This example demonstrates how to create a simple VK bot that responds to commands using the HearManager from @vk-io/hear.
What You’ll Learn
- Setting up a basic VK bot
- Using HearManager for command handling
- Responding to text commands and regex patterns
- Sending photos and audio messages
- Working with different hear patterns (strings, arrays, regex)
Prerequisites
Install dependencies
npm install vk-io @vk-io/hear
Get your access token
Create a VK community and get an access token with message permissions.
Set environment variable
export TOKEN=your_vk_access_token
Complete Example
const { VK } = require('vk-io');
const { HearManager } = require('@vk-io/hear');
const vk = new VK({
token: process.env.TOKEN,
});
const hearManager = new HearManager();
vk.updates.on('message_new', hearManager.middleware);
hearManager.hear('/start', async context => {
await context.send(`
My commands list
/cat - Cat photo
/purr - Cat purring
/time - The current date
/reverse - Reverse text
`);
});
hearManager.hear('/cat', async context => {
await Promise.all([
context.send('Wait for the uploads awesome 😻'),
context.sendPhotos({
value: 'https://loremflickr.com/400/300/',
}),
]);
});
hearManager.hear(['/time', '/date'], async context => {
await context.send(String(new Date()));
});
hearManager.hear(/^\/reverse (.+)/i, async context => {
await context.send(context.$match[1].split('').reverse().join(''));
});
const catsPurring = [
'http://ronsen.org/purrfectsounds/purrs/trip.mp3',
'http://ronsen.org/purrfectsounds/purrs/maja.mp3',
'http://ronsen.org/purrfectsounds/purrs/chicken.mp3',
];
hearManager.hear('/purr', async context => {
const link = catsPurring[Math.floor(Math.random() * catsPurring.length)];
await Promise.all([
context.send('Wait for the uploads purring 😻'),
context.sendAudioMessage({
value: link,
}),
]);
});
vk.updates.start().catch(console.error);
Code Breakdown
Initialize VK and HearManager
const vk = new VK({
token: process.env.TOKEN,
});
const hearManager = new HearManager();
vk.updates.on('message_new', hearManager.middleware);
HearManager is a powerful middleware that allows you to listen for specific patterns in messages. We attach it to the message_new event to handle incoming messages.
Simple Text Commands
hearManager.hear('/start', async context => {
await context.send(`
My commands list
/cat - Cat photo
/purr - Cat purring
/time - The current date
/reverse - Reverse text
`);
});
/start command sends a welcome message with available commands.
Multiple Command Aliases
hearManager.hear(['/time', '/date'], async context => {
await context.send(String(new Date()));
});
You can pass an array of patterns to hear() to create command aliases. Both /time and /date will trigger the same handler.
Regex Pattern Matching
hearManager.hear(/^\/reverse (.+)/i, async context => {
await context.send(context.$match[1].split('').reverse().join(''));
});
context.$match. For example, /reverse hello would reverse the text “hello”.
Sending Photos
hearManager.hear('/cat', async context => {
await Promise.all([
context.send('Wait for the uploads awesome 😻'),
context.sendPhotos({
value: 'https://loremflickr.com/400/300/',
}),
]);
});
Using Promise.all() allows you to send multiple messages concurrently, improving response time.
Sending Audio Messages
const catsPurring = [
'http://ronsen.org/purrfectsounds/purrs/trip.mp3',
'http://ronsen.org/purrfectsounds/purrs/maja.mp3',
'http://ronsen.org/purrfectsounds/purrs/chicken.mp3',
];
hearManager.hear('/purr', async context => {
const link = catsPurring[Math.floor(Math.random() * catsPurring.length)];
await Promise.all([
context.send('Wait for the uploads purring 😻'),
context.sendAudioMessage({
value: link,
}),
]);
});
Running the Bot
Once running, send messages to your VK community:
/start - See the commands list/cat - Get a random cat photo/purr - Get a cat purring audio/time or /date - Get the current date/reverse hello world - Reverse any text
Next Steps