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Create a Bot

Bots are automated users that can send messages, respond to commands, and react to events in your workspace.

Register the bot

  1. Via CLI (recommended):

    Terminal window
    openslaq bot create my-bot --description "A helpful bot"

    Save the bot token from the output — you’ll need it to authenticate.

  2. Via workspace settings:

    Go to Settings > Bots > Create Bot, fill in the name and description, and copy the generated token.

Respond to messages

import { OpenSlaq } from "openslaq";


const client = new OpenSlaq({
  token: process.env.OPENSLAQ_BOT_TOKEN!,
});


client.on("message", async (message) => {
  // Ignore messages from other bots
  if (message.isBot) return;


  if (message.content.toLowerCase().includes("hello")) {
    await client.chat.postMessage({
      channelId: message.channelId,
      content: `Hey <@${message.userId}>! How can I help?`,
    });
  }
});


client.connect();

Slash commands

Bots can register slash commands that users invoke with /command.

Register a command

Terminal window
openslaq bot add-command my-bot \
  --command /weather \
  --description "Get the current weather" \
  --usage "/weather <city>"

Handle the command

client.on("slash_command", async (command) => {
  if (command.name === "/weather") {
    const city = command.text || "San Francisco";
    const weather = await fetchWeather(city);


    await client.chat.postMessage({
      channelId: command.channelId,
      content: `The weather in ${city}: ${weather.summary}, ${weather.temp}F`,
    });
  }
});

Webhooks (alternative)

Instead of maintaining a persistent connection, you can receive events via webhooks. See the Webhooks guide.

Bot permissions

Bots can only interact with channels they’ve been invited to. To add a bot to a channel:

Terminal window
# Via CLI
openslaq channel invite <channel-id> --bot <bot-id>