broadcaster: /pool_status, a pin switch, and the last block in snapshots

[rsantacroce]

Why

Running the broadcaster in a team forum group (pool.beta.avonpool.xyz posting to a topic, #94) turned up three gaps:

1. Pinning is all or nothing. The bot there is a plain member and may post but not pin. BROADCASTER_LIVE=1 then logs not enough rights to manage pinned messages on every new live message, and there was no way to keep the message without the pin attempt.
2. No way to ask. Stats arrive on a schedule, but nobody in the chat can ask for them now.
3. No last block. The snapshots show the all-time block count but not when the last block was found, which is the first thing people ask.

What

BROADCASTER_LIVE_PIN=0 posts and edits the live message without pinning it. The default is 1, so existing setups are unchanged.

BROADCASTER_COMMANDS=1 answers /pool_status with the current stats, as a reply in the topic where it was typed. It is off by default.

• Separate loop: lib/commands.js runs its own getUpdates long poll beside the poster. The long poll bypasses the send queue, so a held poll never delays a post, and a failure in it never stops the posts.
• Configured chat only: it answers only in TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID (numeric id or @username). /pool_status@another_bot is ignored.
• Cooldown: at most one reply per chat per BROADCASTER_COMMAND_COOLDOWN_SEC (default 30).
• Command menu: the command is registered with setMyCommands. A bot in privacy mode reliably sees only the addressed /pool_status@bot form, which is what a tap in the menu sends.
• No backlog, no repeats: the first start skips commands sent earlier. The read offset is kept in broadcaster.json, so a restart answers nothing twice.
• Failures: if the dashboard can't be read, the reply says so instead of the command going unanswered. A Telegram failure at startup is retried rather than switching commands off.
• Dry run: commands stay off under BROADCASTER_DRY_RUN, which has no bot to read with.

Last block line. The live message, the periodic update and the /pool_status reply now show Last block: #970,851 · 1h 39m ago. This is the newest pending or confirmed block, never an orphaned or rejected one.

Current hashrate and share counts (second commit). The stat block shared by the digest, the live message, the periodic update and /pool_status now leads with the 5-minute rate, and gives the rejected count beside the accepted one:

Hashrate now: 3.33 PH/s (5m)
Hashrate: 2.33 PH/s (1h) · 2.00 PH/s (24h)
Shares (24h): 34,763 accepted · 76 rejected (0.22%)

index.js now builds one state object and one persist() shared by both loops, so neither can save over the other with a stale copy.

Docs: the README has a new /pool_status section covering privacy mode and the one-getUpdates-reader-per-bot rule, and the config table is updated. .env.example, docker-compose.yml and the systemd unit comments are updated too.

Tests

npm test in broadcaster/: 33 pass, 12 of them new.

• Commands (8, new file): backlog skip and offset persistence; reply in the right topic, quoting the command; General topic gets no thread id; other chats, other bots and non-commands are ignored; @username matching; cooldown; reply when the dashboard fails.
• Broadcaster (2): no pin with LIVE_PIN=0; the last block line skips orphaned blocks.
• Telegram client (2): reply routing; getUpdates is not queued behind posts.

A /pool_status reply, rendered from pool.beta.avonpool.xyz's live API:

🟢 avonpool_beta — status

Hashrate now: 3.33 PH/s (5m)
Hashrate: 2.33 PH/s (1h) · 2.00 PH/s (24h)
Active workers (24h): 1
Shares (24h): 34,763 accepted · 76 rejected (0.22%)
Best share (24h): 66.89M
Last share: 27s ago
Last block: #970,851 · 1h 41m ago
Blocks (all time): 60

🤖 Generated with Claude Code