Setting up ChanServ

ChanServ provides channel registration services, which allows users to own channels. It is not required, but is strongly recommended.

Most networks will want Chanserv, however ff you would prefer for Atheme to provide basic channel management functionality, without full channel ownership, you can skip to Setting up CHANFIX, which offers an Efnet-style CHANFIX service.

ChanServ Block

The chanserv{} block contains settings specific to the ChanServ service bot and related channel ownership/management settings.

A fully configured chanserv{} block may look like:

chanserv {
    nick = "ChanServ";
    user = "ChanServ";
    host = "misconfigured.network";
    real = "Channel Services";
    reggroup = "!Services-Team";
    maxchans = 5;
    fantasy;
    templates {
        vop = "+AV";
        hop = "+AHehitrv";
        aop = "+AOehiortv";
        sop = "+AOaefhiorstv";

        founder = "+AFORaefhioqrstv";
    };
    changets;
    expire = 30;
    maxchanacs = 0;
    maxfounders = 4;
    antiflood_enforce_method = quiet;
    show_custom_metadata;
    shorthelp = "REGISTER DROP OP DEOP AKICK FLAGS";
};

Services Bot Options

ChanServ supports all standard services bot options.

reggroup

The group that will receive memos about channel registration requests when chanserv/moderate is loaded.

This may be left unset if your services setup does not use chanserv/moderate or does not use a group for this.

Example: reggroup = "!Services-Team";

maxchans

This value sets the maximum amount of channels someone can register.

Example: maxchans = 5;

fantasy

This value enables fantasy commands, such as:

<user> !op
-- Mode #channel [+o user] by ChanServ

Fantasy commands can use a lot of CPU on higher volume networks and will only work if you have general:join_chans enabled as well.

To globally disable fantasy commands, you can unset this value, or leave it set to enable them.

Example: fantasy;

hide_xop

Hides the XOP templates from sight. This is useful if you want to use XOP templates or have them available, but do not want the XOP templates to be displayed.

templates

Defines what flags the global templates comprise. This setting manages both normal templates and the special XOP templates.

Historically, before Atheme popularized the more granular flags system, IRC services packages managed access levels through a series of broader templates — VOP, HOP, AOP, and SOP; collectively referred to as XOP — to assist users familiar with these legacy services packages, Atheme offers a handful of commands using XOP-style templates which apply a defined selection of flags.

For the special XOP templates:

• These should all be different and not equal to the empty set (""), except that hop may be equal to vop to disable hop.
• Each subsequent level should have more flags (+VHO are optional as these only apply automatic voice/half-op/op, no actual permissions).
• For optimal functioning of /msg ChanServ FORCEXOP, aop should not have any of +sRf flags, hop should not have any of +sRfoOr, and vop should not have any of +sRfoOrhHt.
• If this is not specified, the values of Atheme 0.3 are used, which are generally less intuitive than these.

Note: Changing these templates leaves the flags of the existing channel access entries unchanged, thus removing those entries from the view of /msg ChanServ XOP LIST. Usually, the channel founder can use /msg ChanServ FORCEXOP to update the entries to the new levels.

If you want to add a co-founder role, a recommendation is to remove the flags (+f) permission from the sop role, and define a co-founder role with flags permissions.

Example (with recommended XOP flags):

templates {
    vop = "+AV";
    hop = "+AHehitrv";
    aop = "+AOehiortv";
    sop = "+AOaefhiorstv";

    founder = "+AFORaefhioqrstv";
};

Example of non-XOP templates:

templates {
    member = "+Ai";
    op = "+AOiortv";
};

You can find more details about what permissions each flags supplies in the flag matrix.

deftemplates

The default templates to set on new channels, as a space-separated list of name=+flags pairs.

Note: Currently, no syntax checking is done on this; it is your responsibility to make sure it is correct.

If you do not wish to apply default templates, you can leave this value comment out/unset.

Example: deftemplates = "MEMBER=+Ai OP=+AOiortv";

changets

Change the channel timestamp to the registration time when someone recreates a registered channel, ensuring they are deopped and all their modes are undone.

Note: this involves ChanServ temporarily joining the channel.

When the channel was not recreated no deops will be done, apart from any applied by the SECURE option.

This also solves the "join-mode" problem where someone recreates a registered channel and then sets modes before they are deopped.

This is currently supported for charybdis, ratbox, bahamut, and inspircd 1.1+.

Example: changets;

trigger

This setting allows you to change the trigger prefix for ChanServ's in-channel "fantasy" command feature.

If no setting is provided, the default is used, which is "!".

Other popular choices you could consider trying: ".", "~", "?", "`", "'".

Example: trigger = "!";

expire

The number of days before inactive registrations are expired.

If unset or set to 0, channel registrations will not expire.

Example: expire = 30;

maxchanacs

The maximum number of channel entries allowed in a channel's access list — this includes both permission-granting entries and AKICKs — set to 0 for unlimited entries.

Example: maxchanacs = 0;

maxfounders

The maximum number of founders (flag +F) allowed in a channel.

Note: All founders have the exact same privileges and the list of founders is shown in various places.

Example: maxfounders = 4;

founder_flags

The flags a user will get when they register a new channel. This must include at least F or it will be ignored.

If it is not set, Atheme will give the user all channel flags.

Example: founder_flags = "AFORefiorstv";

akick_time

The default expiration time (in minutes) for AKICKs.

Comment this option out or set to zero for permanent AKICKs by default (this was the default option in older releases of Atheme).

