Slack Chatbot

A Slack chatbot that can respond to messages and answer general FAQs.

Setup

1. Create a Slack App at https://api.slack.com/apps

   • Enable Socket Mode
   • Add bot token scopes: chat:write, app_mentions:read, channels:history, im:history
   • Install the app to your workspace

2. Set up your environment:

   # Clone the repository
   git clone <repository-url>
   cd chatbot
   
   # Create and activate virtual environment (optional but recommended)
   python -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate
   
   # Install dependencies
   pip install -r requirements.txt
   
   # Copy example environment file and update with your Slack credentials
   cp .env.example .env

3. Update the .env file with your Slack credentials:

   • SLACK_BOT_TOKEN: Your bot's OAuth token (starts with xoxb-)
   • SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET: Your app's signing secret
   • SLACK_APP_TOKEN: Your app-level token (starts with xapp-)

Running the Bot

1. Start the Flask server:

   python app.py

2. Use a tool like ngrok to expose your local server:

   ngrok http 5000

3. Update your Slack App's Event Subscriptions URL with the ngrok URL + /slack/events (e.g., https://your-ngrok-url.ngrok.io/slack/events)

Features

• Responds to messages in channels where the bot is invited
• Basic message processing functionality
• Extensible architecture for adding more features

Adding New Features

To add new bot responses or features:

1. Modify the process_message() function in app.py
2. Add your custom logic for handling different message types
3. Test the new functionality in your Slack workspace

Contributing

Feel free to submit issues and enhancement requests!