not able to use code outside of the listeners for doing this properly. Most of the listener class only pays attention to Matrix events and I was not able to figure out how to use the more arbitrary on_startup listener or the on_custom_event ones. Another part of the problem is that I don't know if it is possible to get things like a room's id without using one of the listeners. I thought of a few solutions depending on what's the case: 1) Solving my problem is possible with existing tools. Updating the documentation with the trick would be massively useful for everyone (or just answering here could do) 2) Adding a listener that can read from some condition that happens locally that's not startup (like a timer, or a boolean) Sorry if I missed something obvious lol... **Desktop:** - OS: CachyOS Linux 6.18.3-2-cachyos-lts - Python Version: 3.10 - Package Version 2.12.3

imbev commented 2026年02月22日 00:08:44 +01:00

Listener.on_startup would be the proper listener to use.

To get the room id without hardcoding, you could use bot.async_client.joined_rooms. Alternatively, you could store the room id in a database, file, or other persistent storage when the user uses a different command, perhaps some kind of room "registration" or "setup".

To run code triggered by a non-Matrix event, you could create a "loop" within the startup handler. To avoid blocking other listeners, it may be best to use asyncio.create_task or asyncio.ensure_future to continuously run a check for your condition.

See:
https://simple-matrix-bot-lib.readthedocs.io/en/latest/manual.html#using-the-on-startup-decorator
https://matrix-nio.readthedocs.io/en/latest/nio.html#nio.AsyncClient.joined_rooms
https://docs.python.org/3/library/asyncio-task.html#asyncio.create_task

`Listener.on_startup` would be the proper listener to use. To get the room id without hardcoding, you could use `bot.async_client.joined_rooms`. Alternatively, you could store the room id in a database, file, or other persistent storage when the user uses a different command, perhaps some kind of room "registration" or "setup". To run code triggered by a non-Matrix event, you could create a "loop" within the startup handler. To avoid blocking other listeners, it may be best to use `asyncio.create_task` or `asyncio.ensure_future` to continuously run a check for your condition. See: https://simple-matrix-bot-lib.readthedocs.io/en/latest/manual.html#using-the-on-startup-decorator https://matrix-nio.readthedocs.io/en/latest/nio.html#nio.AsyncClient.joined_rooms https://docs.python.org/3/library/asyncio-task.html#asyncio.create_task

LuckiestVenus commented 2026年02月22日 02:24:51 +01:00

Thank you, that helped a ton!

Having a starter function that uses the startup handler that calls one inside asyncio.create_task did the trick!

Thank you, that helped a ton! Having a starter function that uses the startup handler that calls one inside `asyncio.create_task` did the trick!