Hacker News to Mastodon Bot

Overview

This Python script fetches the latest top story from Hacker News and posts it to a Mastodon account. It can operate in two modes:

1. Console Mode: Prints the latest top story details to the console.
2. Mastodon Mode: Posts the latest top story details to a Mastodon account.

The script is designed to work in a loop, with a configurable sleep time between each query to the Hacker News API. It also supports running in a Docker container and can store the last printed story ID in a Google Cloud Storage bucket to survive container restarts.

Requirements

• Python 3.x
• requests library
• mastodon.py library
• Google Cloud Storage Python SDK

Environment Variables

• MASTODON_ACCESS_TOKEN: Access token for Mastodon API
• MASTODON_API_BASE_URL: Base URL for Mastodon API
• GCS_BUCKET_NAME: Google Cloud Storage bucket name

Installation

1. Clone the repository.

2. Create a Python virtual environment:

   python3 -m venv venv

3. Activate the virtual environment:

   source venv/bin/activate

4. Install the required packages:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

Usage

Console Mode

python main.py --mode console --sleep_time 300

Mastodon Mode

python main.py --mode mastodon --sleep_time 300

Deployment in Docker

1. Build the Docker image:

   docker build -t hn-to-mastodon-bot .

2. Run the Docker container:

   docker run -e MASTODON_ACCESS_TOKEN=<token> -e MASTODON_API_BASE_URL=<url> -e GCS_BUCKET_NAME=<bucket_name> hn-to-mastodon-bot

Deployment in Google Cloud Function

1. Deploy the function:

   gcloud functions deploy hacker_news_function --runtime python39 --trigger-http --allow-unauthenticated

2. Set the environment variables in the Google Cloud Console.

Google Cloud Storage (GCS) Requirement

The script uses a Google Cloud Storage bucket to store the ID of the last printed story. This is particularly useful in scenarios where the script is running in a Docker container and needs to survive container restarts without losing its state. By storing the last printed story ID in a GCS bucket, the script can continue from where it left off, ensuring that no stories are missed or duplicated.