matrix-docker-ansible-deploy/docs/configuring-playbook-mautrix-bridges.md

Setting up a Generic Mautrix Bridge (optional)

The playbook can install and configure various mautrix bridges (twitter, discord, signal, googlechat, etc.), as well as many other (non-mautrix) bridges. This is a common guide for configuring mautrix bridges.

You can see each bridge’s features at in the ROADMAP.md file in its corresponding mautrix repository.

Adjusting the playbook configuration

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

# Replace SERVICENAME with one of: twitter, discord, signal, googlechat, etc.
matrix_mautrix_SERVICENAME_enabled: true

Note: for bridging to Meta’s Messenger or Instagram, you would need to add meta with an underscore symbol (_) or hyphen (-) based on the context as prefix to each SERVICENAME; add _ to variables (as in matrix_mautrix_meta_messenger_configuration_extension_yaml for example) and - to paths of the configuration files (as in roles/custom/matrix-bridge-mautrix-meta-messenger/templates/config.yaml.j2), respectively. matrix_mautrix_facebook_* and matrix_mautrix_instagram_* variables belong to the deprecated components and do not control the new bridge (mautrix-meta), which can be installed using this playbook.

There are some additional things you may wish to configure about the bridge before you continue. Each bridge may have additional requirements besides _enabled: true. For example, the mautrix-telegram bridge (our documentation page about it is here) requires the matrix_mautrix_telegram_api_id and matrix_mautrix_telegram_api_hash variables to be defined. Refer to each bridge’s individual documentation page for details about enabling bridges.

Configure bridge permissions (optional)

To configure a user as an administrator for all bridges, add the following configuration to your inventory/host_vars/matrix.example.com/vars.yml file:

matrix_admin: "@alice:{{ matrix_domain }}"

Alternatively (more verbose, but allows multiple admins to be configured), you can do the same on a per-bridge basis with:

matrix_mautrix_SERVICENAME_configuration_extension_yaml: |
  bridge:
    permissions:
      '@alice:{{ matrix_domain }}': admin

Enable encryption (optional)

Encryption support is off by default. If you would like to enable encryption, add the following configuration to your inventory/host_vars/matrix.example.com/vars.yml file:

for all bridges with encryption support:

matrix_bridges_encryption_enabled: true
matrix_bridges_encryption_default: true

Alternatively, for a specific bridge:

matrix_mautrix_SERVICENAME_bridge_encryption_enabled: true
matrix_mautrix_SERVICENAME_bridge_encryption_default: true

Enable relay mode (optional)

Relay mode is off by default. If you would like to enable relay mode, add the following configuration to your inventory/host_vars/matrix.example.com/vars.yml file:

for all bridges with relay mode support:

matrix_bridges_relay_enabled: true

Alternatively, for a specific bridge:

matrix_mautrix_SERVICENAME_configuration_extension_yaml: |
  bridge:
    relay:
      enabled: true

You can only have one matrix_mautrix_SERVICENAME_configuration_extension_yaml definition in vars.yml per bridge, so if you need multiple pieces of configuration there, just merge them like this:

matrix_mautrix_SERVICENAME_configuration_extension_yaml: |
  bridge:
    permissions:
      '@alice:{{ matrix_domain }}': admin
    encryption:
      allow: true
      default: true

Set the bot’s username (optional)

To set the bot’s username, add the following configuration to your inventory/host_vars/matrix.example.com/vars.yml file:

matrix_mautrix_SERVICENAME_appservice_bot_username: "BOTNAME"

Configure the logging level (optional)

To specify the logging level, add the following configuration to your inventory/host_vars/matrix.example.com/vars.yml file:

matrix_mautrix_SERVICENAME_logging_level: WARN

Replace WARN with one of the following to control the verbosity of the logs generated: TRACE, DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, or FATAL.

If you have issues with a service, and are requesting support, the higher levels of logging will generally be more helpful.

Extending the configuration

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

Take a look at:

• roles/custom/matrix-bridge-mautrix-SERVICENAME/defaults/main.yml for some variables that you can customize via your vars.yml file
• roles/custom/matrix-bridge-mautrix-SERVICENAME/templates/config.yaml.j2 for the bridge’s default configuration. You can override settings (even those that don’t have dedicated playbook variables) using the matrix_mautrix_SERVICENAME_configuration_extension_yaml variable

Installing

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

ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=setup-all,ensure-matrix-users-created,start

Notes:

• The ensure-matrix-users-created playbook tag makes the playbook automatically create the bot’s user account.

• 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.

Set up Double Puppeting (optional)

To set up Double Puppeting enable the Appservice Double Puppet service for this playbook.

The bridge automatically performs Double Puppeting if Shared Secret Auth is configured and enabled on the server for this playbook by adding

matrix_appservice_double_puppet_enabled: true

This is the recommended way of setting up Double Puppeting, as it’s easier to accomplish, works for all your users automatically, and has less of a chance of breaking in the future.

Usage

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

Send login to the bridge bot to get started. You can learn more here about authentication from the bridge’s official documentation on Authentication: https://docs.mau.fi/bridges/python/SERVICENAME/authentication.html

If you run into trouble, check the Troubleshooting section below.

Troubleshooting

For troubleshooting information with a specific bridge, please see the playbook documentation about it (some other document in in docs/) and the upstream (mautrix) bridge documentation for that specific bridge.

Reporting bridge bugs should happen upstream, in the corresponding mautrix repository, not to us.