Text Excuse Generator

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Uses
  • Running from Command Line
  • Running with Command Line Arguments
    • Sending a Text Message
    • Setting Up .env File
    • Saving a New Recipient
  • Importing as a Module
    • Installing with pip
    • generate_excuse()
    • setup_env()
    • add_recipient()
    • send_twilio_text()
• Running
  • Dependencies
  • Setting Up .env File
  • Running
• Quality Assurance
• Suggestions
• Contributing
• License

Introduction

Recently, I came across a reddit post on r/ProgrammerHumor that had a comment that referenced this repository. While not only being a pretty funny story and set of scripts, it also got me thinking about creating a script of my own to create excuses and text them to whoever I want/need to. Unlike the scripts that I took inspiration from: hangover.py & smack_my_bitch_up.py, that just picked excuses from a predetermined list, I decided to generate the excuses using OpenAI's GPT-3.5-turbo API, and I used Twilio's API to send text messages. The program prompts the user (or can be passed in as arguments) for: the sender of the text, the recipient of the text, the 'problem', an excuse for the problem, and the option to send the generated message as a text. It also has a system to save phone numbers to names, so you can just type in a name instead of a phone number. Since the program uses OpenAI's GPT-3.5-turbo model, it can generate a pretty good excuse to anyone for virtually anything! The program can be run normally, with command line arguments, or imported as a module into another python file. Since it can have command line arguments passed in to operate it, it can be used in other programs, such as a Bash script, or used in a cron job.

Uses

There are three main ways to interact with the program: by running it normally, by running it with command line arguments, or by importing it into another python file.

Note: [recipient] can be a name or a case sensitive phone number: e.g. Huck or +15555555555. You must also set up your .env file (more details in Dependencies).

Running from Command Line

I'd recommend just downloading excuse_generator.py and running it from the command line. You can run it by typing:

python3 text_excuse_generator.py

If you just want the excuse_generator.py file for a project, please also include the LICENSE file in the same directory as excuse_generator.py.

When you run the program normally, it will ask you for the sender, recipient, problem, and excuse, and if you want to send the text message. It will then generate a text message, and send it to the recipient if chosen. If you input a name into recipient that isn't saved to the system yet when sending a text, it will ask you if you want to save it to the system. If you choose to save it, it will ask you for the phone number, and then save it to the system. You can also just use a phone number for the recipient field, and it will send the text to that number.

Running with Command Line Arguments

You can also run the program with command line arguments. If you want to send the text message, you can add --send or -s as the last argument. All command line arguments longer than a single word need to be in parentheses. I'd recommend just downloading excuse_generator.py and running it from the command line. If you just want the excuse_generator.py file for a project, please also include the LICENSE file in the same directory as excuse_generator.py.

Sending a Text Message

If you want to send a text with command line arguments, run:

python3 text_excuse_generator.py SENDER RECIPIENT PROBLEM EXCUSE [--send_text_flag]

e.g.

python3 text_excuse_generator.py Me "Your mom" "I'm late to 😈" "Too many wizards around" -s

Omit the [--send_text_flag] if you don't want to send the text message.

Setting Up .env File

If you want to set up the .env file, run:

python3 text_excuse_generator.py -e/--setup_env TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN TWILIO_PHONE_NUMBER [OPENAI_API_KEY]

e.g.

python3 text_excuse_generator.py -e "AC1234567890" "1234567890" "+15555555555" "sk-1234567890"

Saving a New Recipient

If you want to save a new recipient to the system, run:

python3 text_excuse_generator.py -a/--add NAME PHONE_NUMBER

e.g.

python3 text_excuse_generator.py -a "Your mom" +15555555555

Importing as a Module

You can also import the program as a module into another python file. The text_excuse_generator module has four functions: generate_excuse(), setup_env(), add_recipient(), & send_twilio_text().

Installing with pip

Simply run:

pip install text-excuse-generator

To import the module into your python file, put this at the top of your file:

from text_excuse_generator.excuse_generator import *
# or
import text_excuse_generator.excuse_generator as teg # or whatever you want to call it

Or you can import the individual functions.

generate_excuse() takes in:

generate_excuse(USER: str, RECIPIENT: str, PROBLEM: str, EXCUSE: str, SEND_TEXT: bool) -> (str | None)

generate_excuse() returns a string of the text message that was generated, or None if unable to generate the text message.

