Synaptic Slack Bot v2 is an intelligent Slack bot that connects your team's conversations with powerful AI capabilities. It serves as a bridge between your Slack workspace and various AI models, allowing seamless access to AI assistance without leaving your communication platform.
The bot leverages OpenRouter as a gateway to multiple AI service providers (including OpenAI, Anthropic, and others) and can make function calls to an MCP server to perform custom actions based on user requests.
Version 2 of Synaptic Slack Bot v2 introduces significant enhancements:
- Expanded Slack Permissions: Utilizes a comprehensive set of Slack permissions to perform a wide range of actions
- Modular Feature Architecture: Organized features into separate modules for better maintainability
- Enhanced Conversational Experience: Improved response handling for both action requests and conversational queries
- Intelligent Response Formatting: Automatically determines when to use function calls vs. direct responses
- User-Friendly Action Responses: Provides clear, conversational confirmations when actions are performed
- Comprehensive Slack API Integration: Implements all major Slack API endpoints for maximum flexibility
- Slack-Native Formatting: Ensures all responses use Slack's formatting syntax for optimal readability
- Token Usage Optimization: Implements smart strategies to minimize token usage and reduce costs
- Advanced Function Chaining: Seamlessly executes multi-step workflows with intelligent function sequencing
The latest update includes significant improvements to function chaining and Slack formatting:
- Enhanced Multi-step Workflow Detection: Better recognition of complex user requests that require multiple actions
- Improved Function Chaining: Fixed issues with sequential function execution for tasks like creating channels and sending welcome messages
- Comprehensive Workflow Analysis: Smarter analysis of user requests to determine all required functions for multi-step tasks
- Strict Slack Formatting Compliance: Strengthened formatting rules to ensure all responses use proper Slack markup
- Expanded Context Preservation: Better preservation of original request context in multi-step workflows
The bot includes several optimizations to minimize token usage and improve cost efficiency:
- Selective Function Filtering: Only sends relevant functions based on the user's prompt, rather than sending all function definitions with every request
- Minimal Conversation History: Only includes essential messages (system message and current user message) in the conversation context
- Concise System Messages: Uses compact system messages that maintain essential instructions while reducing token count
- Smart Function Selection for Multi-step Tasks: Intelligently selects only the most relevant functions for follow-up requests (e.g., only including sendMessage after searchChannels)
- Efficient Data Handling: Extracts and passes only essential information from function results to reduce token usage in multi-step workflows
- Intelligent Function Bundling: Groups related functions for common workflows while maintaining token efficiency
These optimizations significantly reduce token consumption, especially for complex multi-step workflows like creating meeting summaries or setting up new channels with welcome messages, while maintaining full functionality.
The bot now supports:
- Creating and managing channels
- Sending messages to channels and users
- Uploading and managing files
- Adding reactions to messages
- Setting reminders
- Searching messages and channels
- Managing users and workspace
- Working with bookmarks
- Scheduling messages
- Getting message permalinks
- And more!
The bot implements a comprehensive set of Slack API endpoints:
| Category | Endpoint | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Conversations/Channels | conversations.list |
Get all channels to find the right one to post in |
conversations.history |
Fetch channel history to understand context | |
conversations.info |
Get details about a specific channel | |
conversations.create |
Create new channels when needed | |
conversations.open |
Open DMs with users | |
conversations.members |
See who's in a channel | |
conversations.join |
Join channels the bot needs to post in | |
| Messages | chat.postMessage |
Post messages to channels |
chat.postEphemeral |
Send private messages only visible to specific users | |
chat.update |
Edit previously sent messages | |
chat.scheduleMessage |
Schedule messages for future delivery | |
chat.getPermalink |
Get permalinks to share messages | |
| Users | users.list |
Get all users in the workspace |
users.info |
Get details about specific users | |
users.lookupByEmail |
Find users by email address | |
| Admin | admin.conversations.invite |
Invite users to channels |
admin.users.invite |
Invite new users to workspace | |
admin.users.assign |
Add users to workspaces | |
admin.conversations.search |
Find specific channels | |
admin.conversations.archive |
Archive old channels | |
admin.conversations.unarchive |
Restore archived channels | |
| Search | search.messages |
Search messages to find context or information |
| Files | files.upload |
Upload files to channels |
| Bookmarks | bookmarks.add |
Add important links as bookmarks |
bookmarks.list |
Get existing bookmarks |
The bot ensures all responses use Slack's native formatting syntax rather than Markdown:
- bold text (single asterisks) for emphasis
- italic text for definitions
strikethroughwhen neededcode snippetsfor technical terms- • Manual bullet points
- <URL|text> for links with custom text
-
text for quotes or important callouts
This ensures optimal readability and consistent formatting in Slack messages.