Example: akick_time = 10;

antiflood_enforce_method

The enforcement method to use for flood protection by default. This option may be overridden by channel staff.

Available options are: quiet, kickban, and akill.

Example: antiflood_enforce_method = quiet;

show_custom_metadata

Unsetting this option will prevent user-set metadata (via SET PROPERTY) from showing in the INFO output. The TAXONOMY command will still function as usual, and INFO will point this out if channels have metadata set.

Example: show_custom_metadata;

shorthelp

A list of commands that are displayed with their full description in the output of /msg ChanServ HELP. Commands not in this list will be listed, but not with their descriptions. All commands with descriptions are still listed in /msg ChanServ HELP COMMANDS regardless of the value set here.

If not set, this value defaults to "AKICK BAN CLEAR DEOP DEVOICE DROP FLAGS GETKEY INFO INVITE KICK KICKBAN OP QUIET REGISTER SET TOPIC UNBAN UNQUIET VOICE WHY".

If set to an empty string (shorthelp = "";), listing command descriptions in /msg ChanServ HELP will be disabled.

A command in this list will only be printed if the corresponding module is loaded and the user has permission to use it.

Examples:

• Custom list: shorthelp = "REGISTER OP DEOP";
• No list: shorthelp = "";
• Default: #shorthelp = "";

Modules

By loading or choosing not to load specific modules, you can customize what features your ChanServ instance offers. You can even disable ChanServ entirely if you choose to load none of these modules.

Note: ChanServ requires an authentication service, either a NickServ or UserServ configuration will do.

Module	Features	Notes
modules/chanserv/main	Core components
modules/chanserv/access	Simplified ACL editing ACCESS command
modules/chanserv/akick	AKICK command
modules/chanserv/ban	BAN and UNBAN commands	Load this module or unban_self, do not load both.
modules/chanserv/unban_self	UNBAN command for the user only	Load ban or this module, do not load both.
modules/chanserv/bansearch	BANSEARCH command
modules/chanserv/close	CLOSE command
modules/chanserv/clone	CLONE command
modules/chanserv/clear	CLEAR command
modules/chanserv/clear_akicks	CLEAR AKICKS command
modules/chanserv/clear_bans	CLEAR BANS command
modules/chanserv/clear_flags	CLEAR FLAGS command
modules/chanserv/clear_users	CLEAR USERS command
modules/chanserv/count	COUNT command
modules/chanserv/drop	DROP command
modules/chanserv/fflags	Forced flags changes (FFLAGS command)
modules/chanserv/flags	FLAGS command
modules/chanserv/ftransfer	Forced foundership transfers (FTRANSFER command)
modules/chanserv/getkey	GETKEY command
modules/chanserv/halfop	HALFOP and DEHALFOP commands
modules/chanserv/help	HELP command
modules/chanserv/hold	Channel expiry override (HOLD command)
modules/chanserv/info	INFO command
modules/chanserv/invite	INVITE command
modules/chanserv/kick	KICK and KICKBAN commands
modules/chanserv/list	LIST command
modules/chanserv/mark	MARK command
modules/chanserv/moderate	Moderate channel registrations (ACTIVATE, REJECT, and WAITING commands)	This module also enables the reggroup configuration option.
modules/chanserv/op	OP and DEOP commands
modules/chanserv/owner	OWNER and DEOWNER commands
modules/chanserv/protect	PROTECT and DEPROTECT commands	This is also sometimes considered the "admin" channel status.
modules/chanserv/quiet	QUIET command	This module will only work on IRCds which support a quiet ban-like mode.
modules/chanserv/recover	Channel takeover recovery (RECOVER command)
modules/chanserv/register	REGISTER command	This module is required if you wish for anyone to register channels.
modules/chanserv/set_email	SET EMAIL command
modules/chanserv/set_entrymsg	SET ENTRYMSG command
modules/chanserv/set_fantasy	SET FANTASY command
modules/chanserv/set_gameserv	SET GAMESERV command	Requires GameServ to be enabled.
modules/chanserv/set_guard	SET GUARD command
modules/chanserv/set_keeptopic	SET KEEPTOPIC command
modules/chanserv/set_limitflags	SET LIMITFLAGS command
modules/chanserv/set_mlock	SET MLOCK command
modules/chanserv/set_prefix	SET PREFIX command
modules/chanserv/set_private	Channel info hiding (SET PRIVATE command)
modules/chanserv/set_property	SET PROPERTY command
modules/chanserv/set_pubacl	SET PUBACL command
modules/chanserv/set_restricted	SET RESTRICTED command
modules/chanserv/set_secure	SET SECURE command
modules/chanserv/set_topiclock	SET TOPICLOCK command
modules/chanserv/set_url	SET URL command
modules/chanserv/set_verbose	SET VERBOSE command
modules/chanserv/status	STATUS command
modules/chanserv/sync	SYNC command and SET NOSYNC command
modules/chanserv/successor_acl	Named Successor ACL flag (+S)
modules/chanserv/taxonomy	Channel metadata viewer (TAXONOMY command)
modules/chanserv/template	TEMPLATE command
modules/chanserv/topic	TOPIC and TOPICAPPEND commands
modules/chanserv/voice	VOICE and DEVOICE commands
modules/chanserv/why	WHY command
modules/chanserv/xop	VOP/HOP/AOP/SOP commands	This module provides emulation of the ircservices XOP scheme only.
modules/chanserv/antiflood	Flood protection	This module should be loaded last to ensure all automatic response options are functional.