Nightbot custom commands

The chat syntax

Nightbot documents three subcommands of its built-in !commands command:

• !commands add !command_name command response
• !commands edit !command_name command response
• !commands delete !command_name

Options when adding a command

Options go between the name and the response: “!commands add !name -ul=userlevel -cd=cooldown -a=!alias response”.

• -ul= sets who can use the command: owner, moderator, twitch_vip (Twitch only), regular (your regulars list), subscriber, or everyone (the default).
• -cd= sets the cooldown, the minimum number of seconds between uses.
• -a= makes the command an alias of another command; the response text is passed to that command as its input, so put $(query) in the response to forward what the viewer typed.

Variables worth knowing

Variables are placeholders Nightbot fills in when the command runs. Among the ones it documents:

• $(user): the name of the viewer who ran the command.
• $(touser): the first word after the command, usually a name, so “!hug” can produce “$(user) hugs $(touser)”.
• $(query): everything typed after the command.
• $(count): a number that goes up every time the command runs (death counters, win counters).
• $(channel): the channel’s name.
• $(countdown) and $(countup): time until or since a date you set.
• $(time): the current time in a timezone you choose.
• $(urlfetch): the text returned by a URL, which is how commands pull in live data from elsewhere.
• $(twitch): details from a Twitch profile, such as the game a channel is playing.
• $(eval): runs a snippet of JavaScript, for commands that need logic.

Who can manage commands

The streamer and the channel’s moderators manage custom commands. The -ul option controls who can trigger a command, not who can create it.

Nightbot is a bot: it posts into your chat. Tools that only read chat, such as a chat archive or a chat-velocity monitor, are a different category and do not replace it.