Channels and webhooks

Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack, Discord, Signal, iMessage, email and webhooks.

Other chat channels#

Messages you send on Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, Slack or Signal continue one conversation, so a follow-up like "and tomorrow?" knows what came before. Each conversation also appears under Chats in the app, where you can pick it up. Send /new (or /novo) to start over; after three quiet hours a new conversation starts on its own. While a task runs, Telegram, Discord and Signal show Pimpo typing (Slack and WhatsApp do not offer that to bots in direct messages).

Besides Telegram and WhatsApp, you can talk to Pimpo in private messages on Discord, Slack or Signal. Set one up in Connections (each card says what to create and which token to paste), then send it pimpo followed by the pairing code shown in Connections. Only you are answered; strangers get nothing. These services have no buttons, so choices arrive numbered: answer 1, 2… A bare number answers the latest notice; to answer an older one, reply to it (Discord's Reply, a reply in the notice's thread on Slack, or quoting it on Signal) with the number, and it answers exactly that notice. Signal goes through a signal-cli daemon on your computer, so messages stay end-to-end encrypted up to it. iMessage works on a Mac: sign Messages in with an Apple ID (ideally one just for Pimpo), give Pimpo Full Disk Access so it can read what arrives, and send that Apple ID pimpo and the code; answers go out through Messages. SMS is not supported (it needs a paid service).

Personal WhatsApp (unofficial) talks through a WhatsApp Web bridge on your computer (WAHA) signed in to your own number. WhatsApp does not allow it: the number can be banned and it breaks without notice, so it is off until you turn on Labs › Personal WhatsApp (unofficial), and it never approves anything; choices wait for the app or another channel. The official WhatsApp (Business) in Connections has none of these risks.

If a channel keeps failing for three minutes (Telegram, Discord, Slack or Signal), Pimpo tells you on the others, with a computer notification and in Needs you, and again when it comes back. System shows the failing channel in red with the error. WhatsApp is left out: a failed WhatsApp message is usually about that message (the 24-hour window, a blocked number), not an outage.

Webhooks#

Any routine can be started by another service calling a secret address: on its page, turn on Start by webhook. Use it from an iPhone Shortcut ("when I leave home, send me the day's brief"), IFTTT, Zapier, GitHub or a form. What is sent (JSON, form fields or text) reaches the routine as event.webhook with method, query and body, so a routine can act on it ("when a new order arrives, tell me who bought what"). Ask for such a routine in a chat and Pimpo makes it start by webhook. Addresses work on this computer and on the home network; for internet services, turn on Tailscale with Funnel. Anyone with the address starts the routine, so treat it like a password; New address replaces it at once. A paused routine does not start, a call carries at most 256 KB, and a routine starts at most 30 times a minute this way.

For GitHub, turn on Start from GitHub instead ("when a pull request is opened in my repository, tell me its title"): copy the address and the secret, shown only once, into the repository's Settings › Webhooks. GitHub signs every delivery with the secret, so nobody else can start the routine, and a delivery GitHub sends again starts it only once. The routine gets event.github with the event type, the action and the payload.

This page is built from the repository's documentation. Improve it on GitHub.