Specter DIY Builder Bot

A Telegram bot for the Specter DIY Builder Community that automatically sends reminders for the weekly call and posts links to the YouTube recording after the call.

Features

• Automatic reminders for the weekly call (Thursday 5:00 PM CET)
• AI-powered summaries of YouTube videos
• Automatic posting of the YouTube recording after the call
• Topic management for the next call
• Bot commands for manual interaction

Bot Commands

Command	Description
/start	Displays a welcome message
/status	Displays the bot status
/nextcall	Shows information about the next call, including topics
/topic <topic>	Adds a topic to the next call
/latestvideo	Shows the latest video from the playlist with an AI summary
/chatid	Shows the chat ID (for setup)
/postvideo	Manually post the latest video
/callnumber [number]	Shows or sets the call number

AI Features

This bot uses Google's Gemini API to generate summaries of the YouTube videos. To enable this feature, you need to provide a Gemini API key.

1. Get your API key from Google AI Studio.
2. Add the key to your .env file:

   GEMINI_API_KEY=your_gemini_api_key
   

If the API key is not provided, the bot will fall back to a simple summary based on the video description.

Installation

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/your-username/Specter-DIY-Builder-Bot.git
cd Specter-DIY-Builder-Bot

2. Set Up Python Environment

# Create a virtual environment
python -m venv venv

# Activate (Windows)
venv\Scripts\activate

# Activate (Linux/Mac)
source venv/bin/activate

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Configuration

1. Copy .env.example to .env:

   cp .env.example .env

2. Edit .env with your values:

   TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=your_bot_token
   TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID=your_chat_id
   GEMINI_API_KEY=your_gemini_api_key # Optional
   

4. Find the Chat ID

1. Add the bot to the Telegram group
2. Send /chatid in the group
3. Copy the displayed ID into your .env file

5. Start the Bot

python bot.py

Deployment

Option A: Local Server / Raspberry Pi

# Run in the background with nohup
nohup python bot.py > bot.log 2>&1 &

# Or with screen
screen -S specterbot
python bot.py
# Ctrl+A, D to detach

Option B: Systemd Service (Linux)

Create /etc/systemd/system/specterbot.service:

[Unit]
Description=Specter DIY Builder Bot
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=your_user
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/Specter-DIY-Builder-Bot
Environment=PATH=/path/to/venv/bin
ExecStart=/path/to/venv/bin/python bot.py
Restart=always
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl enable specterbot
sudo systemctl start specterbot

Option C: Docker (optional)

FROM python:3.11-slim
WORKDIR /app
COPY requirements.txt .
RUN pip install -r requirements.txt
COPY . .
CMD ["python", "bot.py"]

Option D: Google Cloud Compute Engine

For GCP deployment, the bot uses the startup script in startup-script.sh which automatically sets up and runs the bot as a systemd service.

Restarting the Bot

Local Development

If you're running the bot locally (e.g., python bot.py):

1. Stop the current process (Ctrl+C)
2. Start it again: python bot.py

Systemd Service (Linux/GCP)

If the bot is running as a systemd service:

# Restart the bot
sudo systemctl restart specterbot

# Check status
sudo systemctl status specterbot

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u specterbot -f

Google Cloud Deployment

When the bot is deployed on Google Cloud Compute Engine:

Option 1: SSH and restart (recommended)

# SSH into the instance
gcloud compute ssh specter-bot --zone=us-west1-b

# Restart the bot service
sudo systemctl restart specterbot

# Check if it's running
sudo systemctl status specterbot

Option 2: Update code and restart from local machine

# 1. Commit and push your changes
git add .
git commit -m "Your commit message"
git push

# 2. SSH in, pull changes, and restart
gcloud compute ssh specter-bot --zone=us-west1-b --command="sudo -u botuser bash -c 'cd /home/botuser/Specter-DIY-Builder-Bot && git pull' && sudo systemctl restart specterbot"

Option 3: Restart instance (if service is stuck)

# Restart the entire VM
gcloud compute instances reset specter-bot --zone=us-west1-b

After Code Changes

Whenever you modify the bot code:

1. Local development: Just restart the bot process
2. Production (GCP):
   • Commit and push changes to GitHub
   • Pull changes on the server
   • Restart the systemd service

Example workflow:

# Local: Make changes, test, commit
git add bot.py
git commit -m "fix: improve /nextcall output"
git push

# Deploy to GCP
gcloud compute ssh specter-bot --zone=us-west1-b --command="sudo -u botuser bash -c 'cd /home/botuser/Specter-DIY-Builder-Bot && git pull' && sudo systemctl restart specterbot"

Customization

Change Schedule

In config.py, you can adjust the following values:

CALL_DAY = "thursday"  # Day of the call
CALL_HOUR = 17         # Hour (24h format)
TIMEZONE = "Europe/Berlin"

Customize Messages

You can also find the message templates in config.py:

• REMINDER_MESSAGE_3_DAYS
• REMINDER_MESSAGE_1_DAY
• REMINDER_MESSAGE_1_HOUR
• POST_CALL_MESSAGE_TEMPLATE

Project Structure

Specter-DIY-Builder-Bot/
├── bot.py              # Main bot with scheduler
├── config.py           # Configuration and messages
├── youtube_utils.py    # YouTube API integration
├── requirements.txt    # Python dependencies
├── .env.example        # Example configuration
├── .gitignore          # Git ignore rules
└── README.md           # This file

Troubleshooting

Bot is not responding

• Check if the bot token is correct
• Make sure the bot has been added to the group
• Check the logs: tail -f bot.log

Reminders are not being sent

• Check if the TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID is correct
• Make sure the bot has admin rights in the group (or at least permission to send messages)

YouTube videos are not found

• Check the YOUTUBE_PLAYLIST_ID in the .env
• Test with python youtube_utils.py

License

MIT License

Contact

Specter DIY Builder Community - Telegram Group