18. Cog Architecture¶
A Cog chat system is composed of several interacting parts. Here, we discuss them and how they relate.
18.1. Cog¶
Cog is the brains of the bot. It processes chat requests and routes command invocations to Relay instances. It also manages the logic of command pipelines. Finally, it processes the final results of commands using chat system-specific templates, and sends them back to the chat system.
18.2. PostgreSQL¶
Cog stores persistent data in PostgreSQL. This includes information on all users, all bundles and commands, and authorization information, including rules, permissions, roles, and groups.
18.3. MQTT¶
Cog is built around a message bus architecture, specifically MQTT. This allows it to process multiple requests concurrently, coordinating the processing among several relatively simple and decoupled processes. It also permits transparent distribution of work to other nodes; all command processing is dispatched to workers via the message bus, allowing processing to occur within the bot itself or on any number of associated Relay processes (see below), which may run on completely separate machines.
18.4. Relay¶
With the exception of the embedded operable command bundle, all
command bundles run under a separate application known as a
Relay. Relay serves as an
execution environment for commands; all chat commands ultimately get
routed to a Relay through Cog in order to be executed.
This provides several benefits.
18.4.1. Code isolation¶
As it is a completely separate process (potentially on an entirely separate machine), any code running under a Relay will not have any effect on the bot. You do not need to worry about conflicting dependencies between a bundle and Cog breaking either one.
This isolation extends to intra-bundle conflicts as well. If you wish to run two bundles that (for whatever reason) cannot coexist, you can run each in their own Relay instance.
18.4.2. Availability¶
The same bundle may be installed on multiple Relay instances, allowing Cog to distribute command executions across multiple Relays. If one Relay goes down, Cog will recognize this and continue executing commands on whatever other Relays are serving the bundle.
18.4.3. Language Choice¶
Since bundles do not run inside the bot, the implementation language of the bot does not affect the language that bundles may be written in. In fact, bundles may be written in whatever language you choose. Relay simply acts as a mediator between the bot and the command execution.