README.md

go-imessage

Go Library used to interact with iMessage (Messages.app) on macOS

Use this library to send and receive messages using iMessage. I personally use it for various home automation applications. You can use it to make a chat bot or something similar. You can bind either a function or a channel to any or all messages. The Send() method uses AppleScript, which is likely going to require some tinkering. You got this far, so I trust you'll figure that out. Let me know how it works out.

The library uses fsnotify to poll for db updates, then checks the database for changes. Only new messages are processed. If somehow fsnotify fails it will fall back to polling the database. Pay attention to the debug/error logs. See the example below for an easy way to log the library messages.

A working example:

package main

import (
	"log"
	"os"
	"strings"

	"golift.io/imessage"
)

func checkErr(err error) {
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalln(err)
	}
}

func main() {
	iChatDBLocation := "/Users/<your username>/Library/Messages/chat.db"
	c := &imessage.Config{
		SQLPath:   iChatDBLocation, // Set this correctly
		QueueSize: 10,              // 10-20 is fine. If your server is super busy, tune this.
		Retries:   3,               // run the applescript up to this many times to send a message. 3 works well.
		DebugLog:  log.New(os.Stdout, "[DEBUG] ", log.LstdFlags), // Log debug messages.
		ErrorLog:  log.New(os.Stderr, "[ERROR] ", log.LstdFlags), // Log errors.
	}
	s, err := imessage.Init(c)
	checkErr(err)

	done := make(chan imessage.Incoming) // Make a channel to receive incoming messages.
	s.IncomingChan(".*", done)           // Bind to all incoming messages.
	err = s.Start()                      // Start outgoing and incoming message go routines.
	checkErr(err)
	log.Print("waiting for msgs")

	for msg := range done { // wait here for messages to come in.
		if len(msg.Text) < 60 {
			log.Println("id:", msg.RowID, "from:", msg.From, "attachment?", msg.File, "msg:", msg.Text)
		} else {
			log.Println("id:", msg.RowID, "from:", msg.From, "length:", len(msg.Text))
		}
		if strings.HasPrefix(msg.Text, "Help") {
			// Reply to any incoming message that has the word "Help" as the first word.
			s.Send(imessage.Outgoing{Text: "no help for you", To: msg.From})
		}
	}
}