If you want to generate a text message, call the function like this:

generate_excuse("user", "recipient", "problem", "excuse", True)

e.g.

generate_excuse(user = "me", recipient = "your mom", problem = "I'm late to 😈", excuse = "Too many wizards around", send_text = True)

Make sure to put the fields before the variables when calling the function. Omit the [--send_text_flag] if you don't want to send the text message.

setup_env() takes in:

setup_env(TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID: str, TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN: str, TWILIO_PHONE_NUMBER: str, OPENAI_API_KEY: str) -> bool

If you want to set up your .env file, call setup_env() like this:

setup_env("TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID", "TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN", "TWILIO_PHONE_NUMBER", "OPENAI_API_KEY")

e.g.

setup_env("AC1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef", "1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef", "+15555555555", "sk-1234567890")

setup_env() returns True if the .env file was successfully set up, and False if it wasn't (Invalid phone number).

add_recipient() takes in:

add_recipient(NAME: str, PHONE_NUMBER: str) -> bool

If you want to save a new recipient to the system, call add_recipient() like this:

add_recipient("new_recipient_name", "new_recipient_phone_number")

e.g.

add_recipient("Your Mom", "+15555555555")

add_recipient() returns True if the recipient was successfully added to the system, and False if it wasn't (Invalid phone number or phone number is already in the system).

send_twilio_text() takes in:

send_twilio_text(RECIPIENT_PHONE_NUMBER: str, MESSAGE: str) -> None

If you want to send a text message, call send_twilio_text() like this:

send_twilio_text("recipient_phone_number", "message")

e.g.

send_twilio_text("+15555555555", "Beep boop beep bop")

Running

Dependencies

Accounts

You'll need to create a Twilio account to get a phone number. You can either use the free trial phone number, or pay $1/month for a real phone number, but you'll need to verify any phone numbers you want to text with the trial account.

You'll also need to create an OpenAI account to get an API key. You'll also need to give payment information to OpenAI to use the API, but with the GPT-3.5-Turbo model it's extremely cheap: $0.002/1000 tokens: at one word, punctuation, special character, or space per token. As of right now, I've sent ~30 requests to the OpenAI API, and I've only spent $0.02 so far!

Once you get these two accounts set up, you'll need to find out this information from Twilio:

• Account SID
• Auth Token
• Twilio Phone Number

And this information from OpenAI:

• OpenAI API Key

And then set up the .env file with this information.

Install

For Command Line Use

Double click dependencies, or run bash dependencies or ./dependencies in the root directory to install the python dependencies. You must have pip installed to download the new dependencies. Also, you'll need to install python yourself if you haven't already.

For Importing as a Module

If you just run:

pip install text-excuse-generator

The dependencies will be installed automatically, along with the rest of the module!

List of Dependencies

Setting Up .env File

Either run the program without any arguments to manually input the information for the .env file, run with command line arguments to automatically input the information for the .env file, or pass in the correct parameters to the setup_env() function in the text_excuse_generator module.

Running

YOU HAVE TO INSTALL THE DEPENDENCIES & SETUP THE .env FILE BEFORE TRYING TO RUN THE PROGRAM!!!

Run python3 text_excuse_generator.py or python3 text_excuse_generator.py SENDER RECIPIENT PROBLEM EXCUSE [--send_text_flag] in the command line in the source directory.

More detailed instructions are in the Uses section.

Quality Assurance

All variable, function, class, module, & file names are written in snake_case to make sure everything is consistent, and all const variables are written in ALL-CAPS. The code is also quite commented and the variable names are quite verbose, so it should be easy enough to understand what's going on.

If there are any other/better ways to check for quality assurance, please let me know in the suggestions!

Suggestions

If you have any suggestions about anything, please create a new discussion in suggestions.

Contributing

Contributions are always welcomed! Look at CONTRIBUTING.md for more information.

License

The project is available under the MIT license.