Set up a Discord bot to automatically post in #office-hours channel when an office hours session is about to start

[kbeyls]

At the 2024 US LLVM developer's meeting round table on office hours, we observed that there is a need to more widely advertize the existence of office hours, especially focusing on reaching new comers to the project.

We believe that automatically posting in the #office-hours Discord channel when an office hours session is about to start would help here.

The bot could fetch the information from the community calendar.

[gburgessiv]

It's a bit hacky, but we could have the discord buildbot monitor help out here to lower the bar for discord ops to near-zero. The main remaining difficulty would be fetching calendar entries.

I wonder if it'd be helpful to have it post conditionally in other channels, as well - I know I've posted in #beginners prior to the beginner office hours, and e.g., Aaron's office hours might get more visibility if the update gets mirrored to #clang?

[kbeyls]

Extending an existing bot like you propose is probably the easiest way forward indeed, I guess.
I like your idea about posting also in other channels!

In terms of extra (potential) features, my best guess is that the following could be useful:

• Have a way to also mention the host when posting (so the host can get a reminder about their upcoming office hours).
• automatically add the link to the video chat in the Discord message.
• Maybe make the time of sending the message before the start of the office hours configurable?

I'm thinking all the config information could be stored in the calendar invite, in whatever format is easiest to parse for the bot.
For example, it could be something like

discord-bot-mention: @kbeyls // a list of discord users to mention in the notification posted
discord-bot-channels-to-mention: #beginners, #office-hours // if not present in calendar invite, default is #office-hours
discord-bot-reminder-time-before-start: 10 // 10 minutes. Not sure what a good default is
discord-bot-message: "in-scope: Arm/AArch64, security group, office hours, and anything general" // default could be the calendar invite subject line. not sure if this is a useful feature....

I think this feature would be useful not only for office hours but also for online sync-ups.
We'd have to define a heuristic for the bot to recognize which events on the community calendar are office hours, which ones are online sync-ups, and which ones are something else. Maybe the following could work?

• The string "office" appears in the subject line -> an office hours event.
• the string "sync" appears in the subject line -> on online sync-up.
• otherwise, it's a different kind of event and the bot shouldn't post anything in Discord.

Would it be feasible for the bot to check the community calendar at least every hour, so that hosts have up to an hour before the start of their office hour/online sync-up to change event details or reschedule it?

Once we agree on the design for this, of course, we'd have to document this at https://llvm.org/docs/GettingInvolved.html#guidance-on-what-to-put-into-llvm-community-calendar-invites

Tagging the office hours hosts that are documented at https://llvm.org/docs/GettingInvolved.html#office-hours for visibility: @alinas @AaronBallman @jdoerfert @tobiasgrosser @bader @maksfb @qcolombet @phoebewang @aemerson @makslevental @j2kun @rengolin

[gburgessiv]

So I've implemented most of the above locally; just running it on a staging bot for a bit to make sure it doesn't crash and burn before pushing things out to https://github.com/gburgessiv/llvmbb-monitor :)

I think this feature would be useful not only for office hours but also for online sync-ups.

+1

• Have a way to also mention the host when posting (so the host can get a reminder about their upcoming office hours).
• automatically add the link to the video chat in the Discord message.
• Maybe make the time of sending the message before the start of the office hours configurable?

^ All of these were relatively straightforward (well, it links the calendar page which people can click through to get to a video conference), so they're done.

Would it be feasible for the bot to check the community calendar at least every hour, so that hosts have up to an hour before the start of their office hour/online sync-up to change event details or reschedule it?

This is done (the actual logic checks at least hourly, and additionally 2mins before sending event pings, so if a host requests pings 30mins before their event, they have until 32mins before their event to cancel it, assuming all's well with Calendar's API).

discord-bot-message: "in-scope: Arm/AArch64, security group, office hours, and anything general" // default could be the calendar invite subject line. not sure if this is a useful feature....

