Jae slackbot

Jae is an AI Slack agent that runs blazing fast primarily on the Hack Club Slack, and this repository is for the code that powers her.

How to use

You can check out the Hack Club version in a channel or in a DM (it's free-to-use and online 24/7)

• in channels: Mention @jae with your prompt
• in DMs: Just send a message directly to Jae

OR

you can locally install it to a Slack bot you own yourself.

Features

API Integrations

• Ollama API integration
• OpenAI API integration (coming soon)

System prompt

• editable system prompt PROMPT.md file
• simple templating engine

AI agent

• tool calling
  • any suggestions for tools to add are appreciated!! create a new issue or join the Slack channel!
• context compression for older messages
• use Slack's agent functionality for better responses (expanding further from DMs)
• response streaming to Slack
• beautiful Slack agent responses
  • thinking block
  • canvas creation for code - for future reference
  • reliable markdown beyond the system prompt
• title generation
• typing indicator (for the impatient peoples)
• support markdown, emoji use
• ability to look at user profiles

Database

• database support
• user feedback

HOST YOUR OWN Setup

This section is specifically for developers, or for people who would like to locally host this bot. If you're a regular user and you would like the latest version, you do not need to follow this guide.

1. Clone the repository.

git clone https://github.com/JustAnEric/jae-slackbot
cd jae-slackbot

2. Create the .env file and configure as required. Make sure the contents are similar to below and make sure you grab your own app/OAuth tokens and your own bot's member ID.

SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=...
SLACK_APP_TOKEN=...
SLACK_BOT_MEMBER_ID=U0BRTN1TS1H
SLACK_BOT_TEST_CHANNEL=C0BS4G20ZR7

OLLAMA_HOST=127.0.0.1:11434
MODEL=gemma4:e2b
CONTEXT_WINDOW_SIZE=32768
TEMPERATURE=0.8
THINKING_MODE=true
STREAM_MODE=true
TOOLS_ENABLED=true
TITLE_GENERATION=true   # to be added
TITLE_GENERATION_MODEL=__default   # '__default' or comment out this setting if you want the model listed
MAX_PREVIOUS_MESSAGES=15

Your app needs these OAuth bot token scopes (these can change frequently after updates).

app_mentions:read   -- View messages that directly mention @jae in conversations that the app is in
assistant:write   -- Allow "jae" to act as an App Agent
channels:history   -- View messages and other content in public channels that "jae" has been added to
channels:read   -- View basic information about public channels in a workspace
chat:write   -- Send messages as @jae
commands   -- Add shortcuts and/or slash commands that people can use
emoji:read   -- View custom emoji in a workspace
groups:read   -- View basic information about private channels that "jae" has been added to
im:history   -- View messages and other content in direct messages that "jae" has been added to
im:read   -- View basic information about direct messages that "jae" has been added to
im:write   -- Start direct messages with people
users.profile:read   -- View profile details about people in a workspace
users:read   -- View people in a workspace

Add event subscriptions so the bot receives events via Socket Mode (Features -> Event Subscriptions).

agent_session_stopped   -- 
agent_session_title_changed   --
assistant_thread_context_changed   -- The context changed while an App Agent thread was visible
assistant_thread_started   -- An App Agent thread was started
message.channels   -- A message was posted to a channel
message.groups   -- A message was posted to a private channel
message.im   -- A message was posted in a direct message channel
app_home_opened   -- User clicked into your App Home

And please turn on agent experience in the Features -> Agents section of your Slack API dashboard, so message threading works as intended.

3. Install project requirements, you should have Node.JS version 22 or greater.

npm i # to install packages prelisted in package.json

4. Configure the PROMPT.md file to suit your needs, this will be used for the system prompt.

   • {userID} is the user ID of who is making a request
   • {userName} is the user name of who is making a request
   • {userStatusEmoji} is the emoji the user has in their status
   • {userStatusText} is the text the user has in their status
   • {channelID} is the ID of the channel the user initiated a model turn in
   • {channelType} is the type of the channel the user initiated a model turn in (one of type):
     • Direct Message Channel
     • Public Channel
   • {channelName} is the name of the channel the user initiated a model turn in

   ⚠️ The curly braces are absolutely required ({...}) for the regexp.

5. Run Jae (a script has already been created, or just use node .):

npm run build && npm start

Hack Club

This project started out with a template from Hack Club's official guides: Slack Bot Mission (thanks Hack Club for the neat suggestion)

Slack docs were also used for investigating how to build agents on the platform.

AI declarations

This README file was at first structured by AI, but it is built and expanded upon by me. AI was used nowhere else within this project, but some code was pulled from my past projects (for example with the dev-execution-server branch, I pulled and refactored the simple web server I made for a first Rust project to work with WebSockets!)

I create my own pull requests, manage whether a feature should be experimental or accessible to the mainstream public (via the main branch), etcetera.

History

This is gonna be a starboard for Jae's prized moments during development.

1. Jae's 'motivational quote'

This was back to the very start when Jae had a very sassy attitude, as I was trialling a prompt in commit 303607c that would give her a personality. I decided to remove it in later commits as the model kept pushing the lines in very odd ways (as in, the winking emoji)... I had to make it more professional and less delulu so I wouldn't cringe, of course. (you can cringe with me.)

2. Jae learns a big word

Surprised by the rarely-used medical term pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, I thought Jae knew about the longest 45-letter word in the English dictionary. supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is the only one Jae could get, hinting to me the great prominence of that Mary Poppins word in Gemma 4's training data compared to silicosis caused by volcanic ash. :-)

More soon to be added. Jae's story does not end there!