Using Matrix and Wechaty to Chat on WeChat

Matrix chat is an excellent chat software that supports multiple chat protocols and chat bots. It also supports WeChat chatting through matrix-appservice-wechaty. Now let me walk through the deployment method for matrix-appservice-wechaty.

Prerequisites

1. Domain name (let’s assume your domain is example.com)
2. Server, preferably within China

Configuration Process

Configure Domain Resolution

Type	Host	Priority	Weight	Port	Target
A	matrix	-	-	-	matrix-server-IP
CNAME	element	-	-	-	matrix.
CNAME	dimension (*)	-	-	-	matrix.
CNAME	jitsi (*)	-	-	-	matrix.
SRV	_matrix-identity._tcp	10	0	443	matrix.

Configure Matrix Chat

git clone https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy.git
mkdir inventory/host_vars/example.com/
export MATRIX_REGISTRATION_ADMIN_SECRET=$(pwgen -s 64 1)
echo '
matrix_domain: example.com
matrix_ssl_lets_encrypt_support_email: ${email}
matrix_synapse_enable_registration: true
matrix_registration_admin_secret: "${MATRIX_REGISTRATION_ADMIN_SECRET}"
matrix_postgres_connection_password: 'synapse-password'
matrix_synapse_federation_enabled: true
matrix_ma1sd_enabled: true
' > inventory/host_vars/example.com/vars.yml
echo 'example.com ansible_host=example.com ansible_ssh_user=root' >> inventory/hosts
ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=setup-all,start

After everything is deployed, you can check if there are any issues:

ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=self-check

Configure matrix-appservice-wechaty

Connect to the remote server.

Create docker-compose.yml and fill in the following content:

version: '2'
services:
  wechaty-gateway:
      image: wechaty/wechaty:next
      volumes:
        - /matrix/synapse/config:/data
      networks:
        - default
      environment:
        - WECHATY_PUPPET_SERVER_PORT=7777
        - WECHATY_TOKEN=
        - WECHATY_PUPPET=wechaty-puppet-padlocal
        - WECHATY_PUPPET_PADLOCAL_TOKEN=
      ports:
        - 7777:7777
  matrix-appservice-wechaty:
      container_name: matrix-appservice-wechaty
      image: wechaty/matrix-appservice
      volumes:
        - /matrix/synapse/config:/data
      networks:
        - default
      environment:
        - WECHATY_PUPPET_SERVICE_TOKEN=puppet_
        - WECHATY_PUPPET_SERVICE_ENDPOINT=example.com:7777
        - WECHATY_PUPPET=wechaty-puppet-service
#        - WECHATY_PUPPET=wechaty-puppet-puppeteer
        - WECHATY_LOG=silly
      command: ["--config", "/data/wechaty-config.yaml", "--file", "/data/wechaty-registration.yaml"]
      ports:
        - 8788:8788

padlocal_token needs to be requested random_token is a random string, you can use uuid If you don’t have a padlocal_token, you can use wechaty-puppet-puppeteer by changing the content to:

version: '2'
services:
  matrix-appservice-wechaty:
      container_name: matrix-appservice-wechaty
      image: wechaty/matrix-appservice
      volumes:
        - /matrix/synapse/config:/data
      networks:
        - default
      environment:
        - WECHATY_PUPPET=wechaty-puppet-puppeteer
        - WECHATY_LOG=silly
      command: ["--config", "/data/wechaty-config.yaml", "--file", "/data/wechaty-registration.yaml"]
      ports:
        - 8788:8788

Then create the file /matrix/synapse/config/wechaty-config.yaml and fill in the following content:

domain: example.com
homeserverUrl: https://matrix.example.com
registration: /data/wechaty-registration.yaml

Run docker-compose run --rm matrix-appservice-wechaty --config /data/wechaty-config.yaml --url "http://example:8788" --generate-registration to generate the configuration file.

Then edit /matrix/synapse/config/homeserver.yaml Change the app_service_config_files line to app_service_config_files: ["/data/wechaty-registration.yaml"]

Run systemctl restart matrix-* to restart Matrix services.

Register and Login

1. Open https://example.com, then register an account
2. Click the ➕ next to People, then enter @wechaty:example.com and click Go
3. In the opened chat window, wait for This room has been registered as your bridge management/status room. to appear
4. Then send !login. If you see the prompt You are not enable matrix-appservice-wechaty yet. Please talk to the wechaty bot to check you in. I had enabled it for you ;-) send it again
5. Scan the QR code to login

References

1. https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy
2. https://wechaty.js.org/2021/01/28/csharp-wechaty-for-padlocal-puppet-service/
3. https://github.com/wechaty/wechaty-puppet-puppeteer

Author: Roy. Originally published on blog: Using Matrix and Wechaty to Chat on WeChat

---

本文也有中文版本。