docs

ovos-bus-client developer documentation

The user-facing introduction is in the top-level README. This folder is for developers integrating ovos-bus-client into skills, plugins, agent backends, or anything else that talks to an OVOS messagebus.

Table of contents

Zero to hero

1. Getting started — install, connect, send your first message.
2. Core concepts — the OVOS bus model, message anatomy, who emits what.
3. Messages — Message, GUIMessage, reply/forward/response, helpers.
4. The client — MessageBusClient: connect, threading, handlers, lifecycle. 4b. Async client — AsyncMessageBusClient: same shape, but async/await-native (optional [async] extra).
5. Configuration — load_message_bus_config, env knobs, SSL, custom routes.
6. Sessions — Session, SessionManager, IntentContextManager.

Intermediate

7. Waiters and collectors — request/response and multi-reply patterns.
8. High-level APIs — GUIInterface, OCPInterface, EnclosureAPI.
9. Scheduled events — ScheduledEventService, SchedulerClient.
10. CLI tools — ovos-listen, ovos-speak, ovos-say-to, ovos-simple-cli.
11. Common patterns — request/reply, broadcast, session scoping, reconnect.
12. Testing — FakeBus, isolating tests, asserting bus traffic.

Advanced and reference

12. Migration from 1.x — what moved out in 2.0 and where to find it.
13. Development — repo layout, running tests, releases.
14. Glossary — terms you will hit reading OVOS code.

Audience

• Skill / plugin authors start at Getting started, then jump to High-level APIs.
• Agent backend / pipeline integrators read Sessions and Common patterns first — those are the load-bearing surfaces.
• Contributors to ovos-bus-client itself read Core concepts then Development.