README

README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+# Botters Engine
+
+Botters is a bot engine designed to siplify the process of creating Slack bots.
+Botters bots handle a single conversation, reading input on stdin and writing
+responses on stdout. (Think [inetd](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inetd) for
+Slack conversations.) Botters launches multiple instances of the bots on demand,
+one for each individual conversation.  Conversations terminate when the bot
+exits.
+
+Botters bots can be very simple. This is the complete code for a working bot
+which keeps track of when was the last time someone mentioned "ChatGPT" in the
+channel:
+
+```bash
+#!/bin/bash
+
+LAST_MENTION=
+
+while :; do
+    read MSG
+    if [[ "$MSG" = *ChatGPT* ]]; then
+        NOW=$( date +'%s' )
+        if [[ -n "$LAST_MENTION" ]]; then
+            echo "It has been $(( NOW - LAST_MENTION )) seconds since someone mentioned ChatGPT last!"
+        fi
+        LAST_MENTION="$NOW"
+    fi
+
+    sleep 0.1
+done
+```
+
+See [examples](examples) for more examples.