chat-translate

A Python bot that joins Matrix rooms and provides real-time message translation.

Features

• Registers on an arbitrary number of Matrix rooms.
• Configurable target language per room or per user.
• Language resolution order: user override → room default → skip.
• Replies in-thread to the original message with the translated text.
• Auto-detects source language.
• Supports end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) rooms when libolm and python-olm are available.

Quick Start

1. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

For E2EE support (encrypted rooms), you also need libolm installed on your system (e.g. pacman -S libolm python-olm on Arch, apt install libolm-dev on Debian/Ubuntu).

2. Configure

Copy the example configuration and edit it:

cp config.example.yaml config.yaml

3. Run

python main.py -c config.yaml

Use -v for verbose/debug logging.

Configuration Reference

matrix:
  homeserver: https://matrix.example.com
  user_id: "@translate-bot:example.com"
  password: "s3cret"
  # OR use an access token instead of password:
  # access_token: "syt_..."

rooms:
  "!roomid1:example.com":
    language: en            # default target language for the room
    users:
      "@alice:example.com":
        language: it        # per-user override
      "@bob:example.com":
        language: de

  "!roomid2:example.com":
    language: fr

Fields

Field	Required	Description
matrix.homeserver	Yes	Matrix homeserver URL
matrix.user_id	Yes	Bot's Matrix user ID
matrix.device_id	No**	Device ID (required when using access_token)
matrix.password	No*	Bot account password
matrix.access_token	No*	Pre-existing access token
matrix.store_path	No	Directory to persist encryption keys (default: store)
rooms.<room_id>.language	No	Default target language for the room
rooms.<room_id>.users.<user_id>.language	No	Target language override for a specific user

* Either password or access_token must be provided.

Development

# Install dev dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Run tests
pytest

# Run linters
pre-commit run --all-files

License

MIT