matrix-docker-ansible-deploy/docs/configuring-playbook-bridge-rustpush.md

Setting up RustPush (iMessage) bridging (optional)

^{Refer the common guide for configuring mautrix bridges: Setting up a Generic Mautrix Bridge}

The playbook can install and configure rustpush bridge to iMessage for you using Apple’s push notification service.

See the project’s documentation to learn what it does and why it might be useful to you.

Prerequisites

Hardware Key Extraction

To use this bridge on Linux (Docker), you need a hardware key extracted from a real Mac. This key contains hardware identifiers needed for iMessage registration.

The key is entered interactively through the bridge bot’s login flow (not configured via Ansible variables). See the upstream README for instructions on extracting the key.

If extracted from an Intel Mac, the Mac does not need to remain running after the key is extracted for this bridge to work. Apple Silicon Macs must run a NAC relay.

Phone Number Registration (optional)

This bridge can not do phone number registration (PNR). The only way to have your phone number registered and used (instead of an Apple ID e-mail address) is to have an iPhone connected to your Apple account. Reference the BlueBubbles Phone Number Registration Guide for information on how to set this up.

Enable Appservice Double Puppet (optional)

If you want to set up Double Puppeting (hint: you most likely do) for this bridge automatically, you need to have enabled Appservice Double Puppet service for this playbook.

See this section on the common guide for configuring mautrix bridges for details about setting up Double Puppeting.

Adjusting the playbook configuration

To enable the bridge, add the following configuration to your inventory/host_vars/matrix.example.com/vars.yml file:

matrix_rustpush_bridge_enabled: true

Disable Backfill (optional)

Backfill can be disabled globally if desired via config. By default, the bridge will backfill from iCloud (CloudKit) and APNS if available. Backfill from chat.db is only possible when the bridge is running on MacOS.

matrix_rustpush_bridge_backfill_enabled: false

Extending the Configuration

There are some additional things you may wish to configure about the bridge.

See this section on the common guide for configuring mautrix bridges for details about variables that you can customize and the bridge’s default configuration, including bridge permissions, encryption support, bot’s username, etc.

Installing

After configuring the playbook, run it with playbook tags as below:

ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=setup-all,start

Notes:

• The shortcut commands with the just program are also available: just install-all or just setup-all

  just install-all is useful for maintaining your setup quickly (2x-5x faster than just setup-all) when its components remain unchanged. If you adjust your vars.yml to remove other components, you’d need to run just setup-all, or these components will still remain installed.

Usage

To use the bridge, you need to start a chat with @imessagebot:example.com (where example.com is your base domain, not the matrix. domain).

After logging in, the bridge will start receiving iMessages and creating portal rooms.

Interference With Mautrix-iMessage & WSproxy

By default, this bridge uses the same bot user name (@imessagebot:example.com) and same localpart for puppet users (imessage_{{.}}) as the mautrix-imessage bridge. If you use this bridge on your homeserver have a few options:

1. Change the bot and appservice name templates:

   Set matrix_rustpush_bridge_appservice_bot_username and to a non-default value matrix_rustpush_bridge_appservice_username_template

2. After deactivating mautrix-imessage, delete the bot user and all its portal rooms from the database, then re-start the server (more difficult)

Troubleshooting

As with all other services, you can find the logs in systemd-journald by logging in to the server with SSH and running journalctl -fu matrix-rustpush-bridge.

Increase logging verbosity

The default logging level for this component is warn. If you want to increase the verbosity, add the following configuration to your vars.yml file and re-run the playbook:

# Valid values: fatal, error, warn, info, debug, trace
matrix_rustpush_bridge_logging_level: 'debug'

# Enable debug logging for RustPush
matrix_rustpush_bridge_rust_log: "warn,rustpushgo=info,openabsinthe=debug"