Developing for ANetBBS

Want to write a door, a web feature, a theme, or hook into messaging?
You're in the right place.

The seven door types

ANetBBS runs door games via seven distinct backends:

1. DOS doors (DOSBox-staging) — TradeWars, LORD-DOS, Usurper
2. Native Linux doors — any executable, stdio piped
3. Synchronet .js doors — real jsexec if installed, otherwise
   our built-in Node + Synchronet API shim (~270 functions)
4. Mystic Pascal .mps/.mpx — bundled Mystic 1.12 A48 runtime
5. Mystic Python .py — fake mystic_bbs module
6. rlogin out-dial — DoorParty / A-Net Online / Synchronet xtrn
7. Built-in web games — Flask-routed mini-games

See docs/17-development.md for the
deep-dive: drop file formats, token substitution table, working code
examples for each type.

Extending the web app

The web side is Flask + SQLAlchemy + SocketIO. Adding a new
feature is roughly:

1. Create a blueprint in anetbbs/web/myfeature.py
2. Register it in anetbbs/web_app.py
3. Add templates in anetbbs/templates/myfeature/
4. (Optional) Add a nav-bar link in templates/base.html
5. (Optional) Add a model class to anetbbs/models.py + run
   flask db migrate

The whole pipeline is ~50 lines of code for a working feature blueprint.

Database

anetbbs/models.py is the single source of truth for SQLAlchemy
models. Flask-Migrate (alembic) handles schema changes — add a column,
run flask db migrate -m "...", the service auto-runs flask db upgrade on next start.

Themes

Themes are DB rows with CSS variable values, edited visually at
/admin/theme-builder/. Add a new built-in theme by tweaking colors
in the builder, then add the resulting values to the theme seed block
in anetbbs/seed_data.py.

Real-time features

Flask-SocketIO is wired up in web_app.py. The Web Terminal and MRC
client are both reference implementations of a feature that spawns a
background eventlet greenthread, pumps bytes between a backend socket
and the browser, and handles reconnect.

Echomail / FidoNet networks

Pollers live in anetbbs/echomail/{binkp,qwk,tic}.py. Adding a new
network type is one new module + one new EchomailNetwork.protocol
discriminator.

Where to ask questions

• The MRC chat — #mrc-anet-development on
  mrc.bottomlessabyss.net
• Open a GitHub issue at anetonline/anetbbs
• This wiki — anyone with edit rights can expand the
  Development page and create child pages

If you ship something cool, PR it back and we'll bundle it with the
next alpha.

Reference

The authoritative deep-dive is at docs/17-development.md.
This wiki page is the lightweight community-editable companion.