This can be implemented pretty easily, but I'm not clear on how to best present it from the bot's messaging. If someone can give a use-case, happy to brainstorm.

We'd have to define a heuristic for the bot to recognize which events on the community calendar are office hours, which ones are online sync-ups, and which ones are something else.

discord-bot-channels-to-mention: #beginners, #office-hours // if not present in calendar invite, default is #office-hours

This is where I diverged somewhat:

• If someone wants this integration and we have config flags anyway, IMO they should just add a line of config data to the calendar description. Removes ambiguity and makes opting out easier. :)
• At the moment, the implementation will always ping #office-hours in addition to channels listed on discord-bot-channels-to-mention for events of type office-hours (the other event type being sync-up).

WDYT?

Also, any volunteers to test this with their event after I push the update out? Happy to provide specific instructions in PR form to https://llvm.org/docs/GettingInvolved.html#guidance-on-what-to-put-into-llvm-community-calendar-invites

[kbeyls]

This all looks great :)

I've updated my own office hours calendar invite to include the following text, so that it can be used to test with:

discord-bot-mention: @kbeyls // a list of discord users to mention in the notification posted
discord-bot-channels-to-mention: #beginners, #office-hours // if not present in calendar invite, default is #office-hours
discord-bot-reminder-time-before-start: 10 // 10 minutes. Not sure what a good default is

My next office hours is tomorrow at 9:30 CET (European time).
If you'd manage to get this set up sometime during your daytime today, it should get tested shortly after midnight in (what I guess your timezone is).

discord-bot-message: "in-scope: Arm/AArch64, security group, office hours, and anything general" // default could be the calendar invite subject line. not sure if this is a useful feature....

This can be implemented pretty easily, but I'm not clear on how to best present it from the bot's messaging. If someone can give a use-case, happy to brainstorm.

The title of my calendar event is "Kristof Beyls LLVM office half-hour". So I guess the bot might produce a message somewhat like
In 10 minutes, 'Kristof Beyls LLVM office half-hour' will start. More details at <link to calendar invite>'"?
I thought it could be useful to be able to add 1 more sentence of info, e.g. about the scope, discussion topics, or agenda link (for online sync-ups).
E.g. for my office hours, the bot could produce a message somewhat like In 10 minutes, 'Kristof Beyls LLVM office half-hour' will start. More details at <link to calendar invite>. in-scope: Arm/AArch64, security group, office hours, and anything general

I was thinking that a mechanism for a single line to be added to the message, with the line coming from the calendar invite, might be useful to provide a little bit more info to anyone seeing the bot message on Discord.

[AaronBallman]

I updated my office hours calendar info for my upcoming hours next Monday and will report back how it goes. Thank you for working on this!

[gburgessiv]

Awesome, thank you both! If you could also please add discord-bot-event-type: office-hours, that's the main thing the bot looks for to determine whether an event is ping-worthy. (The other valid value for that is sync-up) :)

I'm away from the computer that's running the bot at the moment, though will make a reminder to push the update out later today if the staging instance looks good.

So I guess the bot might produce a message somewhat like

Yeah, the literal text I have ATM is really close to what you guessed:

The `${event_name}` sync-up event is starting at ${date_time}! [Click here](${event_link}) for more info. /cc @${mention_1}, @${mention_2}

I could easily see adding something like:

The `${event_name}` sync-up event is starting at ${date_time}! [Click here](${event_link}) for more. Extra info: `${custom_message}`. /cc @${mention_1}, @${mention_2}

if there's a custom message specified. I'll add that feature before I push the update.

[kbeyls]

I just added discord-bot-event-type: office-hours to my invite, and also added discord-bot-message: "in-scope: Arm/AArch64, security group, office hours, and anything general", so we can test that feature too.

[rengolin]

I don't see those changes on the LLVM calendar. My past experience shows that the LLVM calendar doesn't update when I update mine. I had to remove and create a new one before.

[kbeyls]

I don't see those changes on the LLVM calendar. My past experience shows that the LLVM calendar doesn't update when I update mine. I had to remove and create a new one before.

