ChatWire

Factorio server manager and Discord bridge.

Command Overview

What It Does

ChatWire runs alongside a Linux Factorio dedicated server and handles:

• Discord slash commands and chat bridging
• Factorio process launch, stop, restart, update, and reboot workflows
• Config generation and reloads
• Player database and ban list maintenance
• Mod and Factorio update checks
• Multi-instance deployments with shared parent-level files and directories

Recent lifecycle work centralized start, stop, restart, map change, map reset, update, and ChatWire reboot handling behind a single controller with progress-aware timeouts and stronger process health detection.

Requirements

• Linux
• Go 1.25.0 or newer to build from source
• A Discord application with bot token, application ID, guild ID, and channel access
• Factorio account credentials for update and server management features

On first launch ChatWire generates default config files and supporting directories. It must be able to create files in its own directory and in the parent directory.

Common generated files and directories:

• cw-local-config.json
• ../cw-global-config.json
• cw.lock
• ../playerdb.json
• ../map-gen-json/
• ./log/
• ./audit-log/
• ../www/public_html/archive/

Build

git clone https://github.com/Distortions81/M45-ChatWire.git
cd M45-ChatWire
go build

This produces the ChatWire binary in the current directory.

Quick Start

1. Build the binary with go build.
2. Run ./ChatWire once to generate cw-local-config.json and ../cw-global-config.json.
3. Edit those config files with your Discord credentials, Factorio credentials, and server paths.
4. Register slash commands with ./ChatWire -regCommands.
5. Start the service with ./ChatWire.

If you need to regenerate config files, delete cw-local-config.json and ../cw-global-config.json, then start ChatWire again.

Default Layout

The project expects a parent "base" directory layout so multiple Factorio servers can share common files.

Example:

~/factServers/
  cw-a/
    ChatWire
  factorio/
    bin/x64/factorio

That layout is only a default convention. Adjust paths in the generated config files for your environment.

Runtime Flags

Flag	Description
-cleanBans	Clean and minimize the player database, including bans, then exit.
-cleanDB	Clean and minimize the player database, then exit.
-deregCommands	Deregister Discord commands and quit.
-localTest	Disable public/auth mode for testing.
-noAutoLaunch	Disable Factorio auto-launch.
-noDiscord	Disable Discord integration.
-proxy	HTTP caching proxy URL. Format: http://example.domain/path
-regCommands	Register Discord commands.
-runtimeSelfTest	Run runtime self-test cases, then exit. Example: start,restart,stop,change-map,update-check,chatwire-reboot
-runtimeSelfTestTimeout	Per-step timeout for runtime self-tests. Default: 5m

Discord Bot Setup

1. Visit https://discord.com/developers/applications and create a new application.
2. Under Bot, add a bot user.
3. Enable the privileged intents ChatWire relies on: Presence, Server Members, and Message Content.
4. Grant the bot the permissions it needs in your server, including viewing channels, managing channels and roles, sending messages, embedding links, attaching files, reading message history, deleting leaked messages, and using application commands.
5. Copy the bot token and the application ID.
6. In Discord, enable Developer Mode and copy your guild ID.
7. Copy a channel ID, or leave ChatChannel blank in cw-local-config.json and let ChatWire create one on first run.

After adding or changing slash commands, run ./ChatWire -regCommands again.

Operations

Signals

• SIGUSR1 queues a ChatWire reboot once no players are online.
• SIGUSR2 reloads cw-local-config.json and ../cw-global-config.json.

Automatic Reloads

ChatWire watches the player database and ban list for file changes. Config reloads are triggered through /chatwire action reload-config or SIGUSR2.

For multi-instance environments, see example-files/reload-config.sh.

Firewall IP Bans

The moderator slash command /ip-ban manages UFW deny rules for public IPv4 addresses.

• action=ban adds a deny rule
• action=unban removes a deny rule
• action=list shows current IPv4 deny entries

This requires:

• UFW installed at /usr/sbin/ufw
• The ChatWire service user allowed to run sudo ufw without a password

Example sudoers entry:

chatwire ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/ufw
Defaults!/usr/sbin/ufw !requiretty

Replace chatwire with the actual service user on your host.

Example Files

The example-files/ directory includes:

• sample systemd units
• helper scripts for start, stop, reboot, cleanup, and config reload
• sample local and global config files

Copy them and adjust paths for your deployment.

Development

Run the standard checks before committing:

go fmt ./...
go vet ./...
go test ./...

Some integration tests connect to Discord. Set CW_TEST_TOKEN, CW_TEST_GUILD, and CW_TEST_APP to enable them.

Notes

• -noDiscord allows Factorio lifecycle management without connecting the bot.
• -noAutoLaunch prevents ChatWire from starting Factorio automatically on startup.
• -runtimeSelfTest is intended for exercising lifecycle actions in a live-like environment and exits when the requested cases finish.