mblazev's blog

Presenting TLE: the best Codeforces bot for Discord
By mblazev, history, 5 years ago, In English

I would like to present to you an open-source competitive programming (primarily codeforces) discord bot written in python by meooow, algmyr, Narut, Rahul, pajenegod, aryaman, DeliciousFlatChest, Chilli, c1729, cfalas and mblazev. Source code is avaliable on github. If you would like to try the bot without having to set it up yourself, enter this server: discord.gg/2CJ6qvY. The bot is still work in progress, but it is already 4 months old so it can already do quite a few cool things. Here is a showcase of a subset of its features:

  • It can plot rating distribution of either active or all codeforces users, in either normal or log scale, who have competed at least n times. For example, ;plot cfdistrib normal active 5 gives:
Click to reveal
  • It can also place a provided list of users on a plot of the percentile distribution of codeforces. For example, ;plot centile mblazev laggy heon +zoom
Click to reveal
  • If you're curious how the entire percentile distribution looks like ;plot centile
Click to reveal
  • It can plot codeforces rating graphs for multiple users. For example, ;plot rating mblazev heon tomx +zoom
Click to reveal
  • It can plot a histogram of problems solved by a user, color-coded by submission type. For example, ;plot solved stefdasca
Click to reveal
  • Of course, it works for multiple users as well. For example ;plot solved stefdasca pikmike
Click to reveal
  • It can even plot codeforces rating overlaid on a scatter plot of problems solved along with a running average of ratings of problems solved in practice! For example ;plot scatter pikmike
Click to reveal
  • And of course, it can also plot the rating distribution of server members. ;plot distrib
Click to reveal

3 other plotting commands are still WIP so I will not showcase them yet. Some non-graph features include:

Contest forecast
Smart mashup creator
Smart virtual contest picker
Smart practice problem selector
Ranklist with rating prediction
Contest reminders to subscribed users
It's easy to control the subscription
User stalking
Even displaying cf handle of given discord user looks beautiful!
It updates roles quickly!
Emoji-interactive list of server members
Scoreboard for fastest/shortest CSES solutions
3 stars -> starboard

It also has a set of commands which we refer to as "gitgud". They are ;gitgud, ;gotgud, ;nogud, ;gudgitters and ;upsolve. They incentivize solving problems around user's rating by giving points (depending on relative difficulty) and maintaining a scoreboard. In this example, a 1900 rated user requested a 100 rating higher problem (worth 12 points):

Click to reveal

To report a solved problem, you run ;gotgud.

Click to reveal

To skip a problem (after at least 3 hours), you run ;nogud.

Click to reveal

Apart from random problems, you can also gain points for ;upsolve-ing problems you failed in a contest. For example:

Click to reveal

To display the scoreboard, run ;gudgitters

Click to reveal

It has even more features (many of which are WIP), but I've omitted them for sake of brevity. We are also planning new features and we welcome new contributors; we'd be happy to help you find your way around the codebase. It's moderately big (3.2k lines of code, not counting comments and whitespaces) but stringent code review ensures the code remains non-terrible.

If you've come this far, just enter discord.gg/2CJ6qvY and try it out! Make sure to read ;help for more details.

  • Vote: I like it
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  • Vote: I do not like it

Comments Comments (84)
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5 years ago, # |
← Rev. 5   Vote: I like it +39 Vote: I do not like it

Nice

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +29 Vote: I do not like it

great bot :D

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +26 Vote: I do not like it

Wow the bot looks amazing! Can't wait to try it out :)

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +43 Vote: I do not like it

I joined the server and the people there are really friendly. The bot's features are also very useful too.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

    horse being horse

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +2 Vote: I do not like it

      It's sad that horse has to be like that.

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +2 Vote: I do not like it

        Yeah, that horse is acting like a piece of crap. Other people there are friendly.

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          5 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it +20 Vote: I do not like it

          Horse being the savage he is is one of the first reasons we still did not die. He is doing a great work.

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            5 years ago, # ^ |
              Vote: I like it -10 Vote: I do not like it

            Yeah no doubt abt that! He is really good at what he does clearly but he's being arrogant and I think he knows that. Well, people there have told him that and he's taken that into account. Anyway, this bot is fun and really useful!

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            5 years ago, # ^ |
            ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

            Indeed, where would we be without Horse's divine providence? /s

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +23 Vote: I do not like it

Good Stuff

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +19 Vote: I do not like it

Have you considered implementing something similar to CF Predictor or perhaps even borrowing some of the public CF Predictor API to enhance the bot?

I would be very interested in working on what could be the greatest CF crossover to date. :)

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +14 Vote: I do not like it

    The bot does rating prediction. Read the whole post :P

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +14 Vote: I do not like it

      Sorry, I should have been more specific! I meant that it would be nice to see what your rating change would have been during a virtual participation as well, in addition to the live participations currently supported.

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        Oh you can pitch that idea to #suggestions and it will be put on list. Though there are currently 32 issues and 6 pull requests outstanding so you might have to wait a while.

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +33 Vote: I do not like it

Bot is amazing, great work :D

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +32 Vote: I do not like it

the best thing to happen to codeforces since the invention of codeforces

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

i think you have forgotten to put kkbb in the credits list, mblazev

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +19 Vote: I do not like it

I wish I could've contributed to this amazing bot!

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5 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +22 Vote: I do not like it

rip link isnt working
upd: working now

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5 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

why Codeforces handle for @handle not found in database shows for green even i set my handle cp community discord ?? is it a bug ? UPD : got that.

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Thanks for crediting my two commits

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

    Well remember if you didn't write that I would have done a polyfit() in ;chilli lmao

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5 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it

Good bot!