I turns out I have 2 separate calendar invites: one for the second Wednesday of the month, one for the fourth Wednesday of the month. I had only updated the first series, not the second. I have now also updated the second series, and it seems to show on the community calendar for me.

[rengolin]

Ah, yes! I see it now, thanks! I'll do the same to mine.

[gburgessiv]

This should all be live now; I'll write docs up tomorrow or so on the GettingInvolved page. The feature is +2KLOC overall, so I doubt it'll be a bug-free landing. Please let me know if things don't work as expected!

At first glance, it's detecting Kristof's and Aaron's events successfully, though:

[
    CommunityEvent {
        start_time: 2025-01-08T08:30:00Z,
        end_time: 2025-01-08T09:00:00Z,
        title: "Kristof Beyls LLVM office half-hour",
        id: "3jgsbba1vv0i4433khprap9c5h_20250108T083000Z",
        event_link: "https://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=M2pnc2JiYTF2djBpNDQzM2tocHJhcDljNWhfMjAyNTAxMDhUMDgzMDAwWiBjYWxlbmRhckBsbHZtLm9yZw&ctz=UTC",
        description_data: CommunityEventDescriptionData {
            event_type: OfficeHours,
            mention_users: [
                "kbeyls",
            ],
            mention_channels: [
                "beginners",
                "office-hours",
            ],
            extra_message: Some(
                "in-scope: Arm/AArch64, security group, office hours, and anything general",
            ),
            ping_duration_before_start_mins: 10,
        },
    },
    CommunityEvent {
        start_time: 2025-01-13T15:00:00Z,
        end_time: 2025-01-13T15:30:00Z,
        title: "Aaron Ballman Office Hours",
        id: "5q0urqlc3tunu01q70o3hdkuol_20250113T150000Z",
        event_link: "https://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=NXEwdXJxbGMzdHVudTAxcTcwbzNoZGt1b2xfMjAyNTAxMTNUMTUwMDAwWiBjYWxlbmRhckBsbHZtLm9yZw&ctz=UTC",
        description_data: CommunityEventDescriptionData {
            event_type: OfficeHours,
            mention_users: [
                "aaronballman",
            ],
            mention_channels: [
                "office-hours",
            ],
            extra_message: None,
            ping_duration_before_start_mins: 30,
        },
    },
    CommunityEvent {
        start_time: 2025-01-13T19:00:00Z,
        end_time: 2025-01-13T19:30:00Z,
        title: "Aaron Ballman Office Hours",
        id: "3d8hturffp7qcrhhgpvnssoajq_20250113T190000Z",
        event_link: "https://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=M2Q4aHR1cmZmcDdxY3JoaGdwdm5zc29hanFfMjAyNTAxMTNUMTkwMDAwWiBjYWxlbmRhckBsbHZtLm9yZw&ctz=UTC",
        description_data: CommunityEventDescriptionData {
            event_type: OfficeHours,
            mention_users: [
                "aaronballman",
            ],
            mention_channels: [
                "office-hours",
            ],
            extra_message: None,
            ping_duration_before_start_mins: 30,
        },
    },
]

[kbeyls]

It seems the bot worked as expected for my office hours, see https://discord.com/channels/636084430946959380/976196303681896538/1326465418898178081.

The message looks like this for me:

[rengolin]

Small problem: that date does not have time zone.

[gburgessiv]

🎉 I'm glad it worked!

Small problem: that date does not have time zone.

Good thought, though the bot's using Discord's timestamp support. Mechanically, this means the bot embeds a UNIX timestamp in the message, and leaves timezone conversions/localization to users' Discord clients.

From this unofficial gist, I don't see an option to add timezone information to it.

[rengolin]

Good thought, though the bot's using Discord's timestamp support.

Oh, I see! Kristof's message shows 9:30 AM and mine shows 8:30 AM, so this indeed shows on my own time zone.

Perhaps just a note saying ... 8:30 AM (your local time) ?