Wire shared MOTD into BBS hub and IRC

Use profullstack.com/motd as the shared Message of the Day across both
the SSH BBS hub and the Ergo IRC server.

- internal/motd: fetch + in-memory cache with background refresh (stdlib
  only); Current() never blocks session start, keeps last value on error.
  Source overridable via AGENTBBS_MOTD_URL.
- hub: append the daily MOTD below the existing welcome/onboarding text.
- IRC: deploy/ergo/refresh-motd.sh pulls /motd into Ergo's ergo.motd and
  rehashes; setup.sh installs it + an ergo-motd.timer (hourly) mirroring
  the ergo-certs timer, with a seeded fallback if the source is offline.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

cmd/agentbbs/main.go

@@ -68,6 +68,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/profullstack/agentbbs/internal/mail"
 	"github.com/profullstack/agentbbs/internal/mailbox"
 	"github.com/profullstack/agentbbs/internal/mailu"
+	"github.com/profullstack/agentbbs/internal/motd"
 	"github.com/profullstack/agentbbs/internal/news"
 	"github.com/profullstack/agentbbs/internal/payments"
 	"github.com/profullstack/agentbbs/internal/plugin"
@@ -238,6 +239,12 @@ func main() {
 	}
 	log.Info("sandbox", "mode", a.sandbox.Mode())
 
+	// Shared Message of the Day from profullstack.com — shown on the hub (and on
+	// IRC via Ergo's MOTD). Cached + refreshed in the background so it never
+	// blocks session start. Override the source with AGENTBBS_MOTD_URL (empty
+	// disables remote fetch).
+	motd.Start(context.Background(), env("AGENTBBS_MOTD_URL", motd.DefaultURL), 30*time.Minute)
+
 	// Email confirmation endpoint (the link in the join@ verification mail).
 	// Loopback only; Caddy reverse-proxies /verify to it. Separate from the
 	// on-demand-TLS ask server above.
@@ -396,15 +403,22 @@ var bannerStyle = lipgloss.NewStyle().Bold(true).Foreground(lipgloss.Color("#e11
 func (a *app) hubMOTD(u auth.User) string {
 	body := env("AGENTBBS_MOTD",
 		"A terminal BBS for humans & AI agents.\nGames · IRC · News · a Linux pod · your own homepage.")
+	var s string
 	if u.Kind == auth.Guest {
-		return "You're browsing as a guest.\n" + body +
+		s = "You're browsing as a guest.\n" + body +
 			"\nssh join@" + a.host + " to claim a username, a pod & a homepage."
+	} else {
+		welcome := "Welcome back, " + u.Name + "."
+		if n, err := a.st.UnreadCount(u.Name); err == nil && n > 0 {
+			welcome += fmt.Sprintf("  📬 %d unread — open Members ▸ inbox (i).", n)
+		}
+		s = welcome + "\n" + body
 	}
-	welcome := "Welcome back, " + u.Name + "."
+	// Append the shared daily Message of the Day from profullstack.com, if loaded.
-	if n, err := a.st.UnreadCount(u.Name); err == nil && n > 0 {
+	if m := motd.Current(); m != "" {
-		welcome += fmt.Sprintf("  📬 %d unread — open Members ▸ inbox (i).", n)
+		s += "\n\n" + m
 	}
-	return welcome + "\n" + body
+	return s
 }
 
 // teaHandler builds the hub model for guests, members, and agents.

deploy/ergo/refresh-motd.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+#
+# refresh-motd.sh — pull the shared Message of the Day from profullstack.com
+# into Ergo's MOTD file and reload Ergo if it changed. setup.sh installs this to
+# /usr/local/bin/ergo-refresh-motd and runs it from the ergo-motd.timer, so the
+# IRC server's MOTD (shown on connect / via /MOTD) tracks profullstack.com/motd.
+#
+# Ergo resolves the `motd:` path in ircd.yaml relative to the config dir, so the
+# file lives at $ERGO_CONF_DIR/ergo.motd (default /etc/ergo/ergo.motd).
+set -euo pipefail
+
+MOTD_URL="${MOTD_URL:-https://profullstack.com/motd}"
+ERGO_CONF_DIR="${ERGO_CONF_DIR:-/etc/ergo}"
+DST="$ERGO_CONF_DIR/ergo.motd"
+
+tmp="$(mktemp)"
+trap 'rm -f "$tmp"' EXIT
+
+if curl -fsSL --max-time 10 "$MOTD_URL" -o "$tmp" && [ -s "$tmp" ]; then
+  if ! cmp -s "$tmp" "$DST"; then
+    install -m 0644 "$tmp" "$DST"
+    chown ergo:ergo "$DST" 2>/dev/null || true
+    echo "updated Ergo MOTD from $MOTD_URL"
+    # Ergo rehashes config (incl. MOTD) on SIGHUP (systemctl reload).
+    systemctl reload ergo 2>/dev/null || systemctl restart ergo 2>/dev/null || true
+  else
+    echo "Ergo MOTD already current"
+  fi
+elif [ ! -s "$DST" ]; then
+  # First run and the source is unreachable — seed a minimal MOTD so Ergo has
+  # something to serve; the timer replaces it once profullstack.com is reachable.
+  printf '%s\n' "Welcome to AgentBBS IRC." > "$DST"
+  chown ergo:ergo "$DST" 2>/dev/null || true
+  echo "MOTD source unreachable; seeded placeholder"
+else
+  echo "MOTD source unreachable; keeping existing MOTD"
+fi