Traditional AI assistants often require users to switch contexts, leaving their workflow to access AI capabilities. Synaptic Slack Bot v2 brings AI directly into your team's communication flow, enabling:
- Instant AI assistance within Slack threads and channels
- Consistent AI access across the organization with shared context
- Custom actions through function calling to integrate with your tools
- Flexible model selection to optimize for cost, speed, or capabilities
- Workspace Management: Create channels, invite users, and manage Slack workspace directly
- Knowledge Base Queries: Ask questions about company documentation, policies, or technical information
- Content Generation: Create drafts, summaries, or creative content directly in Slack
- Data Analysis: Request analysis of data shared in conversations
- Custom Workflows: Trigger specific actions in your systems through function calling
- Meeting Summaries: Generate concise summaries of meeting transcripts shared in Slack
- Code Assistance: Get help with coding problems or generate code snippets
- Integration with Slack's API using Bolt framework
- Support for multiple AI providers through OpenRouter
- Function calling capabilities with MCP server
- Conversation context management for coherent multi-turn interactions
- Rich message formatting with Block Kit
- Comprehensive error handling and logging
- Configurable model selection based on task requirements
- HTTP API endpoint for external automation tools
Synaptic Slack Bot v2 now includes an HTTP API endpoint that allows external automation tools like n8n to send natural language instructions to the bot. The bot processes these instructions just like it would process messages in Slack, executing functions and returning results.
Key features of the HTTP API:
- Simple Integration: Send natural language instructions via HTTP POST requests
- Authentication: Secure API key authentication
- Rate Limiting: Configurable rate limiting to prevent abuse
- Detailed Responses: Structured JSON responses with function results
- n8n Integration: Easy integration with n8n workflows
Example API request:
POST /api/process-message
Content-Type: application/json
X-API-Key: your-api-key-here
{
"message": "Create a channel called project-discussion, invite @user1 and @user2, and send a welcome message"
}For detailed API documentation, see the API.md file.
Synaptic Slack Bot v2 is built with a modular architecture that separates concerns and allows for easy extension:
- Slack Integration Layer: Handles all communication with the Slack API
- Feature Modules: Implements specific Slack capabilities (channels, messages, files, etc.)
- AI Provider Layer: Manages connections to AI services through OpenRouter
- AI Actions Layer: Provides a "brains" layer for understanding and executing user requests
- Context Management: Maintains conversation history for coherent interactions
- Function Calling System: Enables the AI to trigger specific actions in your systems
- Configuration Layer: Provides flexible configuration options
- Node.js 16+ installed
- npm 7+ installed
- Slack workspace with admin access
- OpenRouter API key (Get one here)
- MCP server access (optional, for custom function calling)
-
Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/v4lheru/Synaptic-Slack-Bot.git cd Synaptic-Slack-Bot -
Install dependencies:
npm install
-
Create a
.envfile with the required environment variables:# Slack Credentials SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=xoxb-your-token SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET=your-signing-secret SLACK_APP_TOKEN=xapp-your-app-token # OpenRouter API Key OPENROUTER_API_KEY=your-openrouter-key # MCP Configuration MCP_SERVER_URL=your-mcp-server-url MCP_AUTH_TOKEN=your-mcp-auth-token # API Configuration API_KEY=your-api-key-here ENABLE_API_ENDPOINT=true API_RATE_LIMIT=100 # App Configuration NODE_ENV=development LOG_LEVEL=debug
npm run devThis will start the bot in development mode with hot reloading.
npm run build
npm startThis will build the TypeScript code and start the bot in production mode.
This project includes configuration files for deploying on Railway:
railway.json- Configuration for Railway deploymentProcfile- Process file for Railway
To deploy on Railway:
- Push your code to a GitHub repository
- Create a new project on Railway from the GitHub repository
- Set up the environment variables in the Railway dashboard
- Deploy the project
src/
├── index.ts # Main entry point
├── ai/ # AI provider implementations
│ ├── actions/ # AI action layer for executing requests
│ ├── interfaces/ # Common interfaces
│ ├── openrouter/ # OpenRouter implementation
│ └── context/ # Conversation context management
├── api/ # HTTP API implementation
│ ├── handler.ts # API request handler
│ └── types.ts # API type definitions
├── slack/ # Slack integration
│ ├── app.ts # Slack app configuration
│ ├── events/ # Event handlers
│ ├── features/ # Feature modules (channels, messages, etc.)
│ ├── middleware/ # Middleware functions
│ └── utils/ # Slack utilities
├── mcp/ # MCP integration
│ ├── client.ts # MCP client
│ ├── auth.ts # Authentication
│ ├── slack-functions.ts # Slack-specific function definitions
│ └── function-calling.ts # Function calling
├── config/ # Configuration
│ ├── environment.ts # Environment variables
│ └── constants.ts # Application constants
└── utils/ # Shared utilities
├── logger.ts # Logging
└── error-handler.ts # Error handling
Once deployed, you can interact with Synaptic Slack Bot v2 in several ways:
- Direct Messages: Send a DM to the bot for private conversations
- Mentions: Mention the bot in a channel using
@Synaptic Slack Bot v2 - Threads: The bot can participate in conversation threads
Example interactions:
@Synaptic Slack Bot v2 create a channel called project-discussion@Synaptic Slack Bot v2 send a message to #general saying Hello everyone!@Synaptic Slack Bot v2 write a haiku about Slack@Synaptic Slack Bot v2 add a thumbs-up reaction to the last message@Synaptic Slack Bot v2 set a reminder for @user to review the PR in 2 hours
Synaptic Slack Bot v2 is designed to be extensible. You can:
- Add Custom Functions: Extend the function calling system to add new capabilities
- Integrate New AI Providers: Add support for additional AI providers
- Customize Response Formatting: Modify how responses are presented in Slack
- Add New Feature Modules: Implement additional Slack features
See the Instructions for LLM.md file for detailed guidance on working with the AI integration.
Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.
npm testMIT
- OpenRouter for providing access to multiple AI models
- Slack Bolt Framework for simplifying Slack app development