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

I'm pretty sure this bot will help CP become more fun as a sport.

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

why discord link is not working?

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

the link is not working :(

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

This bot's just amazing and I seriously want to have it in one of my servers, but I can't cuz I have some weird issue with my PATH and Python and Poetry can't work.... So when would the bot be on https://top.gg ?

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    Same .. poetry pycairo issues

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
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      The pycairo stuff requires you to install some libraries. Recently we updated the README to better describe the setup and dependencies needed. So if you use some recent ubuntu version it should be fairly easy to get it going.

      Be aware that we pretty much assume you're on a linux machine, I don't think we have tested how feasible it is to get it running on windows since we added the cairo dependencies. It should be possible, but might be hard.

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +13 Vote: I do not like it

This is just brilliant. How come I get to know only 9 months later?:(

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +37 Vote: I do not like it

    It is even more brilliant than you think. In those 9 months we added so many more features that the ones mentioned in this archaic blog barely scratch the surface.

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
      ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      How does the problem recommender work i.e. on what basis do you recommend problems to a user?

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

        I'm too lazy to explain the details but for most part it's just random. There are plans to make it smarter using ML but it's not easy.

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

What a nice thingy.

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Because of the new formula causing some problems to become unreasonable for their labeled rating right now, could you allow for skips in ;gitgud

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Maybe a phone app one day? Or a chrome extension? Cuz if TLE will never be on top.gg that would be sad to have all this functionality limited to one Discord server...

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

    It is not limited to one discord server. It is open source and many servers use it.

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
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      Yes but it's not intuitive to add it. Not everybody can, if you're not Linux or you don't use Discord, you won't be able to use it.

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

        or you don't use Discord

        Well duh its a discord bot.

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          5 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it -8 Vote: I do not like it

          Yeah, that's what I mean : It's only a Discord bot. With all the functionality it have, I think it could be something bigger than just a Discord bot, like a phone app.

          (Sorry for eventuals english mistakes)

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            5 years ago, # ^ |
              Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

            "Porting" this to a mobile platform would essentially mean rewriting the entire thing. The effort required is enormous and the benefit is minimal.

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Does the bot automatically update my rating if the rating changes?

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    If by that you mean role updates then yes.

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      so the moderator needs to give roleupdate command. And then everyone's rating will get updated.? p.s. sorry for the vague question

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        You dont need manual intervention for role updates. It happens as soon as mike updates roles on codeforces. Although you can also manually run a command to update roles. You can do ;help roleupdate on your private server to know how to setup auto role updates. Make sure you have Admin/Moderator role

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5 years ago, # |
← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

When plotting histogram of problems solved by multiple users, 2 consecutive difficulties get merged, e.g. here pikmike's 2400 and 2500 solved have been merged (separately: here).

Is it possible to avoid this merging?

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4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

hello, sorry the bot it's simply amazing, but i need some help with the installation on a mac, if someone can help me I will really appreciates that, sorry for the problems and thanks in advance

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4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Is anyone able to deploy this on heroku?

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    I'm trying but there are some issues with poetry as heroku doesn't have poetry buildpack by default

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4 years ago, # |
← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Hello mblazev

when i try to run this command :

export BOT_TOKEN="XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.XXXXXX.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" poetry run python -m tle

I get this error : — bash: export: `-m': not a valid identifier

Please help me fix this.

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +18 Vote: I do not like it

    Those are supposed to be two different commands... Just copy paste from the README...

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      Thanks for that. I tried what you suggested. However, it still says, "no module named TLE" what to do?

      P.S. Thanks a lot for your help.

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        4 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +28 Vote: I do not like it

        Follow the instructions described in the README.

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4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +28 Vote: I do not like it

Copy-paste directly to your terminal

After a lot of struggle, finally...
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4 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Can't we use it for another server?

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    You will have to host your own instance. Code is open source. Thats the only way out.

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      I have hosted it on my system, and it's working fine! (as long as my Laptop is running) But I wanted to ask, is there any other way to host the bot (maybe in some online server or something) so that when I close my laptop, it still works? it's kind of impossible for me to leave my laptop turned on 24/7!

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4 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

I am getting this error please help me fix this!

./run.sh

Already up to date.

Installing dependencies from lock file

No dependencies to install or update

Installing the current project: TLE (0.1.0)

ujson module not found, using json

msgpack not installed, MsgPackSerializer unavailable

ERROR:root:Token required

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    Looks like you probably skipped the step where you put your bot token in the environment file. I would start over and follow every step carefully if I were you. I recently followed the docs exactly and didn't have an issue.

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
      ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      export BOT_TOKEN="Nzk2MzYxNDY4NDEyMTY2MTQ1.X_WzaQ.1x1COGsxVk5vb8wSGyFGMh9Rb08"

      export LOGGING_COG_CHANNEL_ID="790954918612697091"

      export ALLOW_DUEL_SELF_REGISTER="false"

      I have set it like this.

      Anyways thank you!!

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        4 years ago, # ^ |
        ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +15 Vote: I do not like it

        Please share your credit card no and CVV no along with this BOT_TOKEN. Thanks.

        Spoiler

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    I am also getting the same problem

    ERROR:root:Token required

    My bot token, channel id , everything is correct. Still I am getting this error. What should I do????

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4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +10 Vote: I do not like it

Hello aryanc403, what could i do with this?

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

When I do ./run.sh then it works but after some time it stops working and goes offline. How to solve this ?

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Such an amazing bot ;_;

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

how can i register in duel list??

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

How do we update the ratings of handle so it will synced to user's latest rating?

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2 years ago, # |
← Rev. 4   Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

[deleted]

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20 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

Thank you for creating this!

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