internal/motd/motd.go

@@ -0,0 +1,90 @@
+// Package motd fetches the shared Message of the Day from profullstack.com and
+// caches it in memory, refreshing in the background. The hub MOTD reads the
+// cached value (never blocking session start); a failed fetch keeps the last
+// known value. Set AGENTBBS_MOTD_URL to override the source (empty disables).
+package motd
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"io"
+	"net/http"
+	"strings"
+	"sync"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// DefaultURL is the canonical shared MOTD endpoint (plain text, CORS-open).
+const DefaultURL = "https://profullstack.com/motd"
+
+var (
+	mu     sync.RWMutex
+	cached string
+)
+
+// Current returns the most recently fetched MOTD, or "" if none has been
+// fetched yet (or fetching is disabled/failing).
+func Current() string {
+	mu.RLock()
+	defer mu.RUnlock()
+	return cached
+}
+
+func set(s string) {
+	mu.Lock()
+	cached = s
+	mu.Unlock()
+}
+
+func fetch(ctx context.Context, url string) (string, error) {
+	req, err := http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, http.MethodGet, url, nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	resp, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	defer resp.Body.Close()
+	if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
+		return "", &httpError{resp.StatusCode}
+	}
+	// Cap the read; the MOTD is a short text blob.
+	b, err := io.ReadAll(io.LimitReader(resp.Body, 8<<10))
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	return strings.TrimSpace(string(b)), nil
+}
+
+type httpError struct{ code int }
+
+func (e *httpError) Error() string { return "motd: unexpected status " + http.StatusText(e.code) }
+
+// Start fetches the MOTD once (blocking, with a short timeout so a slow source
+// can't stall boot for long) then refreshes every `every` until ctx is done.
+// A url of "" disables fetching entirely.
+func Start(ctx context.Context, url string, every time.Duration) {
+	if url == "" {
+		return
+	}
+	refresh := func() {
+		c, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, 8*time.Second)
+		defer cancel()
+		if s, err := fetch(c, url); err == nil && s != "" {
+			set(s)
+		}
+	}
+	refresh()
+	go func() {
+		t := time.NewTicker(every)
+		defer t.Stop()
+		for {
+			select {
+			case <-ctx.Done():
+				return
+			case <-t.C:
+				refresh()
+			}
+		}
+	}()
+}

setup.sh

@@ -859,6 +859,12 @@ if [ "$IRC" = "1" ]; then
            -keyout "$ERGO_DATA/tls/privkey.pem" -out "$ERGO_DATA/tls/fullchain.pem" \
            -subj "/CN=${IRC_DOMAIN}" 2>/dev/null
   fi
+  # MOTD: pull the shared Message of the Day from profullstack.com into Ergo's
+  # MOTD file (shown on IRC connect / via /MOTD). The ergo-motd.timer keeps it
+  # fresh; Ergo reads it on start, so write it before the service comes up.
+  install -m 0755 "${SRC_DIR}/deploy/ergo/refresh-motd.sh" /usr/local/bin/ergo-refresh-motd
+  ERGO_CONF_DIR=/etc/ergo /usr/local/bin/ergo-refresh-motd || true
+
   chown -R ergo:ergo "$ERGO_DATA" /etc/ergo
 
   # Initialize the datastore once.
@@ -910,6 +916,29 @@ OnBootSec=5min
 OnUnitActiveSec=12h
 Persistent=true
 
+[Install]
+WantedBy=timers.target
+UNIT
+
+  # Hourly MOTD refresh from profullstack.com/motd (shared across all properties).
+  cat > /etc/systemd/system/ergo-motd.service <<UNIT
+[Unit]
+Description=Refresh Ergo MOTD from profullstack.com for ${IRC_DOMAIN}
+
+[Service]
+Type=oneshot
+Environment=ERGO_CONF_DIR=/etc/ergo
+ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/ergo-refresh-motd
+UNIT
+  cat > /etc/systemd/system/ergo-motd.timer <<UNIT
+[Unit]
+Description=Periodic Ergo MOTD refresh from profullstack.com
+
+[Timer]
+OnBootSec=5min
+OnUnitActiveSec=1h
+Persistent=true
+
 [Install]
 WantedBy=timers.target
 UNIT
@@ -918,12 +947,13 @@ UNIT
   systemctl enable ergo >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
   systemctl restart ergo
   systemctl enable --now ergo-certs.timer >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
+  systemctl enable --now ergo-motd.timer >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
   ufw allow 6697/tcp >/dev/null
   sleep 1
   systemctl is-active --quiet ergo \
     || warn "ergo failed to start — check: journalctl -u ergo -n50"
 else
-  systemctl disable --now ergo ergo-certs.timer >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
+  systemctl disable --now ergo ergo-certs.timer ergo-motd.timer >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
 fi
 
 # ---- 9c. News (Usenet/NNTP) server (co-located news.${DOMAIN}) --------------